IRAQ: IRAQI FAMILIES CONTINUE TO SEARCH THROUGH PILES OF BONES AT A VAST MASS GRAVE LOOKING FOR LOVED ONES

Record ID: 646567

  • Title: IRAQ: IRAQI FAMILIES CONTINUE TO SEARCH THROUGH PILES OF BONES AT A VAST MASS GRAVE LOOKING FOR LOVED ONES
  • Date: 16th May 2003
  • Summary: (W4) MAHAWI, HILLA DISTRICT, BABYLON, IRAQ (MAY 16, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/LV OF MASS GRAVE SITE, PEOPLE WANDERING AROUND (2 SHOTS) 0.14 2. CU MAN WIPING HIS EYES 0.21 3. SV MAN SITTING NEAR BODIES WEEPING 0.27 4. CU HUMAN SKULLS (2 SHOTS) 0.38 5. CU WOMAN PICKING THROUGH REMAINS IN PLASTIC BAG (2 SHOTS) 0.43 6. SV FAMILY MEMBERS SIFTING BELONGINGS IN PLASTIC BAG 0.45 7. CU MAN HOLDING IDENTITY CARD 0.51 8. CU MEN LOOKING AT DECOMPOSED REMAINS IN PLASTIC BAG 0.56 9. CU WOMAN CRYING 1.04 10. SV WOMAN LOOKING AT REMAINS IN PLASTIC BAG 1.11 11. CU WATCH 1.16 12. MCU (Arabic) UM JUADD, LOOKING FOR HER SON, SAYING, "(Even if) I lose my eyes, I won't give up looking for my oldest son. I'll search everywhere. Even in the ex-government. I search all the places - everywhere where I think I can find my son." 1.30 13. CU OF UM JUADD HOLDING PHOTOGRAPH OF JUADD TOAMMA, HER SON 1.33 14. MCU WOMAN LOOKING FAINT, OLDER WOMAN WRAPPING VEIL AROUND HER 1.43 15. SV OF FAMILY CARRYING PLASTIC BAGS WITH REMAINS INSIDE (3 SHOTS) 1.55 16. LV FAMILY WALKING TOWARDS VEHICLE 2.03 17. SV REMAINS WRAPPED IN WHITE SHEET PLACED IN COFFIN 2.13 18. MCU GRIEVING WOMAN 2.15 19. SV COVERED COFFIN PLACED ON VEHICLE 2.26 20. SV GROUP OF WOMEN STANDING 2.30 21. SLV VEHICLE DRIVING AWAY 2.46 22. SV/CU DIGGER CONTINUING TO EXCAVATE GROUND (2 SHOTS) 3.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 31st May 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MAHAWI, HILLA DISTRICT, BABYLON, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVABSUEO4XGVMSARH17CVTV7TC05
  • Story Text: Iraqi families have continued to search through piles
    of bones at a vast mass grave, looking for their loved ones
    who are among up to 15,000 people reported missing in the area
    during Saddam Hussein's rule.



    Iraqi families continued to picked through piles of
    bones at a vast mass grave in the Babylon region of Iraq on
    Friday (May 16) searching for relatives who are among up to
    15,000 people reported missing in the area during Saddam
    Hussein's rule.

    People searched for faded identity cards or other clues
    among the skeletons to try to identify brothers, fathers,
    mothers, sisters and even children who disappeared when
    Saddam's government cracked down on a Shi'ite uprising in
    1991.

    Work began at the site near the farming community Mahawi,
    about 90 km (56 miles) south of Baghdad, 11 days ago.

    Workers say more than 4,000 bodies have been found so far.

    Some people who had found evidence of lost loved ones,
    carried them away in plastic bags.

    United States (U.S.) army engineers began overseeing the
    excavation of the site on Friday (May 16), but so far, over
    1,000 families have retrieved the remains of their loved ones.

    Forensic experts fear retrievals could eliminate crucial
    evidence that could be used in future trials.

    Some locals reported hearing gunfire from the site during
    Saddam Hussein's rule.

    Others residents said they saw trucks full of corpses
    drawing up at the site, which may be one of the largest of a
    string of remote mass graves uncovered since U.S.-led forces
    ousted Saddam last month.

    Um Juadd has been looking everywhere for her son's
    remains.

    She travelled over 100 km (63 miles) to the site, but
    has not yet found him.

    "(Even if ) I lose my eyes I won't give up looking for my
    oldest son. I search everywhere. Even in the ex-government. I
    search all the places - everywhere where I think I can find my
    son," she said.

    One family placed the remains of their father into a
    coffin, as grieving relatives watched.

    Since Saddam Hussein's fall, mass graves have been
    unearthed in Najaf, Basra, Babylon and other areas and more
    continue to be found as Iraqis feel free to recount tales of
    arrests, torture and killings that were once too risky to
    tell.

    The human rights group Amnesty International has said it
    has information about 17,000 disappearances in Iraq over the
    past 20 years but that the actual figure may be much higher.




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