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American Morning
Unmarked Graves
Aired April 18, 2003 - 07:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now on that grizzly discovery now in northern Iraq. American officials yesterday examined a tract of about 1,500 unmarked graves near the town of Kirkuk. This is Kurdish- controlled territory. Thousands of Kurdish men disappeared in that area during the rule of Saddam Hussein. There are open questions, though, as to how this came about.
Jane Arraf on the scene there as about an hour ago, and joins us now live. Good afternoon to you there in Kirkuk.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.
As you mentioned, a lot of questions and, unfortunately, not very many answers. Now this is on the edge of a military base, which is why it's prompting speculation that a lot of these people buried here may be Iraqi soldiers. We just do not know yet.
What we do know is that one of these graves was dug up, the body exhumed. Now that appeared to happen Wednesday by local people wondering if this was, in fact, this place which had been off limits for the entire reign of the Iraqi regime to local people. They were able to come here for the first time, saw all these mounds, saw all these graves and were wondering exactly what was buried here.
Now local reports say that they have taken the body of one person there. One of them was apparently a woman buried in a tracksuit. Now that's not so unusual. And in fact, local villagers tell us that the graves that we see behind us, those very formal graves all in a row, are, in fact, Christian graves. That's indicated, they say, because they know the area and you can see the half crosses on some of this concrete, another indication, as well, they say.
Now the real mystery, though, is what else is here in this huge open field just southwest of Kirkuk. Now you can see these mounds here. And what people believe is that underneath each of these is quite a shallow grave.
Again, the history of Iraq is such that there really is no way of knowing, without exhuming them all, whether this was just part of the tragic known history of this country, the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq War, the 1991 Gulf War, this latest war, the uprising in between in Kirkuk after the '91 Gulf War, all of those took what's estimated to be a million Iraqi soldiers throughout the country and some of them may very well have been hastily buried here, unknown soldiers. We just don't know -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jane, back to the point about how you got there, how they were found and located and did the Kurds talk about this location for sometime prior to, let's say, even today?
ARRAF: It's always known that this is here. This is a really huge field. You can probably get a sense of it, and it's just outside of the city. It's a huge military base as well. So this was not discovered, by any means, as a cemetery. It's always known that there was a cemetery here.
What's new is that people have been given access to it. And what's new, and probably expected, is that people are now raising all these questions that they have not been allowed to even whisper for so long saying where are our young men, where are the people who disappeared in 1991?
Now on the streets of Kirkuk after the Gulf War when the Kurds rose up, and this was predominantly a Turkish and Turkmen city, there was, people say, local people say, thousands of people who were taken by Iraqi soldiers, by Iraqi agents and disappeared, most of them Kurds and Turkmen. Now their families have never known what has happened to them. The families of most of the Iraqi soldiers, most of them young men who didn't particularly want to go to war, have not known what has happened to them.
So it really is a very long process. And we're going to see a lot of this, of people finally being able to ask where are our relatives, are they dead? And if they are dead, we want to know where they are -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jane, thanks. Jane Arraf, northern Iraq, just outside the town of Kirkuk, thanks for that.
A lot of work to be done still -- Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, indeed. You want to get some closure for those families, I'm sure, who have been waiting for years for that.
All right, Bill.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 18, 2003 - 07:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now on that grizzly discovery now in northern Iraq. American officials yesterday examined a tract of about 1,500 unmarked graves near the town of Kirkuk. This is Kurdish- controlled territory. Thousands of Kurdish men disappeared in that area during the rule of Saddam Hussein. There are open questions, though, as to how this came about.
Jane Arraf on the scene there as about an hour ago, and joins us now live. Good afternoon to you there in Kirkuk.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.
As you mentioned, a lot of questions and, unfortunately, not very many answers. Now this is on the edge of a military base, which is why it's prompting speculation that a lot of these people buried here may be Iraqi soldiers. We just do not know yet.
What we do know is that one of these graves was dug up, the body exhumed. Now that appeared to happen Wednesday by local people wondering if this was, in fact, this place which had been off limits for the entire reign of the Iraqi regime to local people. They were able to come here for the first time, saw all these mounds, saw all these graves and were wondering exactly what was buried here.
Now local reports say that they have taken the body of one person there. One of them was apparently a woman buried in a tracksuit. Now that's not so unusual. And in fact, local villagers tell us that the graves that we see behind us, those very formal graves all in a row, are, in fact, Christian graves. That's indicated, they say, because they know the area and you can see the half crosses on some of this concrete, another indication, as well, they say.
Now the real mystery, though, is what else is here in this huge open field just southwest of Kirkuk. Now you can see these mounds here. And what people believe is that underneath each of these is quite a shallow grave.
Again, the history of Iraq is such that there really is no way of knowing, without exhuming them all, whether this was just part of the tragic known history of this country, the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq War, the 1991 Gulf War, this latest war, the uprising in between in Kirkuk after the '91 Gulf War, all of those took what's estimated to be a million Iraqi soldiers throughout the country and some of them may very well have been hastily buried here, unknown soldiers. We just don't know -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jane, back to the point about how you got there, how they were found and located and did the Kurds talk about this location for sometime prior to, let's say, even today?
ARRAF: It's always known that this is here. This is a really huge field. You can probably get a sense of it, and it's just outside of the city. It's a huge military base as well. So this was not discovered, by any means, as a cemetery. It's always known that there was a cemetery here.
What's new is that people have been given access to it. And what's new, and probably expected, is that people are now raising all these questions that they have not been allowed to even whisper for so long saying where are our young men, where are the people who disappeared in 1991?
Now on the streets of Kirkuk after the Gulf War when the Kurds rose up, and this was predominantly a Turkish and Turkmen city, there was, people say, local people say, thousands of people who were taken by Iraqi soldiers, by Iraqi agents and disappeared, most of them Kurds and Turkmen. Now their families have never known what has happened to them. The families of most of the Iraqi soldiers, most of them young men who didn't particularly want to go to war, have not known what has happened to them.
So it really is a very long process. And we're going to see a lot of this, of people finally being able to ask where are our relatives, are they dead? And if they are dead, we want to know where they are -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jane, thanks. Jane Arraf, northern Iraq, just outside the town of Kirkuk, thanks for that.
A lot of work to be done still -- Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, indeed. You want to get some closure for those families, I'm sure, who have been waiting for years for that.
All right, Bill.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
