By Fuad Othman
Coinciding with the commemoration of National Mass Graves Day in Iraq, Diaa Karim, Director of the Department of Mass Graves Affairs and Protection at the Martyrs Foundation, announced today the commencement of excavation and opening operations for seven mass graves in Anbar Governorate. Carried out in cooperation with relevant authorities, Karim noted that these graves date back to the 1980s, containing victims executed by the former regime while handcuffed and blindfolded.
The Director highlighted the entities participating in the process, which include the Department of Mass Graves, the Medico-Legal Directorates in Baghdad and Erbil, and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).
In a statement to the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), the Martyrs Foundation official explained that specialized teams have begun opening the seven graves as a preliminary step to exhuming the remains. These will be transferred to the Medico-Legal Directorate for laboratory testing and DNA analysis to accurately determine the identities of the victims.
Furthermore, he indicated that the work is not limited to excavation alone but extends to technical tasks involving the analysis of aerial imagery and field surveys conducted by specialized archaeological teams to uncover any other potential sites that may contain additional mass graves.
Karim concluded his statement by saying: “Recorded evidence and clues confirm that the executions and liquidations at these sites occurred at varying intervals, beginning in the early 1980s and continuing until the end of that decade.” He emphasized that all documents and remains will be submitted as part of integrated legal files to the competent courts to ensure the prosecution of perpetrators and hold those involved in these crimes accountable.
For his part, Mr. Dhurgham Al-Mahmoud Al-Husseini, Head of Search and Excavation in the Mass Graves Team at the Federal Martyrs Foundation, provided statistics regarding the victims. He stated: “Regarding the graves of the victims of the former regime, there are 30 sites, and work is underway to open the remaining ones. As for the victims of terrorism, there are 24 graves, 10 of which have been opened while 14 remain. To date, 268 sets of remains have been recovered and referred to the Medico-Legal Directorate for genetic matching.”
Note: This text is translated from the original Arabic version… Read the Arabic version: Click here
