IRAQ: FAMILIES ALL OVER IRAQ ARE BUSY SEARCHING NEWLY-DISCOVERED MASS GRAVES FOR THE BODIES OF THEIR LOVED ONES

Record ID: 647341

  • Title: IRAQ: FAMILIES ALL OVER IRAQ ARE BUSY SEARCHING NEWLY-DISCOVERED MASS GRAVES FOR THE BODIES OF THEIR LOVED ONES
  • Date: 12th May 2003
  • Summary: (EU) BASRA, IRAQ (MAY 12, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV OF MOSQUE WITH PEOPLE MILLING IN FRONT 0.09 2. LV RELATIVES GATHERING 0.16 3. SV SIGN ON BUILDING 0.20 4. SLV COFFINS CONTAINING BODIES DUG UP FROM MASS GRAVES BEING BROUGHT AND LAID SIDE BY SIDE (2 SHOTS) 0.33 5. CU BONES IN COFFIN 0.39 6. CU NOTE ON COFFIN 0.45 7. SLV COFFINS COVERED IN WHITE SHEETS 0.52 8. MCU OF WOMAN WEEPING OVER COFFIN 1.00 9. TV OF THE COFFINS WITH RELATIVES AROUND THEM 1.06 10. MCU (Arabic) MOTHER OF DEAD MAN, HANIDAH BATT, SAYING: "The Baath Party members took my son from our home, we do not know the reason why. They took him to the local party offices and until now we knew nothing of what had happened to him, now we have news. The Baathists killed him in 1999." 2.00 11. SV WOMEN WEEPING BY COFFIN 2.12 12. SV OF COFFINS WITH WOMEN RELATIVES WEEPING 2.19 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 27th May 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BASRA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA4QTGZHK29434GH0RI7SKF90QD
  • Story Text: Families all over Iraq are busy searching
    newly-discovered mass graves for the bodies of their loved
    ones, in order to give them a proper burial. Saddam Hussein's
    administration has been accused of persecution of opposition
    and minority groups in Iraq during his time in office.



    In the southern city of Basra on Monday (May 12)
    relatives wept over the coffins of their loved ones. A total
    of 33 bodies were laid out in coffins close to the local
    mosque in the area that will be their final resting place.

    The dead were found in a mass grave outside the city and
    are believed to have been killed following an uprising against
    the Baath Party in 1999. They willl be buried on Tuesday (May
    6).

    "The Baath Party members took my son from our home, we do
    not know the reason why. They took him to the local party
    offices and until now we knew nothing of what had happened to
    him, now we have news. The Baathists killed him in 1999," said
    one mother, Hanidah Batt, as she sat by her son's coffin.

    Saddam Hussein's forces arrested thousands of Iraqis
    during their tenure. These were mainly Shi'ites - but included
    other political opponents.

    After the 1991 Gulf war, officials brutally suppressed a
    Shi'ite uprising in the south, in which tens of thousands of
    people are believed to have been killed.

    The government's forces banned families of those who were
    executed to hold a funeral or accept condolences.

    Mass graves have been found in many parts of Iraq, mainly
    in the south where most of the country's Shi'ite majority
    live.






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