Mass graves must be preserved as evidence, Says Clwyd
7:43pm (UK)~ June 1, 2003
By Vanessa Allen, PA News
news.scotsman.com
Mass grave sites in Iraq must be preserved for possible use in war crimes trials, Tony Blair’s special envoy to Iraq on human rights said today.
Ann Clwyd visited one of the largest mass graves found so far in Iraq, ou
Mass Grave Sites ‘Must Be Preserved as Evidence’tside the city of Hilla, with British forensic experts who are teaching Iraqis how to preserve evidence.
“It’s important that the evidence is preserved,” the Labour MP for Cynon Valley, south Wales, told the BBC.
She said it was vital that such sites were protected from ordinary Iraqis searching for their missing family members.
“It’s understandable that people want to come and find out whether the bodies of their relatives are here, but they also should be told that, at the same time, they might be destroying evidence,” she said.
But she insisted the coalition were trying to protect suspected mass grave sites.
“It’s only seven weeks since the end of the war. The coalition are making every effort to make sure (preserving sites is) being done in a proper way,” she said.
“What is being put in place now is a system that will ensure the evidence contained within them may be used some time in future at a war crimes trial against some of the people who perpetrated these terrible atrocities.” |
