Saddam Hussein's murderous and genocidal campaigns: Dujail and Afal
Saddam Hussein's death warrants for 148 people - as part of his Dujail campaign - could not be carried out for 48 of the people ... because those 48 people had already died during interrogation.
A mother and child lie dead in the Kurdish town of Halabja ... just two of the 100,000 Kurds murdered by Saddam Hussein's regime
Via The Belmont Club:
* * *
The documents revealed some unbelievably terrifying facts about the Dujail massacre; can you imagine that when orders were given to execute the 148 "convicts" the prison authorities executed only 96 of them. Why? Because the remaining 48 "convicts" had already passed away during "interrogation"!! What kind of interrogation was that killed one third of the suspects?!
* * *
See much more on the trial of Saddam Hussein at the excellent Iraq the Model blog.
Photos memorialize the victims of the Dujail massacre at the Dujail Free Prisoners' Association. Photo via the San Francisco Chronicle.
More on the Dujail Massacre is available from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Meanwhile this is what American teachers are talking about.
Via the Denver Post and Michelle Malkin.
UPDATE 3-3-06: Some excellent background on Saddam Hussein's incredible genocidal campaign against the Kurds is available from Michael Totten:
* * *
The hardest thing to see was the cell used to hold children before they were murdered. My translator Alan read some of the messages carved into the wall.
“I was ten years old. But they changed my age to 18 for execution.”
“Dear Mom and Dad. I am going to be executed by the Baath. I will not see you again.”
10,725 people were killed in this one building alone.
* * *
Saddam Hussein's regime murdered 100,000 Kurds during the Anfal campaign
Indeed, "during the Anfal campaign from February to September 1988, Iraqi troops swept through the highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan rounding up everyone who remained in government-declared 'prohibited zones.' Some 100,000 Kurds, mostly men and boys, were trucked to remote sites and executed."
Via Human Rights Watch:
* * *
Unfortunately, governmental cowardice and opportunism have stymied past attempts to indict Saddam, as Human Rights Watch learned during its intensive efforts to bring him to justice in the 1990s. At the top of any indictment should be Saddam's 1988 genocidal Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds, described by Jeffrey Goldberg in this week's New Yorker. Named after a Koranic verse justifying pillage of the property of infidels, the Anfal campaign unfolded as the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was winding down. Iraqi Kurds had taken advantage of Saddam's preoccupation with Iran to seize control of parts of mountainous northern Iraq. But as soon as Iraqi troops could be withdrawn from the Iranian front, Saddam shifted them to the north.
Several thousand Kurdish villages were destroyed, forcing residents to live in appalling camps. In at least 40 cases, Iraqi forces under Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, used chemical weapons to kill and chase Kurds from their villages. Then, during the Anfal campaign from February to September 1988, Iraqi troops swept through the highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan rounding up everyone who remained in government-declared "prohibited zones." Some 100,000 Kurds, mostly men and boys, were trucked to remote sites and executed. Only seven are known to have escaped.
* * *
UPDATE 3-9-06: Knowing Saddam Hussein is one of history's most vicious and cruel dictators is one thing. Proving it in a court of law is another.
The grisly task of methodically finding, excavating, and cataloging Saddam Hussein's mass graves goes on. Great stores of horrendous evidence are increasing daily as murdered Kurds, Shiites, and other Saddam victims, continue to be pulled from shallow, bulldozer-dug trenches.
Even hardened invesigators have difficulty with this macabre task. These huge shallow graves are filled with families: fathers, mothers and children wearing all of their clothes on their backs for their "re-location" - with many of the children carrying their toys with them.
Michael K. Trimble, an archaeologist, and Gregory W. Kehoe, an American lawyer working with the Iraqi tribunal investigating abuses by Saddam Hussein and others, at a mass grave near Hatra, in northern Iraq. Pool photo by Thanassis Cambanis. Via the New York Times.
Via the New York Times:
* * *
A chain of evidence that investigators believe will help convict Saddam Hussein begins at a windswept grave in the desert near Hatra, in northern Iraq.
The burial site - a series of deep trenches that held about 2,500 bodies, many of them women and children - is one of many mass graves that dot the country. But it was the first excavated by an American investigative team working with a special Iraqi tribunal to build cases against Mr. Hussein and others in his government.
