Mandali district re-established in Diyala governorate

Shafaq News / The Ministry of Planning announced re-establishing Mandali district, which was abolished in 1987, in Diyala governorate, as part of the ministry's efforts to achieve local development, rebuild the border strip, and develop urban and rural settlements.

Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, the ministry's official spokesman, said in a statement today that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Planning, Mohammed Ali Tamim, approved the new step.

Al-Hindawi pointed out that the Regional and Local Development Department at the ministry studied the file for the reintroduction, and the availability of planning standards in terms of population, prevailing economic activities, the number of workers, the number of housing units, the type of building materials used, services, departments, institutions, and the administrative boundaries map.

Furthermore, it evaluated feasibility studies based on their urban and rural spatial dimensions and the vast developmental potential, natural and human resources, and public services that the district has to meet the needs of its inhabitants.

Al-Hindawi also noted that the decision to reintroduce Mandali district was in line with the Cabinet Resolution No. 426 of 2010, which stipulates acknowledge Mandali as a district as it was before 1987 in Diyala governorate.

Mandali district was inhabited by a majority of the Faily Kurds, who were subjected to a large-scale campaign of displacement, were deprived from their Iraqi citizenship and properties by the Baathist regime in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The Faily Kurds were also subjected to deportation, displacement, arrest, and murder during the rule of former President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr in 1970 and 1975, and, Saddam Hussein's regime in 1980.

Historians believe that the displacement was due to their sectarian and ethnic affiliations, as well as their struggle for autonomy and independence.

In 2010, the Supreme Criminal Court issued its verdict regarding the crimes of displacement, disappearance, and seizure of the rights of the Faily Kurds, deeming them to be acts of genocide.

On December 8th of the same year, the Iraqi government issued a decision committing to removing the negative effects of targeting the Faily Kurds, followed by a decision from the Parliament on August 1st, 2010, which declared the forced displacement and disappearance of the Fayli Kurds as a crime of genocide.