Iraqis learn to unearth grisly past in Britain

By: Nabil Raza

LONDON, Britain: A few dozen Iraqis being trained in forensics in the British town of Bournemouth carry on their shoulders the hopes of millions of their countrymen hoping to discover the fate of relatives who disappeared under the despot regime of Saddam.

Iraq has sent 34 archaeologists, anthropologists, doctors and pathologists for training in forensics in Bournemouth, in the hope that their fellow citizens can finally get closure on killings that affected almost every Iraqi family.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of those being trained said: “We first want to give back the victims' corpses to loved ones so that they can bury them in a suitable way and start the healing process.”

The returning experts will not be required to work for those investigating crimes committed under Saddam. In practice, though, they will probably do so, as the evidence they collect serves another essential purpose in the mourning process -- bringing those responsible to justice.

For this reason the future forensic experts may be under threat from members of the former Baathist regime.

The British Foreign Office-funded training of Iraqis is due to be completed in February. It involves the excavation of dummy mass graves containing plastic skeletons of adults, children and babies.

“Simulating mass graves for training purposes has never been undertaken before,” said project coordinator Ronald Wessling. “Hopefully, excavation in Iraq will begin next year and Iraqis will be able to start to come to terms with their past.”

“The point of the project is that Iraqi experts must have the tools they need at their disposal,” said a British official in Baghdad.

Estimates of the number of those killed or who disappeared during 24 years of Saddam's rule range from 300,000 to over a million. The country is littered with mass graves containing possibly tens of thousands of bodies dumped by the regime.

Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin recently said it will take more than 30 years to find the missing, as Iraq counts only 20 forensic pathologists.

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