wrbones
05-17-03, 12:28 PM
Grief, haste imperil atrocity evidence
By Moni Basu
Cox News Service
(05-15-03)
MAHAWEEL, Iraq -- They stretched their arms toward the cloudless sky and chanted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great," as the steel shovel of a giant bulldozer plunged into the earth, pulling up skulls and bones.
Some of the hundreds of Iraqis gathered Wednesday at the chilling excavation site ran to the bulldozer, clutching body parts and organizing them into bundles.
Clumps of loosened hair blew from discolored skulls. Sets of teeth lay among tattered sheets and clothing.
After nine days of excavation, remains of about 3,000 people have been exhumed in this small town an hour southwest of Baghdad. But as many as 10,000 to 15,000 of dictator Saddam Hussein's victims are believed buried in Mahaweel, making it the largest mass grave site in Iraq.
Many of the victims were Shiites, whose short-lived rebellion in 1991 was crushed by Saddam after the Persian Gulf War.
Human Rights Watch estimates 200,000 Iraqis fell victim to the brutal security apparatus over the 24 years of Saddam's rule -- 20 times the number of dead and disappeared in Kosovo.
Concerned that amateurish efforts to exhume bodies could deprive war crimes prosecutors of key evidence against Saddam, the New York-based watchdog agency has asked U.S. troops to secure mass graves.
But in Mahaweel, the priority Wednesday was for grieving relatives to give their loved ones a decent burial. Bodies were exhumed quickly. Sometimes stray bones were tossed into the nearest stack of body parts.
The graves spread out over several acres of farmland and salt marshes. The stench of human remains wafted through the hot, dry air, as women sat on the ground, wailing and praying.
Desperate relatives wandered around, hoping to find something identifying the bodies of loved ones -- a wristwatch, worry beads, a necklace.
Later in the day, when the crowd was thicker, a man with a loudspeaker called out the names of victims who had been identified.
Residents, a few of whom said they clandestinely witnessed the executions, said 90-year-old men were among those shot to death. Mothers died embracing their babies; some graves contained twiglike bones of infants alongside adult remains.
Saba'ah Shakr, 30, grasped a clear, plastic bag carrying the remains of his father, Shakr Aziz, who would have turned 63 this year. On March 8, 1991, Shakr Aziz said goodbye to his son as he left the house to go grocery shopping.
They never saw each other again. Wednesday, the long wait was over. Saba'ah Shakr found his father's faded government identification card atop a heap of bones.
"How could they have done this to him?" Shakr asked, weeping. He pulled out a long leg bone, a femur and parts of a skull. "This is what I have left of my father."
'More and more bodies'
In Mahaweel, a small town set among date palms near ancient Babylon, the graves have been a painful secret for villagers who were forced to keep silent in fear of retribution.
Capt. David T. Romley, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said 15 mass graves had been reported in central and southern Iraq; five are currently under investigation.
Rafid al-Husseini, a local doctor, came searching for two uncles. He found neither, but because he is proficient in English, he stayed behind to help communicate with American troops.
"We thought all the work here would be finished in two days," he said. "But when we started digging, we found more and more bodies. This is the greatest evidence against Saddam Hussein."
But human rights groups are warning that haphazard excavations pose serious challenges to documenting crimes. In Kosovo, Bosnia and Rwanda, scientists used trowels, paintbrushes and small picks to remove and examine human remains. None of that has happened in Iraq.
"U.S. forces are failing to protect these sites," said Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, who roamed the Mahaweel site in frustration. "Crucial evidence of crimes against humanity is being destroyed on a daily basis."
He said families were taking away remains for burial without the presence of international monitors and before forensics inspections could occur.
"If there were a proper plan, these people wouldn't be taking matters into their own hands," Bouckaert said. "But as it is, these people will leave not knowing exactly who is here, without final answers about what exactly happened to them and no evidence with which to prosecute Saddam."
U.S. Marines arrived at Mahaweel two days ago to provide security. Romley said the Americans were documenting as much as they could, mostly through photographs. But Wednesday, many remains were taken away without American soldiers in sight.
