Iraq prepares 13,000 graves for victims of Baath-era crimes
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq’s Medico-Legal Directorate is holding around 13,000 sets of remains recovered from mass graves across the country, while forensic authorities prepare the same number of graves to bury the victims after DNA identification procedures are completed, a source told Shafaq News on Saturday.
The Iraqi Center for Documenting Crimes of Extremism held a scientific conference titled “Mass Graves… Living Testimonies to the Crimes of the Baathist Regime,” focused on documenting historical violations and promoting transitional justice efforts.
Abbas al-Quraishi, the head of the center, told Shafaq News that the event brought together researchers and specialists in history, law, and human rights to examine “one of the darkest chapters in Iraq’s modern history.”
Participants also noted that systematic repression under the Baathist regime targeted broad segments of Iraqi society, particularly Shiites, Kurds, Feyli Kurds, and Shiite Turkmen, alongside other religious and sectarian communities subjected to arbitrary detention, forced displacement, enforced disappearance, and mass killings.
According to Iraq’s Martyrs Foundation and United Nations reports, more than 200 mass grave sites have been identified across Iraq, many dating back to the Baath era, including graves linked to the 1988 Anfal campaign against Kurds, the 1991 Shaaban uprising, and crackdowns on political opponents during the 1980s.
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