The remains of hundreds of women and children have been found in the burial pits. They are victims of Saddam Hussein’s campaign of extermination known as the Anfal, launched in the late 1980s to punish the Kurds for their rebellion.
Muthana, who was sent to the site by Baghdad’s Ministry of Interior, spoke to Rudaw as excavation work got underway at the first mass grave site. He could not hide his revulsion.
“This is the first time I have seen a mass grave up close. The tragedy that can be seen in this mass grave is huge,” Muthana told Rudaw on Tuesday.
“I wonder what was the sin and crime of those children and women from Kurdistan to be buried alive,” he added.
Muthana condemned the actions of the former Baathist order, branding it a “buried regime”.
Remains of women and children uncovered at a mass grave site in Samawa, southern Iraq, July 23, 2019. Photo: Rudaw TV
The committee overseeing work at the site was established by the Iraqi Human Rights Commission. A new committee is formed for each mass grave site.
Three mass graves were recently discovered in Samawa. The grave opened on Tuesday was found to contain the bones, hair, and clothing of 80-100 people, mainly women and children, according to spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry for Martyrs and Anfal Affairs.
Ceremonies are held each year on April 14 to mark the anniversary of Anfal.
The Anfal campaign took place over eight phases – beginning in 1986, reaching its peak in 1988 with the Halabja genocide that instantly killed 5,000 people and injured another 10,000. It culminated in the closing weeks of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88).
More than 182,000 people are thought to have died.
Anfal, the eighth sura in the Quran, was the codename used by the Baathist regime for the slaughter.
Political dissent was not tolerated under the Baathists. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds and Shiites were disappeared, trucked to Iraq’s southern deserts and murdered.
The KRG has provided assistance for Anfal survivors and their relatives including housing and tuition fees for studies.
Erbil has also made efforts to secure global recognition of the Anfal as an act of genocide, and to return the remains of victims from mass graves in Iraq’s southern and central deserts for reburial in the Region.
Hedar Zubir Barzani, an MP in the Iraqi parliament and former lawyer defending the rights of Anfal victims, has urged both Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to implement modern DNA testing techniques to help identify the dead and give their families closure.
