Investigators have begun unearthing a mass grave near the village of Hatra in northern Iraq, uncovering more than 100 bodies and seeking evidence to use in a future trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
The bodies, believed to be Kurds killed during Saddam's crackdown in 1987 and 1988, are buried in nine trenches, according to Greg Kehoe, an American who works with the Iraqi Special Tribunal, which is preparing the trial of Saddam and his henchmen.
PHOTOS: AP
Kehoe said his team has removed 120 bodies from a trench believed to contain as many as 300 bodies.
He said that because of limited funds and resources, his team can only excavate one mass grave at a time. Experienced European teams, who worked on Bosnian mass graves, are not helping because of their concerns that Saddam could face the death penalty, he said.
"It is my personal opinion that this is a killing field," Kehoe told reporters during a visit to the site south of Mosul. "Someone used this field on significant occasions over time to take bodies up there, and to take people up there and execute them."
Kehoe said the bodies were apparently bulldozed into the graves.
"Unlike bodies that you've seen in many mass graves -- they look like cordwood -- all lined up," he said. "That didn't happen here. These bodies were just pushed in."
He said excavators found the body of a mother still clutching her baby. The infant was shot in the back of the head and the other in the face.
Kehoe said that most mass graves in Bosnia contain largely men of fighting age. Graves near Hatra included many women and children, he said.
"Genocide is the attempt to eliminate, limit or exterminate a religious ethnic national or racial group," he said. "The Kurds are clearly a different nationality. So could it be considered genocide? It could be. Killing, ethnic cleansing, property relocations, all of those were used to try to limit the Kurdish population. What it is fundamentally is downright murder."
Human rights organizations estimate that more than 300,000 people during his 24-year rule, which ended when US-led forces toppled his regime last year.
Saddam is expected to stand trial for crimes against humanity and other offenses next year, but no date has been set.
Meanwhile, coalition personnel mounted two operations last month to rescue members of a group of three hostages held in Iraq, but they didn't find them, a US government official said Tuesday.
British civil engineer Kenneth Bigley and US engineers Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley were the targets of the rescue. They were kidnapped from their homes in Baghdad on Sept. 16.
The first operation came before Sept. 20, when Armstrong is believed to have been beheaded by his captors, the US official said, discussing sensitive operations only on the condition of anonymity. The second came after Armstrong's death but before that of Hensley, which was reported Sept. 21.
CNN reported US forces found no signs of the three during either operation.
Bigley's killing was confirmed Sunday. Another US official said there was credible information Bigley tried to escape with the help of one of his captors but was recaptured and quickly beheaded.
Tawhid and Jihad, lead by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the abductions and killings.
More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, some for ransom and others as leverage against the US and its allies. Bigley was at least the 28th to be killed.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,