Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Sunday Morning
Iraqis Uncover Mass Graves
Aired May 04, 2003 - 10:01 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The new Iraq, another testament to Saddam Hussein's bloody and brutal rule. Iraqis are now unearthing dozens of mass graves in south central Iraq. It appears the victims were executed during a 1991 uprising against Saddam's government. CNN's Rym Brahimi has more on those very disturbing discoveries -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, indeed, this mass grave appears to have been discovered some time yesterday evening. It is located not far from the holy city of Najaf in the south and that was one of the places where there was this uprising in 1991 against the regime following the 1991 Gulf War and it was a very, very brutally repressed uprising with the massacres from what people say.
It appears that -- that's the bodies in that mass grave come from that, but we are waiting for more reports and more details that we will bring to you soon. That said, the Red Cross and the international committee of the Red Cross said it is looking into that, but also focusing maybe on a lot of what has happened during this conflict and they are saying they are finding a lot of mass or shallow graves here and there. One thing that the Red Cross official I spoke to said was "Everybody seems to be missing someone in this country. Everybody seems to be looking for somebody."
That said, signs that life is gradually returning to normal are being seen here and there in Baghdad. One of those places is the marketplace, the Copper Souk (ph), the old Copper Market (ph), where shopkeepers are gradually opening up their stores encouraged by the site of the little more security from what they say. Here is how one of the vendors that we spoke to put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): No one was open during the war. But last week, people started coming to reopen their shops here. So, we opened up our shops, one at a time. Each shop owner, encouraged by his neighbor to open, because it is safer when a lot of shops are open. Day by day, we feel safer as more shops open."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: There is also some places, Anderson, where there is a lot of frustration. One of those places are the gas stations where people are lining up in very long queues to trying to fill up their cars, basically. And what is happening is, there are a lot of big, big lines. People line up in the gas stations where there are five lines of cars to fill up and one line for people to just fill up their jerry cans. And then what they do is they actually take their jerry cans and go and sell their gas at three times the price at another street corner, and so that creates a lot of resentment and a lot of frustration, so that is why you might see a lot of tension here and there still in the streets of Baghdad -- Anderson.
COOPER: Rym, the shopkeeper you talked to talked about fear. Is it fear of looting or fear of former Ba'ath party people out there?
BRAHIMI: In the case of the shopkeepers, that would be mostly fear of looting, really, or fear of bandits, people that would come with arms because there are still a lot of people with weapons, a lot of weapons running around, but in the case of many people actually that are not necessarily shop vendors, there still is the fear that there are remnants of the Ba'ath party and people would still try to reclaim, maybe, some ground either through guerrilla warfare or one way or another. So, those fears are very, very present. Because there still is a power vacuum, because there is no government and no authority telling them that things are OK and that somebody else is in charge, I think that raises a lot of questions still among the inhabitants here.
COOPER: All right. Understood. Rym Brahimi in Baghdad thanks very much.
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 May 4, 2003 - 10:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The new Iraq, another testament to Saddam Hussein's bloody and brutal rule. Iraqis are now unearthing dozens of mass graves in south central Iraq. It appears the victims were executed during a 1991 uprising against Saddam's government. CNN's Rym Brahimi has more on those very disturbing discoveries -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, indeed, this mass grave appears to have been discovered some time yesterday evening. It is located not far from the holy city of Najaf in the south and that was one of the places where there was this uprising in 1991 against the regime following the 1991 Gulf War and it was a very, very brutally repressed uprising with the massacres from what people say.
It appears that -- that's the bodies in that mass grave come from that, but we are waiting for more reports and more details that we will bring to you soon. That said, the Red Cross and the international committee of the Red Cross said it is looking into that, but also focusing maybe on a lot of what has happened during this conflict and they are saying they are finding a lot of mass or shallow graves here and there. One thing that the Red Cross official I spoke to said was "Everybody seems to be missing someone in this country. Everybody seems to be looking for somebody."
That said, signs that life is gradually returning to normal are being seen here and there in Baghdad. One of those places is the marketplace, the Copper Souk (ph), the old Copper Market (ph), where shopkeepers are gradually opening up their stores encouraged by the site of the little more security from what they say. Here is how one of the vendors that we spoke to put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): No one was open during the war. But last week, people started coming to reopen their shops here. So, we opened up our shops, one at a time. Each shop owner, encouraged by his neighbor to open, because it is safer when a lot of shops are open. Day by day, we feel safer as more shops open."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: There is also some places, Anderson, where there is a lot of frustration. One of those places are the gas stations where people are lining up in very long queues to trying to fill up their cars, basically. And what is happening is, there are a lot of big, big lines. People line up in the gas stations where there are five lines of cars to fill up and one line for people to just fill up their jerry cans. And then what they do is they actually take their jerry cans and go and sell their gas at three times the price at another street corner, and so that creates a lot of resentment and a lot of frustration, so that is why you might see a lot of tension here and there still in the streets of Baghdad -- Anderson.
COOPER: Rym, the shopkeeper you talked to talked about fear. Is it fear of looting or fear of former Ba'ath party people out there?
BRAHIMI: In the case of the shopkeepers, that would be mostly fear of looting, really, or fear of bandits, people that would come with arms because there are still a lot of people with weapons, a lot of weapons running around, but in the case of many people actually that are not necessarily shop vendors, there still is the fear that there are remnants of the Ba'ath party and people would still try to reclaim, maybe, some ground either through guerrilla warfare or one way or another. So, those fears are very, very present. Because there still is a power vacuum, because there is no government and no authority telling them that things are OK and that somebody else is in charge, I think that raises a lot of questions still among the inhabitants here.
COOPER: All right. Understood. Rym Brahimi in Baghdad thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
