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Mass grave of Kurdish women, children
uncovered in southern Iraq
21.8.2007
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August
21, 2007
Missan, Southern Iraq, -- A mass grave of 150
women and an unspecified number of children dating
back to the late 1980s was recently found in the
residential district of al-Hussein in central Amara.
The area, used as a cemetery, which covers an area
of 50 donums (69400 square meters), also contains
bodies of newly born babies - "martyrs" - from the
May 1941 Revolution and strangers, according to
Missan province's Human Rights Office.
Hashim Jaafar al-Mousawi, who guards the cemetery,
said that it was only him and his mother who knew
that the cemetery also contained bodies of Kurdish
women and children who were buried together in the
late 1980s.
"In 1987 security elements under the former regime
brought Kurdish families from the Kurdistan region
to Amara. It was reported that Saddam killed the men
(in their hometowns) and brought the women and
children (to Amara) to punish them for their
continued opposition to his regime," the guard said.
"Afterwards an estimated 150 women, in addition to
an unspecified number of children, were killed and
buried in this mass grave," he added. Amara, the
capital city of Missan province, is 380 km southeast
of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Zeinab Hamidi, the guard's mother, who was keen to
offer tangible evidence for her claims, said
"Saddam's security men would come here at night with
vehicles loaded with corpses, expel us from the
cemetery and dig holes for the bodies.
They would throw six to seven women in one hole with
an uncountable number of children." "We knew the
bodies were Kurdish women when animals dug up some
of them. Bright Kurdish clothes and head coverings
belonging to Kurdish old women were also unearthed,"
the mother explained.
According to a report released by the Iraqi
government's High Committee on Mass Graves, 240 mass
graves have been discovered in Iraq so far, mostly
in Iraq's central, southern and central Euphrates
provinces. Half of the graves found in Samawa, the
capital city of Iraq's southern province of Muthanna,
contained bodies of Kurdish citizens who were
allegedly forced out of their hometowns in Kurdistan
(Kurdish northern Iraq) and exterminated, the report
said.
When asked about the reason why he did not reveal
the grave after the collapse of the former regime in
2003, al-Mousawi said that he did not want the grave
to be used for "propaganda purposes," adding, "But
the time has come." Salman Abdul Hussein Malak, an
official from Amara's Kurdistan Democratic Party's
office, affirmed that the grave contained bodies of
Kurdish women and children who were killed under the
former Iraqi regime. "In our capacity as a Kurdish
political party we submitted a report on this gave
to Kurdish leaders and called for further
investigation," he indicated.
Ahmed Ashour, the director of the Human Rights
Office in Missan, said the grave is the only one in
the province that contains bodies of women and
children. "We have taken possession of the cemetery…
DNA tests will be conducted to reveal the identities
of the victims and their next of kin will be
informed," he added.
VOI
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