* * *
... American legal advisers say the Hatra grave holds a key to what is likely to be one of the broadest charges against Mr. Hussein - that he is responsible for the killing of as many as 100,000 Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980's, some in chemical-weapons attacks. They say those charges could be filed later this year, and Iraqi officials said last weekend that there could be up to 12 separate cases against Mr. Hussein and others. Each would require a separate trial, and multiple convictions could mean multiple death sentences for any defendant.
According to Gregory W. Kehoe, the American who set up the investigative team, what was found at Hatra shows how the Hussein leadership made a "business of killing people" - the scrape marks from the blade of the bulldozer that shoved victims into the trench, the point-blank shots to the backs of even the babies' heads, the withered body of a 3- or 4-year-old boy, still clutching a red and white ball.
* * *
Michael K. Trimble, an archaeologist who headed the forensics team, said the first surprise was that the trench held only women and children - about 300 in all. He said two-thirds were children, and most of the skeletons rested inside several layers of handmade clothing, with bags of pots, pans and toys strewn in the dirt. He said it quickly became clear that most of the victims had been carrying - or wearing - all their belongings, as if they had been told they would be resettled.
The bodies were stacked haphazardly in four or five layers. Nearly all had a single .22-caliber pistol shot behind one ear. Mr. Trimble said it looked as if the first people had been shot inside the trench, while the others had been killed at the lip and pushed in by a bulldozer.
A second trench held 150 men, each sprayed with fire from automatic weapons. Most had been blindfolded and tied together in a chain.
Mr. Kehoe said this suggested that the women and children had been killed by Iraqi security officers carrying small-caliber arms, while the men had been killed by a military unit. "This was a killing field," he said, adding that, "multiple entities knew it was there."
* * *
At the Hatra grave, there was a break: the investigators found identification cards tucked inside some of the women's clothes. A few cards turned out to be for children who escaped when their villages were destroyed. Those cards took the investigators back to remote mountain areas, where the now-grown children and others confirmed that the Hatra victims had indeed been seized by Iraqi forces during the Anfal.
* * *
In building this case, the investigators are expanding on research done by Human Rights Watch, which has found that Iraqi forces mounted at least 40 chemical attacks to kill Kurdish fighters or destroy villages thought to have supported them.
* * *
Mr. Nivala said investigators believe they will be able to show that Mr. Hussein was aware not only of the retribution in Dujail but also of the harsh actions against the Kurds and Shiites. He said the forensics team had recently begun excavating a third grave, believed to hold some of the 150,000 Shiites killed in 1991.
* * *
A mother and child lie dead in the Kurdish town of Halabja ... just two of the 100,000 Kurds murdered by Saddam Hussein's regime
Via The Belmont Club:
* * *
The documents revealed some unbelievably terrifying facts about the Dujail massacre; can you imagine that when orders were given to execute the 148 "convicts" the prison authorities executed only 96 of them. Why? Because the remaining 48 "convicts" had already passed away during "interrogation"!! What kind of interrogation was that killed one third of the suspects?!
* * *
See much more on the trial of Saddam Hussein at the excellent Iraq the Model blog.
Photos memorialize the victims of the Dujail massacre at the Dujail Free Prisoners' Association. Photo via the San Francisco Chronicle.
More on the Dujail Massacre is available from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Meanwhile this is what American teachers are talking about.
Via the Denver Post and Michelle Malkin.
UPDATE 3-3-06: Some excellent background on Saddam Hussein's incredible genocidal campaign against the Kurds is available from Michael Totten:
* * *
The hardest thing to see was the cell used to hold children before they were murdered. My translator Alan read some of the messages carved into the wall.
“I was ten years old. But they changed my age to 18 for execution.”
“Dear Mom and Dad. I am going to be executed by the Baath. I will not see you again.”
10,725 people were killed in this one building alone.
* * *
Saddam Hussein's regime murdered 100,000 Kurds during the Anfal campaign
Indeed, "during the Anfal campaign from February to September 1988, Iraqi troops swept through the highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan rounding up everyone who remained in government-declared 'prohibited zones.' Some 100,000 Kurds, mostly men and boys, were trucked to remote sites and executed."
Via Human Rights Watch:
* * *
Unfortunately, governmental cowardice and opportunism have stymied past attempts to indict Saddam, as Human Rights Watch learned during its intensive efforts to bring him to justice in the 1990s. At the top of any indictment should be Saddam's 1988 genocidal Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds, described by Jeffrey Goldberg in this week's New Yorker. Named after a Koranic verse justifying pillage of the property of infidels, the Anfal campaign unfolded as the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was winding down. Iraqi Kurds had taken advantage of Saddam's preoccupation with Iran to seize control of parts of mountainous northern Iraq. But as soon as Iraqi troops could be withdrawn from the Iranian front, Saddam shifted them to the north.
