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New Mass Kurdish graves found in
Kurdistan-Iraq
4.9.2006
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Grave found of 18 Kurds
'buried alive' during Saddam rule
KIRKUK, Kurdistan-Iraq, September 4, -- The
remains of 80 people, believed to be Kurdish victims
of Saddam Hussein's regime, were unearthed in two
mass graves near the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of
Kirkuk on Monday, a Kurdish security official said.
Tens of thousands of Kurds were killed in a military
campaign in 1998 codenamed Anfal -- Spoils of War --
for which Saddam, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid,
known as Chemical Ali, and five other former
commanders are now on trial in Baghdad.
The deputy head of intelligence for Kirkuk, Colonel
Salah Khaled, said the bodies were believed to date
from Anfal, when the military razed villages,
launched poison gas attacks and rounded up men,
women and children before shooting them in mass
graves in northern and southern Iraq.
"The remains of 18 bodies, mostly women and
children, have been found in one of the graves. From
their dress, they seem to be people who went missing
during the Anfal campaign," he said.
The 18 Kurdish men, women and children whom they
believe were buried alive in a mass grave during the
former regime of Saddam Hussein.
"They were alive when they were buried," he said. |
Witness Ali Mustafa Hama (L) testifies in the
"Anfal" genocide against the Kurds on Tuesday.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (R).
Photo : AFP| Reuters
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A total of 80 bodies were unearthed from two graves
in Towb Zawa, 15 km southwest of Kirkuk, he said.
Reuters Television footage showed men collecting
bones, bits of clothing and prayer beads and putting
them into plastic bags.
Saddam and his six co-accused face charges of war
crimes and crimes against humanity, but he and his
cousin face the additional, graver charge of
genocide, which also carries the death penalty.
They are likely to argue that their crackdown on the
villages along the Iranian border was justified
because Kurdish rebels and their leaders had
committed treason by forming alliances with
arch-enemy Iran.
The former Iraqi president forced about 250,000
Kurdish residents to give up their homes to Arabs in
the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city and the region's
oil industry.
Kirkuk city is not under the full control of
Kurdistan Regional Government administration. A
referendum in 2007 will decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
Reuters | AFP
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