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315B-HQ-1448534 Continuation of FD-302 of Ali Hasan Al-Majid »On 04/04/2004 _,Page__4 relatives. He acknowledged that other relatives including mothers, sisters, and daughters could have elected to join their relatives who had been ordered "deported" to the prohibited areas. Al-Majid further acknowledged that Directive 4008 issued by him effective June 22, 1987 was still in effect at the time of his issuance of the order regarding first-degree relatives. As previously stated by Al-Majid and reiterated in this interview, anyone caught in the prohibited areas after June 22, 1987, including women and children, was to be killed. He added that Directive 4008 was modified in September, 1987 to allow farming in certain areas. When questioned whether the deportation of first-— degree relatives to prohibited areas was tantamount to sentencing them to death bécause of Directive 4008, Al-Majid stated, "Why H would we deport them to a prohibited area [so that they would be - { killed] when we could kill them?" When the interviewer suggested i that perhaps this procedure was meant to minimize the "blood on the . hands" of Al-Majid and others, Al-Majid offered no reply. Al-Majid noted that saboteurs and first-degree relatives were given one month to decide whether they wanted to stay or ‘ leave. . If they decided to remain in government housing complexes, they were réquired to pledge not to commit acts of sabotage against the Iraqi government. ~ Al-Majid denied chairing a meeting on or around September 6, 1987 of senior Ba'ath Party officials to discuss. the national census of October 17, 1987. (This meeting and the national census are referenced in the previously described HRW report dated July, 1993, Prelude’to Anfak section, pages: 17-20.) Al-Majid stated that he was not involved with the national census as this was a "scieritific and technical matter" beyond the scope of his duties. He did, however, facilitate the work of the census takers by means of seminars and meetings which explained the census process to residents of the northern region. In the north, a Kurdish individual named Dr. Samal Majid Faraj, Iraqi Minister of Planning, was in charge of the census. According to Al-Majid, a census takes place every ten years) in Iraq. 7 Al-Majid denied that October 17, 1987 was viewed or treated by the. Iraqi government as a “cutoff date" for the saboteurs in the north. He stated that neither a discussion took place at any meeting nor was a.decision made to allow "subversives to repent" and "return to the fold" up to the day of the census.