The Dujail massacre was a mass killing of
Shia rebels by the
Ba'athist Iraqi government on 8 July 1982 in
Dujail
Dujail ( ar, الدجيل; alternate spelling: Ad Dujayl) is a town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq. It is situated about north of Baghdad, and has approximately 100,000 inhabitants, who are mostly Shia. It was the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre, ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
. The massacre was committed in retaliation to an earlier assassination attempt by the Shia Iranian supported
Islamic Dawa Party
The Islamic Dawa Party, also known as the Islamic Call Party ( ar, حزب الدعوة الإسلامية, Ḥizb ad-Daʿwa al-Islāmiyya), is an Shia Islamist political party in Iraq. Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council are two of th ...
against the then
President of Iraq
The president of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Con ...
,
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
. The town of Dujail had a large Shia population, with 75,000 residents at the time of the incident, and was a well-known stronghold of the Dawa Party. It is located approximately from the capital of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, in the
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
-majority
Saladin Governorate
The Saladin or Salah Al-Din Governorate ( ar, محافظة صلاح الدين) is one of Iraq's 19 governorates, north of Baghdad. It has an area of , with an estimated population of 1,042,200 people in 2003. It is made up of 8 districts, with t ...
of Iraq.
Hundreds of men, women and children were detained after the failed assassination attempt; more than 140 people were sentenced and executed for their alleged involvement in the plot, including four people who were mistakenly killed during the mass executions. Hundreds more were sent into
exile
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
and their houses, farms and properties were demolished.
Following
his capture and subsequent
trial
In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...
during the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
, Saddam Hussein
was hanged on 30 December 2006 for
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
in connection with his involvement in the Dujail massacre. Many others, including Hussein's brother, were also sentenced and executed for crimes against humanity.
Background
The
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
-dominated town of
Dujail
Dujail ( ar, الدجيل; alternate spelling: Ad Dujayl) is a town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq. It is situated about north of Baghdad, and has approximately 100,000 inhabitants, who are mostly Shia. It was the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre, ...
was a stronghold of the
Islamic Dawa Party
The Islamic Dawa Party, also known as the Islamic Call Party ( ar, حزب الدعوة الإسلامية, Ḥizb ad-Daʿwa al-Islāmiyya), is an Shia Islamist political party in Iraq. Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council are two of th ...
, an
Islamist organization involved in the
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
-backed
insurgency
An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...
against Saddam Hussein's
Ba'athist regime in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
during the
Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...
. Widely viewed in the
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
as a
terrorist organization
A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...
at the time, the Dawa Party was banned by the Iraqi regime in 1980 and its members sentenced to death
''in absentia'' by the
Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council
The Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council was established after the military coup in 1968, and was the ultimate decision-making body in Iraq before the American-led invasion in 2003. It exercised both executive and legislative authority in the ...
.
Events
On 8 July 1982,
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
visited
Dujail
Dujail ( ar, الدجيل; alternate spelling: Ad Dujayl) is a town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq. It is situated about north of Baghdad, and has approximately 100,000 inhabitants, who are mostly Shia. It was the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre, ...
to make a speech praising local
conscripts
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...
who had served
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
in the
ongoing war against neighbouring
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. Hussein visited several households, and after finishing his speech, he prepared for his return to the capital city of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
. As his
motorcade proceeded down the main road, up to a dozen gunmen used the cover of the
date palm orchards that lined both sides of the road to open fire, killing two of his bodyguards before fleeing on foot. In the ensuing four-hour-long firefight, most of the attackers were killed and several were captured.
Reprisals
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
personally interviewed two of the captured attackers before he ordered his special security and military forces to round up all suspected members of the
Islamic Dawa Party
The Islamic Dawa Party, also known as the Islamic Call Party ( ar, حزب الدعوة الإسلامية, Ḥizb ad-Daʿwa al-Islāmiyya), is an Shia Islamist political party in Iraq. Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council are two of th ...
who lived in
Dujail
Dujail ( ar, الدجيل; alternate spelling: Ad Dujayl) is a town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq. It is situated about north of Baghdad, and has approximately 100,000 inhabitants, who are mostly Shia. It was the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre, ...
, along with their families. He later ordered the razing of orchards on both sides of the road from
Balad to Dujail to prevent a repeat of the ambush.
On 14 October 1982, the
Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council
The Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council was established after the military coup in 1968, and was the ultimate decision-making body in Iraq before the American-led invasion in 2003. It exercised both executive and legislative authority in the ...
ordered the retitling of the roadside farmland to the
Ministry of Agriculture
An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...
and the compensation of the owners for their loss.
By late December 1982, 393 men over the age of 19 as well as 394 women and children from Dujail and the nearby town of Balad had been arrested.
Held in detention at the
Abu Ghraib prison near
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, 138 male adult detainees and ten juveniles were tried before the Revolutionary Court after they confessed to having taken part in the assassination attempt.
Over several months, the remaining prisoners were transferred to detention centers in the desert to the west. One of the prisons was
Nugra Salman
Nugra Salman , also known as Nugrat al-Salman or Nigrat Salman is a former prison facility near the village Salman in the desert of the Muthanna Governorate in Iraq. It has been constructed in 1930 during the Hashemite Monarchy and later also by ...
. More than 40 of those detained died during interrogation or in detention.
