Faded ID cards, clothes from mass graves offer rare clues as Iraqis
seek missing loved ones
BAGHDAD (AP) -
The red-and-white identification card was faded. But the name was
legible and the picture of the man with the necktie and tidy mustache
was clear.
Rashid Aboud Awad, who worked in a medicine storage facility in
Ramadi, was last seen alive by his wife and children when he went off
swimming in nearby Lake Tharthar, once Saddam Hussein's favorite fishing
spot and more recently part of an al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold west of
Baghdad.
Awad's remains were discovered last week in a mass grave along with
more than 20 other bodies near the manmade lake surrounded by rugged and
sun-bleached scrubland. More than 150 bodies have been unearthed in
recent months from mass graves around Lake Tharthar. It Is seen as the
grisly legacy of al-Qaida control of Iraq's western deserts until being
ousted early this year in an uprising by local tribes. The revolt was
spurred - at least in part - by their claims of extremist brutalities.
Each mass grave uncovered around Tharthar and elsewhere in Iraq - so
far at least 12 burial sites - appears to offer more evidence of the
fate of Iraqis who challenged al-Qaida and its backers.
Al-Qaida is not alone in being accused of atrocities following the
fall of Saddam Hussein. Shiite death squads and others have taken
thousands of lives in Iraq's sectarian meltdown.
But the mass graves now turning up in former al-Qaida territory help
explain the decision by Sunni tribal leaders to fight back. U.S. and
Iraqi commanders say the groundswell helped drive al-Qaida from the
belts around Baghdad and forced extremists to hunt for new havens in
northern Iraq.
Awad's Health Ministry ID card, which expired April 1, was a rare
solid lead to confirm the name of a body found in a mass grave.
His relatives recognized pieces of his clothing, a hospital official
said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
It was unclear when Awad died, but experts said it appeared to be less
than a year ago - suggesting he was killed early in 2007.
Of the 23 sets of remains in the grave, authorities were able to
identify only Awad and two others. That's typical in Iraq, where
officials usually lack such forensics aids as DNA and dental records.
In the vast majority of missing person cases in Iraq, families are
left guessing forever about what happened. Whenever she hears that a
mass grave has been found, Madiha al-Ani, a 75-year-old resident of
Fallujah, dispatches relatives to the hospital to search for signs of
her son who vanished en route home from Baghdad in February 2006. She
always hopes they will come back empty-handed so she can maintain the
belief that he's alive.
"I am an old woman and Ali was my only son. I have the feeling that
someday he will return to his mother," she said. Sajad Majid, a
16-year-old who lives south of Baghdad near Youssifiyah, said his uncle
disappeared more than two years ago while returning home from his barber
shop. Five months later, Majid's father went to investigate a report
that a mass grave in nearby Radwaniyah could contain his uncle's remains
- only to be kidnapped himself. "I have not seen them since," the
teenager said. "We have lost any hope of finding them alive. The only
thing we can hope for is to bury the bodies."
Iraqi security forces have taken advantage of recent security gains
to step up patrols in areas previously considered no-go zones, leading
to the discovery of bodies near Lake Tharthar as well as in the volatile
Diyala province and the Baghdad neighborhoods of Dora and Fadhl.
The mass grave found Dec. 2 near Lake Tharthar was one of 12
unearthed since May containing the remains of at least 287 people,
according to an Associated Press tally based on police and U.S. military
reports. Six of the graves containing the remains of more than half of
the victims, 157, were found in the vicinity of Lake Tharthar, the AP
tally showed.
"Fishermen and farmers have started to inform the police about
bodies, then the police transfer them to the Fallujah General Hospital,"
the hospital official said.
Sixteen corpses - 12 decapitated and four shot in the head - were
found Wednesday by Iraqi soldiers investigating a foul smell while on
patrol in a lush grove of date palms and fruit trees near the Diyala
province city of Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of
Baghdad, the Iraqi army said.
Still, the numbers of bodies found are a fraction of the estimated
375,000 Iraqis who have vanished as a result of checkpoint kidnappings
and other violence by Sunni and Shiite extremists.
And even when bodies are found, most are in an advanced state of
decomposition.
An official at the Muqdadiyah morgue, who declined to be identified
for fear of reprisals, said the facility has no modern technology to
identify the remains found Wednesday. He said the bodies were decomposed
beyond recognition. Instead, authorities take pictures of each body and
assign it a serial number in case relatives come forward.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is providing training
and equipment for body identification, but it Is a slow process. Dr.
Maximo Duque, a forensics adviser for the ICRC, said the daily hazards
and inconveniences of life in Iraq complicate the training. "It is not
easy," he said by telephone from Amman, Jordan. "We can help in
providing the material but sometimes they don't have the electricity."
Regional hospitals often lack X-ray machines and dental records,
which are commonly used for identification in developed countries. The
country has only one DNA testing facility, in Baghdad. |