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SLUG: 2-303193 CQ Iraq Graves (S)
DATE:> NOTE NUMBER: |
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DATE=5/14/2003 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=CQ IRAQ / GRAVES (S) NUMBER=2-303193 BYLINE=MICHAEL DRUDGE DATELINE=MAHAWIL, IRAQ CONTENT= VOICED AT: ///// CHANGES SOUND OF FIRST ACT IN CR2-303190. ///// INTRO: Iraqi relief workers have exhumed thousands of bodies from a mass grave south of Baghdad, that human-rights workers say is one of the biggest killing fields discovered from the Saddam Hussein era. V-O-A's Michael Drudge has visited the site near the village of Mahawil and has this report. TEXT: /// SOUND OF MOURNERS /// Thousands of people are flocking to the mass grave near the southern village of Mahawil in a desperate search for missing relatives. An investigator from the Human Rights Watch organization, Peter Bouckaert, says heavy equipment used in the excavation is destroying valuable evidence. /// BOUCKAERT ACT /// Some of the bodies in this gravesite do have wallets or even passports and identification documents. Probably a tenth of people, or even less, are being identified by this way. Unfortunately, most of the people in this grave will never be identified because of the way it is dug up. /// END ACT /// Relief workers say more than 25-hundred bodies have been found, and as many at 14-thousand people may be buried at the site, victims of a 1991 crackdown by Saddam Hussein. (SIGNED). NEB/MWD/AWP/RAE |
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