A resident of Dujail later testified at Saddam's
2005 trial that he had witnessed torture and murders during the reprisal, including the murders of seven of his ten brothers.
After nearly two years in detention, around 400 detainees, primarily family members of the 148 who had confessed to involvement, were sent into internal
exile
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
in a remote part of southern Iraq. The remaining detainees were released and sent back to Dujail.
Trial and execution of suspects
Following the 1982 confessions of 148 of the accused, the judiciary investigated the evidence in support and in late May 1984, it accepted their pleas of guilty to
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
for providing armed support for Iran during the war, allowing the Revolutionary Court to review the investigation records and confessions before it sentenced the suspects. On 14 June 1984, the court handed down the mandatory death sentence. On 23 July 1984, Saddam signed the court documents authorising the executions and ordered the razing of the homes, buildings, date palms and fruit orchards of the convicted.
On March 23, 1985, 96 of the 105 condemned still living were executed. Two of the condemned were accidentally released, and a third was mistakenly transferred to another prison and survived. The 96 executed included four members of the Abdel-Amir family who had previously been found not guilty and ordered released. They were instead mistakenly executed. An investigation recommended for a decree to be issued to declare the Abdel-Amirs "martyrs" and the return of the property confiscated from their relatives. It further recommended the prosecution of the officer responsible. Saddam gave his approval to the recommendation and issued the decree. The officer would be sentenced to three years of imprisonment.
Ten children aged between 11 and 17 were originally believed to have been among the 96 executed, but they had actually been transferred to a prison outside the city of
Samawah
, nickname = Samawa
, settlement_type = City
, motto =
, image_skyline = مدينة السماوة.jpg
, imagesize =
, image_caption = Samawah
, image_flag =
, fl ...
. In 1989, the ten juveniles, all now adults, were secretly executed on the orders of the
Mukhabarat
( ar, مخابرات, also transliterated '' / ''), is the Arabic term for intelligence, as used by an intelligence agency. In most of the Middle East, the term is colloquially used in reference to secret police agents who spy on civilians. Organi ...
.
After the fall of Saddam
The executions in Dujail were the primary charges for which Saddam was
hanged
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...
on 30 December 2006.
At 1 a.m., on 13 December 2006,
Barzan Hassan, Saddam's half-brother and the former Iraqi intelligence chief, and
Awad Bandar, the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were escorted from their cells and told by their American guards that they were to be executed at dawn with Saddam. Nine hours later they were returned to their cells, as Iraqi authorities had decided to execute Saddam alone. They were both later hanged on 15 January 2007 for "
aiding and abetting
Aiding and abetting is a legal doctrine related to the guilt of someone who aids or abets (encourages, incites) another person in the commission of a crime (or in another's suicide). It exists in a number of different countries and generally allo ...
" a crime against humanity for naming the suspected Dawa Party members to be arrested.
Barzan Hassan was decapitated when he was hanged because of the wrong measurements of the rope. On January 25, 2010, Saddam's first cousin,
Ali Hassan al-Majid
Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( ar, علي حسن عبد المجيد التكريت, ʿAlī Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Tikrītī; 30 November 1941 – 25 January 2010), nicknamed Chemical Ali ( ar, علي الكيمياوي, ʿAlī al-Kīm ...
, was hanged.
Later,
Taha Yassin Ramadan
Taha Yasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi ( ar, طه ياسين رمضان الجزراوي; (1939 – 20 March 2007) was an Iraqi politician and military officer of Kurdish origin, who served as one of the three vice presidents of Iraq from March 1991 to t ...
, Saddam's former deputy and vice-president who, as national commander of the Popular Army, had
command responsibility
Command responsibility (superior responsibility, the Yamashita standard, and the Medina standard) is the legal doctrine of hierarchical accountability for war crimes. (originally sentenced to life in prison but later to death by hanging), was likewise charged with "aiding and abetting" for arresting Dawa members and razing the orchards. Ramadan was executed on March 20, 2007, the fourth and last man in the Dujail trial to be hanged for crimes against humanity.
Saddam's former deputy hanged in Iraq
20 March 2007
The charges against Saddam included razing of Dujail farmland. However, the source for the figure was an unsourced claim published in a 2005 article in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. The claimed area is larger than the total amount of farmland surrounding Dujail, and less than 2% of the city's population had land confiscated or razed. Earlier media reports ranged from "thousands" to a high of "tens of thousands" of acres, which included the land confiscated from those convicted but also the land cleared to remove places of cover along the road from Balad to Baghdad for which the owners were compensated. There is no record of how many acres were actually razed. Two of the four Ba'ath Party officials who were executed for the massacre lived in Dujail, and the roadside farmland razed included land that belonged to both.
See also
*List of massacres in Iraq
The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in the area of modern Iraq.
Pre-20th Century
* In 1258, the Siege of Baghdad (1258): estimates range from 200,000–2,000,000 civilian deaths.
Pre-Saddam 20th Century
* May 4, 1924, ...
References
{{Iran–Iraq War
20th-century mass murder in Iraq
1982 in Iraq
1982 murders in Iraq
Massacres in 1982
Collective punishment
Iran–Iraq War
Massacres in Iraq
Shia–Sunni sectarian violence
Torture in Iraq
War crimes in Iraq
Dujail
Violence against Shia Muslims in Iraq
Iraqi war crimes
July 1982 crimes
July 1982 events in Asia
Saddam Hussein