"Our principal concern is to respect the wishes of the people," Romley said. "We're here to reunite victims with their families. All this is just beyond my comprehension."
Anger greets politician
Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi arrived at the site Wednesday morning but was mobbed by crowds of people who hurled insults and accused the U.S.-backed politico of being a stooge of former President George Bush.
Chalabi, escorted by a team of bodyguards, returned to Baghdad without going near the graves.
Residents blame the elder Bush for withdrawing American troops from Iraq after the Gulf War, leaving the Shiites to be slaughtered mercilessly during their uprising.
"Chalabi wants to be popular here so he can win votes," said Malik Jabbar, 30, who was searching for two lost brothers. "He is taking advantage of our tragedy."
Sitting by concertina wire, Raja'a Diwan, 43, held her head with both hands, a steady flow of tears streaming down her cheeks. One morning a dozen years back, she had furiously run after her brother, Mohsen, after Saddam's men came to the house and drove him away.
"I remember yelling to them: 'Where are you taking my brother? He has done nothing,' " Diwan said.
She had been waiting here two days, hoping her brother's remains would be unearthed. She recalled that her brother was wearing a watch that day and had his ID with him.
Another brother, Kadem, was executed by the Baath Party in 1990. A third brother, Kareem, never returned from the front lines of the Iran-Iraq war. And a fourth, Mohammed, disappeared in 1991.
"I will cut Saddam Hussein into pieces," Diwan said. "I will eat his body and drink his blood."
Residents blamed a man named Mohammad Jawad Anaifus Alboalwanm, who apparently arranged and oversaw the arrests of thousands during Saddam's crackdown.
In the spring of 1991, Sayed Jabbar Al-Husseini, 51, watched from his nearby land as Saddam's army henchmen brought people here. They were always blindfolded; their hands were usually tied behind their backs. They came in cars, buses or trucks, as many as 150 people a day, Al-Husseini said.
The victims were usually pushed into freshly dug graves and then riddled with bullets, he said, and roughly 20 percent were buried alive.
"Do you know how much pain it has caused me that I could not tell anyone what I knew?" he said. "They would have killed me, too."
Moni Basu writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
By Moni Basu
Cox News Service
(05-15-03)
MAHAWEEL, Iraq -- They stretched their arms toward the cloudless sky and chanted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great," as the steel shovel of a giant bulldozer plunged into the earth, pulling up skulls and bones.
Some of the hundreds of Iraqis gathered Wednesday at the chilling excavation site ran to the bulldozer, clutching body parts and organizing them into bundles.
Clumps of loosened hair blew from discolored skulls. Sets of teeth lay among tattered sheets and clothing.
After nine days of excavation, remains of about 3,000 people have been exhumed in this small town an hour southwest of Baghdad. But as many as 10,000 to 15,000 of dictator Saddam Hussein's victims are believed buried in Mahaweel, making it the largest mass grave site in Iraq.
Many of the victims were Shiites, whose short-lived rebellion in 1991 was crushed by Saddam after the Persian Gulf War.
Human Rights Watch estimates 200,000 Iraqis fell victim to the brutal security apparatus over the 24 years of Saddam's rule -- 20 times the number of dead and disappeared in Kosovo.
Concerned that amateurish efforts to exhume bodies could deprive war crimes prosecutors of key evidence against Saddam, the New York-based watchdog agency has asked U.S. troops to secure mass graves.
But in Mahaweel, the priority Wednesday was for grieving relatives to give their loved ones a decent burial. Bodies were exhumed quickly. Sometimes stray bones were tossed into the nearest stack of body parts.
The graves spread out over several acres of farmland and salt marshes. The stench of human remains wafted through the hot, dry air, as women sat on the ground, wailing and praying.
Desperate relatives wandered around, hoping to find something identifying the bodies of loved ones -- a wristwatch, worry beads, a necklace.
Later in the day, when the crowd was thicker, a man with a loudspeaker called out the names of victims who had been identified.
Residents, a few of whom said they clandestinely witnessed the executions, said 90-year-old men were among those shot to death. Mothers died embracing their babies; some graves contained twiglike bones of infants alongside adult remains.
