BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein's forces buried a Kurdish
family alive in a mass grave during a military operation against ethnic Kurds in
the 1980s, a Kurdish woman told the genocide trial of the ousted Iraqi leader on
Monday.
The court also heard grim testimony about conditions at Nugrat Salman, a
desert prison facility in southern Iraq, where poor food and polluted water
caused many Kurds who had been rounded up and sent there to fall ill and die.
Two of the four witnesses to testify on Monday spoke about a black dog that
dug up and ate the bodies of dead prisoners, and one told how prison guards
forced women, including young girls, to bathe in front of them while shooting
over their heads.
They were the latest to take the stand to testify about Saddam's 1988 Anfal
(Spoils of War) campaign against the Kurds in northern Iraq, in which
prosecutors say tens of thousands were killed in poison gas attacks, bombings or
executed.
"I know the fate of my family. They were buried alive," one Kurdish woman
told the court. "I would like to ask Saddam a question: 'What was the guilt of
women and children?'".
The court heard that identity cards belonging to five of her sisters had been
found in mass graves in Samawa in south Iraq.
The woman did not say how she knew her family was buried alive, but U.S.-led
forensic experts have said some victims unearthed from mass graves were still
alive when they were buried, despite having been shot, most of them at close
range.
Thousands of Kurds, including many women and children, were taken from their
villages, executed and then dumped in mass graves in northern and southern Iraq,
prosecutors say.
Saddam's trial resumed on Monday after a two-week break. Chaos reigned at the
previous session, when Saddam was repeatedly ejected from the courtroom and his
lawyers walked out over the sacking of the chief judge.
Saddam and his six co-accused were present on Monday, but their defence team
continued to boycott the trial in protest at the government's dismissal of chief
judge Abdullah al-Amiri for saying Saddam was "not a dictator".
Legal rights groups have said the dismissal could hurt the trial's
credibility.
WAR CRIMES, GENOCIDE
Saddam, 69, his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, and five former commanders face
charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in Anfal that
prosecutors say left 182,000 ethnic Kurds dead or missing.
They all face the death penalty if found guilty. Saddam and his cousin, known
as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged use of poison gas, face the additional, graver
charge of genocide.
In an earlier hearing, Saddam defended his policy of crushing Kurdish rebels
in the 1980s as his Sunni-led government fought a war against neighbouring
Shi'ite Iran, accusing them of being "agents of Iran and Zionism".
The first witness said the Iraqi army burned her village in April 1988 and
arrested her along with eight members of her family. While in prison, she said
the women were forced to shower in front of soldiers. She was 13 years old at
the time.
"I saw with my own eyes many people, including a child, who died because of
shortages of food and polluted water," she said.
A second witness, Abdul-Hadi Abdullah Mohammed, a farmer wearing traditional
Kurdish dress, said he had not seen his pregnant wife, mother, two brothers and
two sisters, and four of their children since Iraqi forces destroyed his village
in 1988.
He later learnt that his mother had fallen ill and died in Nugrat Salman,
while the identity cards of one sister and a brother had been found in mass
graves in Samawa.
He said his mother-in-law, who was also detained, told him his mother's body
had been dug up and eaten by the black dog, which also featured in the first
witness's testimony.
An elderly Kurdish woman who did not want to be identified said her year-old
daughter had died in prison while her two sons had disappeared, believed buried
in mass graves. Her husband had "lost his mind" after being detained in Nugrat
Salman, she said.
Saddam is awaiting a verdict in a separate trial for the deaths of Shi'ite
villagers killed after a failed assassination attempt on his life in 1982. The
court trying Saddam in that case is due to reconvene on October
16.