Several thousand Kurdish villages were destroyed, forcing residents to live in appalling camps. In at least 40 cases, Iraqi forces under Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, used chemical weapons to kill and chase Kurds from their villages. Then, during the Anfal campaign from February to September 1988, Iraqi troops swept through the highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan rounding up everyone who remained in government-declared "prohibited zones." Some 100,000 Kurds, mostly men and boys, were trucked to remote sites and executed. Only seven are known to have escaped.
* * *
UPDATE 3-9-06: Knowing Saddam Hussein is one of history's most vicious and cruel dictators is one thing. Proving it in a court of law is another.
The grisly task of methodically finding, excavating, and cataloging Saddam Hussein's mass graves goes on. Great stores of horrendous evidence are increasing daily as murdered Kurds, Shiites, and other Saddam victims, continue to be pulled from shallow, bulldozer-dug trenches.
Even hardened invesigators have difficulty with this macabre task. These huge shallow graves are filled with families: fathers, mothers and children wearing all of their clothes on their backs for their "re-location" - with many of the children carrying their toys with them.
Michael K. Trimble, an archaeologist, and Gregory W. Kehoe, an American lawyer working with the Iraqi tribunal investigating abuses by Saddam Hussein and others, at a mass grave near Hatra, in northern Iraq. Pool photo by Thanassis Cambanis. Via the New York Times.
Via the New York Times:
* * *
A chain of evidence that investigators believe will help convict Saddam Hussein begins at a windswept grave in the desert near Hatra, in northern Iraq.
The burial site - a series of deep trenches that held about 2,500 bodies, many of them women and children - is one of many mass graves that dot the country. But it was the first excavated by an American investigative team working with a special Iraqi tribunal to build cases against Mr. Hussein and others in his government.
* * *
... American legal advisers say the Hatra grave holds a key to what is likely to be one of the broadest charges against Mr. Hussein - that he is responsible for the killing of as many as 100,000 Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980's, some in chemical-weapons attacks. They say those charges could be filed later this year, and Iraqi officials said last weekend that there could be up to 12 separate cases against Mr. Hussein and others. Each would require a separate trial, and multiple convictions could mean multiple death sentences for any defendant.
According to Gregory W. Kehoe, the American who set up the investigative team, what was found at Hatra shows how the Hussein leadership made a "business of killing people" - the scrape marks from the blade of the bulldozer that shoved victims into the trench, the point-blank shots to the backs of even the babies' heads, the withered body of a 3- or 4-year-old boy, still clutching a red and white ball.
* * *
Michael K. Trimble, an archaeologist who headed the forensics team, said the first surprise was that the trench held only women and children - about 300 in all. He said two-thirds were children, and most of the skeletons rested inside several layers of handmade clothing, with bags of pots, pans and toys strewn in the dirt. He said it quickly became clear that most of the victims had been carrying - or wearing - all their belongings, as if they had been told they would be resettled.
The bodies were stacked haphazardly in four or five layers. Nearly all had a single .22-caliber pistol shot behind one ear. Mr. Trimble said it looked as if the first people had been shot inside the trench, while the others had been killed at the lip and pushed in by a bulldozer.
A second trench held 150 men, each sprayed with fire from automatic weapons. Most had been blindfolded and tied together in a chain.
Mr. Kehoe said this suggested that the women and children had been killed by Iraqi security officers carrying small-caliber arms, while the men had been killed by a military unit. "This was a killing field," he said, adding that, "multiple entities knew it was there."
* * *
At the Hatra grave, there was a break: the investigators found identification cards tucked inside some of the women's clothes. A few cards turned out to be for children who escaped when their villages were destroyed. Those cards took the investigators back to remote mountain areas, where the now-grown children and others confirmed that the Hatra victims had indeed been seized by Iraqi forces during the Anfal.
* * *
In building this case, the investigators are expanding on research done by Human Rights Watch, which has found that Iraqi forces mounted at least 40 chemical attacks to kill Kurdish fighters or destroy villages thought to have supported them.
* * *
Mr. Nivala said investigators believe they will be able to show that Mr. Hussein was aware not only of the retribution in Dujail but also of the harsh actions against the Kurds and Shiites. He said the forensics team had recently begun excavating a third grave, believed to hold some of the 150,000 Shiites killed in 1991.
* * *
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