Saba'ah Shakr, 30, grasped a clear, plastic bag carrying the remains of his father, Shakr Aziz, who would have turned 63 this year. On March 8, 1991, Shakr Aziz said goodbye to his son as he left the house to go grocery shopping.
They never saw each other again. Wednesday, the long wait was over. Saba'ah Shakr found his father's faded government identification card atop a heap of bones.
"How could they have done this to him?" Shakr asked, weeping. He pulled out a long leg bone, a femur and parts of a skull. "This is what I have left of my father."
'More and more bodies'
In Mahaweel, a small town set among date palms near ancient Babylon, the graves have been a painful secret for villagers who were forced to keep silent in fear of retribution.
Capt. David T. Romley, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said 15 mass graves had been reported in central and southern Iraq; five are currently under investigation.
Rafid al-Husseini, a local doctor, came searching for two uncles. He found neither, but because he is proficient in English, he stayed behind to help communicate with American troops.
"We thought all the work here would be finished in two days," he said. "But when we started digging, we found more and more bodies. This is the greatest evidence against Saddam Hussein."
But human rights groups are warning that haphazard excavations pose serious challenges to documenting crimes. In Kosovo, Bosnia and Rwanda, scientists used trowels, paintbrushes and small picks to remove and examine human remains. None of that has happened in Iraq.
"U.S. forces are failing to protect these sites," said Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, who roamed the Mahaweel site in frustration. "Crucial evidence of crimes against humanity is being destroyed on a daily basis."
He said families were taking away remains for burial without the presence of international monitors and before forensics inspections could occur.
"If there were a proper plan, these people wouldn't be taking matters into their own hands," Bouckaert said. "But as it is, these people will leave not knowing exactly who is here, without final answers about what exactly happened to them and no evidence with which to prosecute Saddam."
U.S. Marines arrived at Mahaweel two days ago to provide security. Romley said the Americans were documenting as much as they could, mostly through photographs. But Wednesday, many remains were taken away without American soldiers in sight.
"Our principal concern is to respect the wishes of the people," Romley said. "We're here to reunite victims with their families. All this is just beyond my comprehension."
Anger greets politician
Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi arrived at the site Wednesday morning but was mobbed by crowds of people who hurled insults and accused the U.S.-backed politico of being a stooge of former President George Bush.
Chalabi, escorted by a team of bodyguards, returned to Baghdad without going near the graves.
Residents blame the elder Bush for withdrawing American troops from Iraq after the Gulf War, leaving the Shiites to be slaughtered mercilessly during their uprising.
"Chalabi wants to be popular here so he can win votes," said Malik Jabbar, 30, who was searching for two lost brothers. "He is taking advantage of our tragedy."
Sitting by concertina wire, Raja'a Diwan, 43, held her head with both hands, a steady flow of tears streaming down her cheeks. One morning a dozen years back, she had furiously run after her brother, Mohsen, after Saddam's men came to the house and drove him away.
"I remember yelling to them: 'Where are you taking my brother? He has done nothing,' " Diwan said.
She had been waiting here two days, hoping her brother's remains would be unearthed. She recalled that her brother was wearing a watch that day and had his ID with him.
Another brother, Kadem, was executed by the Baath Party in 1990. A third brother, Kareem, never returned from the front lines of the Iran-Iraq war. And a fourth, Mohammed, disappeared in 1991.
"I will cut Saddam Hussein into pieces," Diwan said. "I will eat his body and drink his blood."
Residents blamed a man named Mohammad Jawad Anaifus Alboalwanm, who apparently arranged and oversaw the arrests of thousands during Saddam's crackdown.
In the spring of 1991, Sayed Jabbar Al-Husseini, 51, watched from his nearby land as Saddam's army henchmen brought people here. They were always blindfolded; their hands were usually tied behind their backs. They came in cars, buses or trucks, as many as 150 people a day, Al-Husseini said.
The victims were usually pushed into freshly dug graves and then riddled with bullets, he said, and roughly 20 percent were buried alive.
"Do you know how much pain it has caused me that I could not tell anyone what I knew?" he said. "They would have killed me, too."
Moni Basu writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.