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U.S. forensic scientist testifies at
Saddam genocide trial
28.11.2006
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BAGHDAD, November 28, -- Saddam Hussein
objected on Tuesday to allowing a leading American
forensic scientist to testify about his
investigation into a mass grave of Kurds in the
genocide trial of the former Iraqi leader.
Dr. Clyde Snow — an expert from the University of
Oklahoma who has also investigated mass graves in
Argentina, Guatemala and the former Yugoslavia —
took the stand and began to give background on his
work, but defense lawyers quickly argued that
experts should be brought in to verify Snow's
credentials.
Saddam insisted that Snow should not be allowed to
testify because he was American and demanded neutral
international experts, suggesting that the bodies in
the grave may have been moved to the location from
separate locations.
"No one should imagine I'm trying to defend Saddam
Hussein, given the earlier sentence against me. You
can only be executed once, not 10 times," he said,
referring to the death sentence issued against him
on Nov. 5 in an earlier trial on charges of killing
Shiites. "I'm only trying to defend the truth."
Referring to the 2003 U.S.-led liberation that
toppled his regime, Saddam proposed that
"international experts be brought brought from
countries which are not part of the aggression ...
to determine the truth about the mass grave ...
whether (the bodies) have been moved in from outside
the area."
"Iraq is full of skeletal remains during the past
centuries. Just give me 10 days and I'll show you a
grave with 400 bodies, Arabs and Kurds. "The
important thing is who is responsible ... Anything
can be moved from place to place."
Saddam and his co-defendants have pleaded innocent
to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity
arising from their role in a military crackdown on
Iraq's Kurd population in 1987-88. The prosecution
says that about 180,000 people, mostly civilians,
were killed in the campaign against the Kurds, which
was code named Operation Anfal. |
Dr. Clyde Snow, an U.S. forensic anthropologist,
testifies about his work exhuming graves in the
Kurdish lands (Kurdistan) of Iraq in court during
the resumed trial of genocide against Kurds in
Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday Nov. 28, 2006
Photo: AP
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP |
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The chief judge dismissed the complaints, and Snow
gave his testimony on the mass grave he investigated
in 1992 in the Kurdistani (northern Iraqi) town of
Koreme, as part of a team organized by the groups
Physicians for Human Rights and Middle East Rights
Watch.
Koreme was destroyed in August 1988, one of "3,800
villages that were destroyed during the Anfal
campaign," he said. "We didn't have the resources to
investigate all of these cases but we think Koremi
was typical of what happened in all these villages."
Snow said that he was told by survivors that Iraqi
forces detained the village's population — about 300
people — and separated out 33 men and boys, who were
taken to a location nearby. There, the troops opened
fire on them, killing 27, Snow said. Iraqi forces
then attacked the village and forced the rest of the
population to leave, he said.
Soil samples were taken from craters left by
bombardment during the attack, and testing at a
British lab found traces of mustard gas and the
nerve gas Sarin, Snow said.
Snow showed a slide presentation of the 27 bodies
his team exumed in two graves dug next to each other
outside the village. Photos showed skeletons laying
in the earth, still in their clothes, some with
prayer beads or traditional Kurdish belts around
them.
"I saw the bones were in excellent condition after
four years, there was clothing and some of the bones
had wounds consistent with gunshot wounds," Snow
said. In one photo, he pointed out the copper
fragment of a shell casing still embedded in a bone.
He detailed 84 gunshot wounds in the bodies, most of
them to the head or upper body.
Snow was the first expert to testify in the Anfal
trial, which began on Aug. 21 and until now has been
hearing testimony from survivors of the campaign,
who told of poison gas attacks on their villages and
relatives taken away and killed.
The trial adjourned until Wednesday.
Saddam and his co-defendants, all former officials
in his regime, face possible death sentences if
convicted on charges of crimes against humanity and
war crimes.
Saddam and his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid — known
as "Chemical Ali" because of his alleged use of
chemical weapons during the Anfal campaign — also
face charges of genocide in the case. The defendants
have pleaded innocent to the charges.
Sinan Salaheddin reported from Baghdad and Lee Keath
from Cairo, Egypt. Some material in the story came
from a pool report at the trial in Baghdad
AP
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