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NEAR SAMAWA, Iraq (Reuters) - Investigators have
uncovered a mass grave in southern Iraq containing
as many as 1,500 bodies, most of them thought to be
Kurds forcibly removed from their homes in the late
1980s.
The site, near the town of Samawa, about 300 km
south of Baghdad, consists of 18 shallow trenches
dug by earth-moving vehicles into hard limestone
rock.
Most of the victims were women and children who were
apparently lined up in front of the pits and shot
with AK-47 assault rifles, according to a U.S.
investigator.
Around 110 bodies have been excavated from the site
so far, nearly two thirds of them children and
teenagers.
They are being forensically examined and evidence
gathered will be used to build cases against Saddam
Hussein and his top deputies for war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide.
The site appears to have been carefully chosen and
was well concealed, factors prosecutors believe will
convince a court of the systematic nature of the
crime.
Many of the victims were wearing clothing that is
traditionally Kurdish, and even specific to certain
villages. They were wrapped in multiple layers,
suggesting they knew they were being moved
somewhere, investigators said.
The site was first identified early last year by the
U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, but
proper examination did not begin until early this
month and finished on April 24.
A reporter was taken to visit the site with Iraq's
minister of human rights, an Iraqi judge and
international experts.
It is one of around 300 suspected mass graves that
have been discovered around Iraq since Saddam was
overthrown. Some contain as few as a dozen bodies,
while others, including one near the southern city
of Basra, contain several thousand.
In the area around Samawa, a largely Shi'ite Muslim
town where Saddam cracked down against locals after
an uprising in 1991, 27 suspected grave sites have
been found.
An official from the Regime Crimes Liaison Office, a
U.S. body working with Iraqi authorities to build
evidence of crimes committed by the former
government, said the Kurds were probably moved south
during the Anfal campaigns of 1987-88.
During that period, Saddam and his top lieutenants
oversaw the rounding up and forced removal of
hundreds of thousands of Kurds from towns and
villages across northern Iraq.
Saddam's armies crushed Kurdish opposition
throughout the region and are accused of gassing
residents of Halabja, near the Iranian border,
killing more than 5,000 people.
The excavation of grave sites at this point is
focused on gathering evidence for trials against
former Iraqi leaders due to begin this year. Precise
identification of victims, including DNA analysis,
is not expected to happen for some time.
Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq's outgoing human rights
minister, who is a Kurd, said Iraqi authorities
needed to set up some sort of fund for the victims
of Saddam's rule. He suggested that five percent of
oil revenues be allocated for compensation.
"Compassion is not sufficient," he said. "Something
tangible needs to be done for the victims of
Saddam's regime."
(Reporting by a pool reporter
Reuters
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