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Excavating Mass Graves in Iraq

The Bitter Search for Truth in the Desert Sand

By Sassan Niasseri

More than 300 mass graves have been excavated in Iraq so far. The most recent discovery was made by American investigators in early May when they found a grave with 1,500 Kurdish people. Recovery and identification of Saddam's victims, however, is an arduous process.

The pictures are the same no matter where you go in Iraq, whether it's the northern town of Kirkuk, Al-Mahawil near Baghdad or the Kurdish town of Erbil. People digging in the dirt with crude tools, kitchen knives or even their bare hands. The more they dig, the worse the stench of rotting flesh gets. Sobbing and silent prayers accompany the gruesome process. Skulls are usually unearthed first, followed by shreds of fabric or plastic sandals as Iraqis look for the remains of their dead relatives.

Earlier this month, for example, investigators discovered a grave filled with the bodies of 1,500 Kurds in southern Iraq.

"The excavation of the mass graves is the biggest challenge that Iraqis face today," says Bakhtiar Amin, former Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE. He expects the search to continue for a long time. "No matter how fast we progress, we'll still be finding mass graves in the next century."

The Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights estimates that up to one million people have gone missing since Saddam Hussein's Baath-Party came into power in 1968, although no exact statistics were kept of the crimes. "Every Iraqi family mourns members that have been murdered," says Amin, who lost family members as well. The Kurdish politician stepped down as Iraqi Minister of Human Rights a few days ago, citing personal reasons. His successor has not yet been determined.

Already some 300 mass graves have been excavated since the end of Saddam's reign of terror. Although exact figures on the number of victims vary depending on who is counting, the Iraqis estimate that at least 500,000 bodies lie in the mass graves. The evidence collected in the pits is not only important to give relatives peace of mind, but also to assemble evidence against Saddam Hussein when he stands trial.

Sadly, says Amin, "not even the discovery of new graves sheds light for family members on the fate of their relatives." There aren't enough forensic doctors and archaeologists to examine the evidence. The threat of terrorist attacks prevents foreign experts from venturing into Iraq. And the American security forces don't always have control of the situation and often can't prevent chaotic scenes from erupting when a new grave is discovered. At times, they have no interest, either: "Should we prevent the people from looking for their dead and burying them?" ask the soldiers who look on helplessly. They can do nothing in the face of the despair and anger of the locals.

Human rights activists demand guidelines

To ensure that evidence is excavated and preserved correctly, human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and the German group "Archeologists for Human Rights" are calling for legal guidelines on how the mass graves should be excavated -- and who should be allowed to participate. First and foremost, it is an issue of technical know-how. The examination of a mass grave, says an US legal expert, can cost up to 10 million dollars. Discussions on who will be responsible for future excavations are underway.

Within Iraq, the massive project will be handled by the National Centers for Missing and Disappeared Persons. In addition to excavating and exhuming bodies, the office will provide support for families of the deceased. Amin, who has close contacts within relief organizations and foreign governments, wants to equip the centers with databanks containing information both on missing persons as well as on victims who have been identified. International aid has been promised for the building of the centers; a DNA-laboratory, for example, has been promised by the German government.

But for the moment, the Regime Crime Liaison Office (RCLO) -- a squad of American experts responsible for assisting the Iraqi Special Tribunal to prepare the case against Saddam -- is in charge of excavating the graves. The RCLO works together with local authorities, and relies heavily on tips from witnesses -- locals who, in many cases, have remained silent for years out of fear of retribution at the hands of Saddam's thugs.

In general, each discovery and excavation of a mass grave follows a similar pattern. Abnormalities such as depressions in the ground -- indicating a filled-in hole -- often hint at the presence of a mass grave. The site is then quickly secured with barbed wire. Only then is the site scanned for mines, before bulldozers come in to carefully remove the earth, layer by layer, until the first human remains are uncovered.

That is when the archaeologists take over. Their delicate task is to excavate the bodies inch by meticulous inch -- so that no harm is done to the bones and other vital evidence.

DNA-test for identification

Bullet wounds from AK-47 rifles are often clues that Saddam's soldiers were at work. And clothing is the key to understanding the victims' backgrounds. Certain types of traditional jewellery suggest the deceased may have been Kurdish. Sometimes, victims are found wearing multiple layers of clothes -- evidence of a hasty departure and that they knew, before they were murdered, that they were to be deported.

When no papers are found with the bodies, DNA-comparisons between the deceased and possible relatives are an option. But such an effort is an enormous undertaking -- both financially as well as logistically. Many times, bodies are buried hundreds of kilometers away from their families, making transport back to the home village difficult. Still, Amin says, genetic testing is the goal. "The DNA-test is the most reliable of all identification methods and we are committed to it," he says. "Relatives want certainty, and they deserve it."

Indeed, relatives are desperate for certainty. A spokesman for Human Rights Watch said, "Some believe they have recognized a family member simply because they found a certain brand of cigarette next to the skeleton."

Often, though, the difficulties prove overwhelming and excavators have to be satisfied with partial results. "Considering the enormous number of victims, it just isn't possible to identify all the dead," says an archaeologist working on mass-grave excavations in northern Iraq who asked not to be identified. "In many cases you can only try to limit the damage and leave the grave alone."

She tells about a site in Halabscha, which was excavated by a team of local authorities last year. They found the corpses of 30 Kurds, victims of Saddam's 1988 poison gas attack. The excavation, says the archaeologist, was conducted far too hastily, under pressure by the population to show results. Now the remains are stacked in the corner of a local agency in Halabscha, rotting. "You cannot open a mass grave if you don't know what to do with the corpses," she says.