DNA Campaign Launched to Identify Victims of 1980s Ba’athist Arrests in Sulaymaniyah

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Medical teams.

A joint committee comprising the Forensic Medicine Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and the Forensic Medicine Department of the General Directorate of Health in Sulaymaniyah has launched a campaign to collect blood samples from relatives of individuals who went missing after being arrested during the era of the now-defunct Ba’ath regime in the 1980s, amid a wave of arbitrary arrests in Sulaymaniyah. The fate of these individuals remains unknown to this day.

In this context, Dr Barzan Mohammed, Director of the Forensic Medicine Department in Sulaymaniyah, stated during a press conference on Thursday, 10 July 2025, that “samples are being collected solely from families whose loved ones disappeared under coercive circumstances and whose remains have yet to be recovered.”

Dr Mohammed further explained that “the operation is being conducted by a specialised technical committee composed of experts from both the Federal Forensic Medicine Department and the Sulaymaniyah Forensic Medicine Department. It forms part of a national and humanitarian initiative aimed at returning the remains of the missing to their families following proper identification.”

Similarly, the sister of one of the disappeared individuals told PUKMEDIA, “We are the relatives of 53 young men from Sulaymaniyah who were detained in a random campaign by the former Ba’athist regime in 1985. They were initially held at the security department in Sulaymaniyah and later transferred to Al-Fadhiliya Prison in Baghdad. We have had no information about them since February 1986.”

She continued, “According to the Mass Graves Directorate of the Iraqi Martyrs Foundation, there are seven mass graves, one of which is believed to contain the remains of 53 martyrs from Sulaymaniyah. As such, we have requested that our blood samples be taken for DNA testing to assist in identifying the remains.”

In 1985, the former Ba’athist regime carried out a broad and indiscriminate arrest campaign in Sulaymaniyah, detaining over 1,500 individuals. Most were released in 1988, but the fate of 53 young detainees remains unresolved to this day.



PUKMEDIA