Two new departments to study mass graves in Iraq

 

By Anwar Umaa

 

Azzaman, October 7, 2009

 

Iraq’s Institute for Forensic Medicine has set up two new departments where students are to be specialized in the study and investigation of mass graves, the institute’s dean said.

 

Dr. Munjid Salahudeen said the departments were needed due to the large number of Iraqis buried anonymously in these graves.

 

There are two types of mass graves in Iraq. The first were a feature of the former leader Saddam Hussein where tens of thousands of people were killed and buried en masse.

 

The second type of mass graves came into being under U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. While Salahudeen made no mention of such graves but many of them have been exposed in the past three years.

 

“There are seven stages which are a characteristic of mass graves and they range from the time the news about them spreads to the discovery of bones and their DNA tests,” he said.

 

He said Iraq could not continue relying on foreign assistance in this regard as such investigations “cost a lot of money.”

 

He said his institute, in coordination with the Ministry of Human Rights, has so far found mass graves in the southern provinces of Basra and Missan.

 

But of particular interest is the fate of the nearly 600 Kuwaitis who were taken prisoner during the 1991 Gulf war by the former regime and then killed and buried in different mass graves.

 

Salahudeen said Iraqi teams have so far identified 320 of the missing Kuwaitis “but we still have no information on the others.”

 

A joint Iraqi and Kuwait forensic team is working to identify the rest, he said.