Across war-torn Iraq, Iraqis have begun to reveal the horrors of nearly
a quarter century of repressive rule. Former political prisoners have led
journalists and human rights investigators to prisons where torture and summary
executions reportedly were routine. Municipal grave diggers, shepherds, and
farmers have publicly disclosed the whereabouts of mass graves believed to
hold the bodies of those who disappeared during the rule of Saddam Hussein.1 Lacking adequate forensic expertise and in the absence
of international assistance, Iraqis have been exhuming some of these graves
in a manner that prevents forensic identification of most of the remains and
possibly brings greater mental anguish to the relatives of the deceased. For
example, in May 2003, at 2 sites located near the Mahawil military base just
north of the southern Iraqi city of Hilla, villagers used a backhoe to dig
up more than 2000 sets of remains, gouging and comingling countless skeletons
in the process, while some families used their hands to dig for bones and
shards of clothing and carted them away in wheelbarrows and buckets.1