Painful Archeology: Excavating Saddam's Mass Graves
Abstract
In post-Saddam Iraq, hardly anything above the ground is interesting. Anything of value was looted, burned, or devastated by a stampede of imprudent tools of destruction. Conversely, treasure diggers of every kind can always count on some discovery. There are sacred tombs for the pious, artifacts for archeological thieves, weapons for terrorists, and oil for capitalists. However, for millions of Iraqis, the most precious treasures are the remains of their loved ones in a plethora of mass graves scattered all over the country. Widows, mothers, fathers, and orphans march to the newly discovered burial sites as soon as news breaks that yet another mass grave has been unearthed. The scene is always the same: piles of bones that defy the basics of human anatomy. Some piles contain extra ribs but are missing other parts; others may contain the skeleton of an adult with the skull of an adolescent. Every skull has a hole in the back, the entry point of a bullet fired at close range, and the skeletal wrists are still bound by the ropes that tied them together prior to the fateful moment. Identification of these remains is more often based on such clues as decomposed documents the victim carried at the time of the murder, or what the earth spared of any clothes or jewelry, than DNA or lab tests. People in search of closure after many years often settle for the pile of bones that best resembles their missing loved one. For those unfortunate mourners, mere resemblance is taken as positive identification. This article contains the testimony of Dr. Hasan Nadhim, who describes the last days of April 1991, when the postwar uprising in Najaf and its sister city, Kufa, was reaching its end. As those events were taking place, the author was making his way to the south of Iraq, and from there to exile. Dr. Nadhim was the last person he saw in Kufa, but the Dr. declined to leave. The author presents this translation of Dr. Nadhim's experience of twice escaping a mass grave.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA521136
Entities
People
- Abbas Kadhim
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School