Mass Graves

During yesterday's session of Saddam Hussein's trial the first eyewitness for a mass grave of Kurdish people in Western Iraq, during the Saddam's crackdown on Kurds insurgency, took the stand on condition of anonymity.

The witness described how he, and other Kurdish people, were driven through unpaved roads to Iraq's western desert.

Quote:

"We heard screaming and gunfire but it was far from us.

One of the detainees told us to recite the Shahada (Muslim declaration of faith) and ask for forgiveness as we are going to die in few minutes."

The witness went on to say that he tried to run away, but that he fell into a ditch full of bodies. As he continued to make good his escape, he said that he saw many ditches full of bodies in the desert.

A second anonymous Kurdish witness said that Iraqi soldiers took detainees, including himself, to the desert and attempted to execute them.

Quote:

"They put us, altogether 34 persons, in vehicles. We had thought they would take us back home, but they took us to the south and we were blindfolded.

We didn't know where exactly we were taking to until our vehicles arrived at an area where we could heard the shovels burying bodies who were executed before."

The witness was wounded, and several other detainees were killed, when they attacked the guards who opened fire on them.

The witness added:

"After cease-fire I ran for twenty minutes until I reached a camp."

Chief Judge Muhammed Ureiby then adjourned the court until today.