HOLY NAJAF, Iraq: Iraqi officials paid tribute to victims of
Saddam's repression on Wednesday, but fell short of meeting relatives'
demands for compensation and DNA tests to identify thousands of bodies
discovered in mass graves.
Saddam's government brutally put down a Shi'ite uprising (intifadha
shabaniyah) in 1991, and relatives of the victims marched in the holy
city of Najaf this week demanding compensation and DNA tests.
"The bodies of those most beloved and dear buried in this land will be
the seeds of blessing," Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd,
told a conference called to commemorate the victims.
Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi called for "real procedures to
ensure the care and support of the families of the martyrs in mass
graves, to have access to schools, health care, travel and government
posts."
"We will avenge those martyrs when we establish a constitutional and
democratic state aimed at safeguarding the people rather than
officials," he said.
After the fall of Saddam in 2003, investigators discovered dozens of
mass graves containing thousands of decayed bodies, mainly victims of
Saddam's crackdown on Shi'ites during an uprising that followed the
1991 Gulf War.
New York-based human rights group Human Rights Watch estimates some
290,000 people disappeared under Saddam, many of them murdered and
heaped in ditches.
Family members buried scores of empty coffins on Tuesday in a
ceremonial tribute to the victims.
Women in black robes knelt by the empty coffins silently clutching
photographs of their missing relatives while an honour guard of Iraqi
policemen held flags.
A woman who gave her name as Umm Ali, 68, carried photographs of seven
sons, all killed during the uprising. She said she has worn black
robes of mourning since 1991.
"I lost my seven sons. The government and (Prime Minister) Nuri al-Maliki
should help me," she said, weeping.
"I gave up the blood of my sons for the sake of a better Iraq and
better future. But now I cannot find anyone who will support me. I
live on handouts.
"If my seven sons were still alive, they would not leave me dependent
on others for a crust of bread."
