Iraq to open center for identifying bodies in mass graves

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2005

AMMAN (AFP) — Iraq announced it plans to open a national center to track down people who went missing during the regime of Saddam Hussein and to identify tens of thousands of bodies discovered in mass graves since his overthrow.

Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin also reiterated an appeal for international help in identifying bodies found in mass graves, saying his country lacked the necessary expertise.

"We have located 290 mass graves, but our technical equipment and scientific forensic knowledge is very weak... we do not have DNA labs, and also we do not have sufficient number of forensic pathologists," Amin told AFP in Amman.

The graves uncovered since Saddam's downfall in April 2003 contain the bodies of 300,000 people believed to have been...