The top American administrator in Iraq visited a mass grave Thursday believed to contain the remains of thousands of Saddam Hussein's victims and said those responsible for the killings would be hunted down. The grave near Mahaweel, 60 miles south of Baghdad, is the largest discovered since U.S. forces overthrew Saddam's Baath Party government last month. Rights groups expect many more to be found in coming months.
``There is no question that this (was) a regime that deserved to be changed, and I'm glad we changed it,'' L. Paul Bremer said after touring the site. Local officials say the remains of at least 3,000 people have been uncovered from the grave. Most appear to have been killed after a 1991 Shiite revolt against Saddam. Dr. Rafid al-Husseini, a volunteer who was helping to unearth the remains, said up to 15,000 Iraqis had been reported missing in the region south of Baghdad. The ground at the site was pockmarked with holes, next to which shrunken, tagged bundles of remains were wrapped in white sheets or tied up in plastic bags. Bremer said said a coalition forensics team had arrived to help collect evidence.
Across Iraq, families are excavating sites they couldn't even approach while Saddam was in power. New York-based Human Rights Watch has said a secret cemetery containing graves of more than 1,000 prisoners had been located 25 miles north of Baghdad, in the village of Muhammad Sakran. And the remains of about 150 Shiites killed after a 1999 rebellion were discovered near the southern city of Basra.
Good move by Bremer to get out there and look, and tell the Iraqis that justice will be done. |