Article

2003-04-17 Iraq

E. F. L. From the Beeb
Kurdish officials say they have found a series of mostly unmarked graves that contain about 2,000 bodies outside the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. They say the area was used by the Iraqi army to bury Kurds they killed in the late 1980s. During that period at least 100,000 Kurds were killed in Saddam Hussein's policy of ethnic cleansing in Iraq. The site of the graves lies close to an old Iraqi base, but so far there has been no independent verification or extensive excavation of the site.

BBC correspondent Dumeetha Luthra says some of the graves are marked, the rest lie in unmarked mounds. Kurds did dig up two graves on Wednesday and say they found a woman wrapped in plastic and covered in dried blood. The other grave, they say, held a man with remnants of a Kurdish fighter's uniform. Our correspondent says people have been told not to tamper with the site. She added the fact that no-one was allowed to see the bodies being buried is suspicious. In 1988 Saddam ordered a massive operation known as the Anfal Campaign against the Kurdish population in northern Iraq. In one incident, Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam's cousin who was also known as "Chemical Ali", directed a poison gas attack on the town of Halabja.
Looks like some of the missing have been located.

Posted by Tadderly 2003-04-17 11:04 am|| || Front Page|| [11144 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Garofalo, et al., would have us withhold any hasty judgments until "further inspections are given a chance".

Posted by ColoradoConservative 2003-04-17 11:08:19|| 2003-04-17 11:08:19|| Front Page Top

#2 I followed the link and saw that yes, indeed, the BBC used scare quotes around the words "mass grave." I'm floored. A good definition of mass grave exists: a pit containing some quantity of dead humans greater than some arbitrary amount. There might be some quibbling if there were only three bodies in the pit. I think that 2000 bodies certainly fits the definition unless you were an Einsatzgruppe commander. In which case, you might think that 2000 executed humans in a pit was merely an amateur effort.

It seems to me that by using the scare quotes, the BBC is trying to convince its readers that it is not a propaganda organ for the US and its own government. In fact it is further dishonoring the dead who were already descecrated when their lives were so brutally ended.

Posted by 11A5S 2003-04-17 13:16:11|| 2003-04-17 13:16:11|| Front Page Top

#3 Mass graves, continuing rumors about chemical capable munitions, buried prisons, ghsatly stories about rape and torture - let's see i guess we should have listened to the French weasels, CNN, Hollywood elite and congressional democrats to give the inspectors another ten twelve years.

One question: Will we remember this time just how flawed their rhethoric and thinking has been?

Posted by Douglas De Bono 2003-04-17 20:02:23|| [www.douglasdebono.com] 2003-04-17 20:02:23|| Front Page Top

#4 Saw Mike Farrel on t.v.the other day whining about the backlash Hollywood is getting,crying that Hollywood stars have a right to voice thier opinions.They certainly do have that right just as we have the right to make the publicity seeking has-beens accept the repercusions of thier positions(on thier knees).

Posted by raptor 2003-04-18 09:37:10|| 2003-04-18 09:37:10|| Front Page Top

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