Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=4/30/03

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=CQ IRAQ /PRISONS (PART TWO)

NUMBER=5-53731

BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN

DATELINE=BAGHDAD, IRAQ

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

///EDS: REISSUED TO CORRECT VERBATIM IN ACTS. ///

INTRO: Now that the war is over and Saddam Hussein is out of power, Iraqis are seeking news of loved ones arrested by Saddam's regime. Many people are flocking to mosques and to a newly-formed Committee of Free Prisoners. American officials believe some of the information being gathered by the volunteer committee could be used as evidence in a future war crimes trial. In her second report on Iraq's prisoners, V-O-A correspondent Laurie Kassman talks with some families about what they learned.

TEXT: /// SOUND OF TALKING IN ARABIC ///

Iraqis line up every day at the front door of the sandy cement house on the banks of the Tigris River. Before the war the house belonged to a senior official of the ruling Baath Party. Now it is the headquarters of the Committee of Free Prisoners.

Men, women and young people hand in slips of paper with the names of a father, brother or son, mother, sister or cousin who was taken to prison and never seen again.

A volunteer inside says the group has registered more than 40-thousand names in the past two weeks.

The committee was formed after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, by former prisoners who retrieved more than one-million files containing the names of hundreds of thousands of prisoners, and information about what happened to them.

Some lists are taped to the wall outside, with names and dates of execution.

Two of Radia Mahdi's sons -- Bashir and Kadim -- were arrested in 1981 within six months of each other. Four days ago, she found Kadim's name on one of the lists.

/// MAHDI IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATOR///

I found his name on the list. He was executed in 1984 so I ask what cemetery he was buried. Nobody give an answer.

/// END ACT ///

Mrs. Mahdi says Kadim was 21 years old when he was arrested. He was going to be a medical doctor. She says special security forces surrounded the house and took him.

/// MAHDI IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATOR ACT TWO ///

At the time my husband was begging the security people. They told him they will bring him back after five minutes only.

/// END ACT ///

She never saw him again. Mrs. Mahdi is still searching for any news of her other son, Bashir, who was only 20 when security forces snatched him from the Baghdad university where he studied.

/// MAHDI IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATOR THREE ///

We want our sons. I want to know their fate. I want to see his body. I want to see his grave.

/// END ACT ///

Mrs. Mahdi, dressed in a long black robe, her head covered by a flowing black headscarf, says her sons were members of the outlawed Islamic Dawa Party, which had ties to Iran.

Saddam Hussein rounded up thousands of Shiite Muslims linked to the party after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran brought Shiite Muslim clerics to power there. Saddam waged war against Iran for most of the 1980s.

Another woman in the crowd, Halima Hamas, says her husband was not involved in politics at all. His only crime, she says, was stealing spare parts for his car. She says a neighbor turned him in. Her husband was arrested in 1991 and she had no news of him until four years later when another prisoner was released and told her he had seen him.

Mrs. Hamas expected her husband to return home but he never did.

/// HAMAS ARABIC AND TRANSLATION ACT ///

I was so happy that I know that my husband is alive so after one or two years going I've been disappointed.

/// END ACT ///

Her son, only a baby when his father was taken, is now 13 years old. Mrs. Hamas says he wants answers, too.

/// HAMAS ARABIC AND FADE ACT TWO///

I want to know anything about my husband. Is he dead or alive?

/// END ACT ///

It may take years to find an answer for Mrs. Hamas and Mrs. Mahdi and hundreds of thousands like her who want to know what happened to their loved ones.

U-S Army Captain John Brownlee says U-S officials want some answers too. His troops have moved hundreds of files to a guarded warehouse after committee members requested their help. The committee was afraid former Baath Party officials who could be incriminated by the evidence would try to destroy the files.

/// BROWNLEE ACT ///

The reason we had taken the documents is to secure them in a better location, as opposed to this building, which is too hard to secure. The other reason is the sheer volume of the amount of information they have. It could be Iraqis, Kuwaitis, even, our concern, Americans, as well as other Iraqis and this becomes evidence for war crimes trials for people who have committed these wrongs.

/// END ACT ///

Iraqi medical doctor Ahmed al Attar -- himself a former prisoner -- wants the documents kept to bear witness to what he calls the evils of Saddam Hussein's regime.

/// ATTAR ACT ///

We want these documents to reflect the history of the nation, the history of the people who struggled against Saddam Hussein, the history of the people who (were) killed and met with death under Saddam Hussein. That is important to give a view to the world of our nation, our struggling, our blood, our killers.

/// END ACT ///

Any "day of judgment" for those who committed crimes during Saddam's reign is still far away. For now, Iraqis like Halima Hamas and Radia Mahdi just want to know what happened to their loved ones, so they can put the past to rest and achieve some peace of mind. (Signed)

NEB/LMK/AWP/RH/FC