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Grief at iraqi mass grave

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   http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/135/nation/Grief_at_mass_Iraqi_grave+.shtml

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/135/nation/Grief_at_mass_Iraqi_grave+.shtml

Grief at mass Iraqi grave
Search could turn up thousands more

By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff, 5/15/2003

MAHAWEEL, Iraq - Fathers, sons, brothers, and widows say they have unearthed more than 3,000 bodies so far this month at a single mass grave here, potentially the largest site in at least 10 cities and towns where Saddam Hussein's security forces dispatched enemies of the regime.

US officials and human rights groups estimated yesterday that the remains of tens of thousands killed by Hussein's men are expected to be found piled together - most clothed, some with identification cards - in mass graves around the country.

''There may be up to 10,000 bodies in just this grave - it's stunning,'' said Lieutenant Colonel Rick Long of the US Marines, whose soldiers arrived yesterday to document the scene at the Mahaweel site, 55 miles south of Baghdad. ''My mind cannot comprehend how anyone could do such a thing.''

Most of the graves are in southern Iraq, home to Shi'ite Muslims, who were brutally repressed under Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, and often detained or killed because their political sympathies were suspect. A 1991 Shi'ite uprising against Hussein, after Iraq's defeat in the first Gulf War, led to countless slaughter that some Iraqis have termed a genocide.

''Hussein's men came in meanness,'' said Mujal Rasoul, an elderly man poking his cane into piles of bones, searching for the remains of a brother who disappeared in 1991. ''They simply hated my brother. No other reason. Now he is here. But I have no way to find him.''

Human rights groups that compiled reports across the country have estimated that as many as 200,000 Iraqis disappeared during Hussein's rule.

After years of whispering about where the bodies were buried, families have used their new freedom to scour dusty plains and old farmlands in search of loved ones.

Scores of bodies have been found in new graves in Babylon and the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, and other sites have been located in Basra and areas closer to Baghdad.

This emotional search, as cathartic as it may be for Iraqi families, is posing a new challenge for US and British forces. US officials say they have decided not to secure the gravesites or limit access, instead allowing Iraqis to dig freely and carry off the bones of relatives for proper reburials.

But rights groups yesterday assailed the hands-off approach, saying that forensic investigators must be allowed to catalogue the suspected massacres and compile evidence that can be used to prosecute Iraqi officials and Republican Guard officers for possible crimes against humanity.

''For every person who is identified by Iraqis, a pile of bones is being carried off that is not identified,'' said Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. ''The US has done nothing to protect this site, and it's an outrage.

''There was all this talk about bringing justice to the Iraqi people for the crimes of Saddam Hussein,'' said Bouckaert, who was monitoring the Mahaweel site yesterday. ''I want to know why there's no effort to bring justice here.''

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended the US response, saying that the military was trying to contain lawlessness in Baghdad. ''We're finding mass graves, thousands of human beings that were killed by that government,'' the Associated Press quoted him as saying. ''What should we do? Would you rather have a policeman [in Baghdad] or someone down there guarding those graves?''

Long said the Marines were being careful not to act in a heavy-handed way that might further inflame Iraqis who view the soldiers as an occupying force. ''We've been asked by Iraqis to let them alone in their grieving, their burial process,'' he said.

Asked about the importance of documenting the government's crimes, Long's voice rose in anger: ''He did terrible things. That's clear here. Let's keep our eye on the ball. These are families who've lost their loved ones.''

The Mahaweel grave, the largest of six reported in the area, has drawn the most attention from Iraqis because victims from around the country are believed to have been taken to a nearby Republican Guard base for execution.

But it is the sheer number of bodies that grips most people. Among the killing fields of recent history, Mahaweel will surely count as a town that harbored brutal, bloody secrets in its hallowed ground for some time. It may take months or years before all the remains are recovered and identified.

''This is huge,'' Sam Zia-Zarifi, another Human Rights Watch researcher, said as he stood near three rows each lined with 20 plastic bags of skulls - some crushed or cut - neckbones, tibias, and frayed shirts and pants. ''In Kosovo, we had 6,000 missing. In Iraq it's 200,000. We expect a fairly large number that will end up being dead and buried.''

As Marines handed out water and set up a small tent to offer shade in the 95-degree heat, young Iraqi men stood on a truck and read the names of the dead over a microphone, as old women in head-to-toe black abayas huddled together. Two Egyptians had been found. Then an Iraqi from Basra. Then a man from a local family.

A forklift overturned fresh soil nearby, unearthing bodies at a rate of about 10 per hour. Other remains were found with bare Iraqi hands. ''I've been here for six days, looking for two brothers and two sons,'' said Jabar Hashim. ''I do not know when I will stop.''

Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.


This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 5/15/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.



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