Families of grave victims seek compensation

Relatives of the victims found in a mass grave discovered in the city of Talafar in early November are calling for compensation, particularly for those who have left orphans and widows behind. “We want justice,” urged Kadham Abbas, a 34-year old cousin of one of the victims found in the improvised gravesite. “We know we can’t bring back our loved ones or find those who killed them, but the government has to help.” The mass grave, which contained 56 mostly beheaded and burnt bodies, was found in an empty house in the city of Talafar, 418 kilometres northwest of the capital, Baghdad, during military operations in the area. According to local Iraqi military sources, the house had been occupied by “terrorists” since July 2005, when local people appealed to the government for action against alleged insurgents occupying much of the town. On 6 November, US forces raided the house to find it piled with the corpses of Talafar locals, although empty of any living inhabitants. Demonstrators turned out on the city’s streets Friday, carrying pictures of victims and urging the Iraqi government and the US military to help the families of those found killed. “My husband was discovered in a mass grave while my father and mother were killed months ago in military operations,” said Mariam Zeid, 41, a Shi’ite widow who participated in the protest. “Now I’m alone, with five sons to look after,” she added. Salim Hani, 43, a friend of several victims’ families, said: “Some of these people have four or five children to look after, and have no one to help them now.” According to Iraqi military officials that took part in the operation leading to the grim discovery, most of the bodies found belonged to local Shi’ite residents of Talafar who had been kidnapped in recent months. “Some were disfigured,” said Sgt. Col. Hassan al-Shekly, who participated in the raid alongside American troops. “It would have been impossible to identify them without the help of the families.” Iraqi and US military forces in the area, along with some local witnesses, maintain that the victims had been killed by insurgents. Officials from the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights stated they would look into the circumstances surrounding the mass grave. They added, however, that the macabre discovery was only one example of hundreds of Iraqis to have been killed by insurgents fighting US troops and their Iraqi government allies. “We hope that every Iraqi who lost a relative will be compensated,” said Saleh Ahmed, a senior ministry official. “But with the current security situation and huge expenditures on military actions, this remains out of the question for the time being.” Meanwhile, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) declared that the discovery of the mass grave testified to the dire state of human rights countrywide. “People are dying everywhere because there’s no common ground between the government, the army and the local people,” said IRCS spokeswoman Ferdous al-Abadi. Around 500 families from Talafar remain displaced. Even with a ceasefire currently in place, they are still afraid to return, complaining that insurgents have begun returning to the area. The city is mostly inhabited by Turkmen Shi’ites, along with a sizable minority of Arabs.