Crucial evidence for the forthcoming trials of Saddam Hussein and other senior Iraqi officials is likely to have been lost or tainted because United States-led forces have failed to safeguard official documents and the remains of victims in mass graves, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch says in a report out on Thursday.
In the months after the invasion, they failed to stop people looting thousands of official documents, or to stop relatives of ”disappeared” persons from digging up remains found in some mass grave sites, according to the report, titled Iraq: The State of the Evidence.
The invading forces subsequently failed to put in place the professional expertise and help necessary to ensure proper classification and exhumation procedures. As a result, it was very likely that key evidence had been lost or tainted.
The report was a timely reminder, on the day George Bush’s re-election was confirmed, of the major headaches that lie in wait in Iraq.
On Thursday night, US aircraft and tanks launched their biggest raid in weeks on Fallujah, hinting at the promised offensive to come.
Further south, British forces were once again targeted by Iraqi rebel rockets at their new base south-west of Baghdad, as the final convoy of the redeployed Black Watch battle group moved into position. No casualties were reported.
More than 250 mass graves have been identified in the past 18 months, some of which contain the remains of thousands of victims of Saddam Hussein’s rule, Human Rights Watch says.
Key archival and forensic evidence is missing, the report says. ”A key to the success of any trials will be the availability of solid documentary and forensic evidence,” says the report.
”Witness testimonies are usually the ballast of a prosecutor’s case involving mass murder. But such testimonies hold greatest weight if they are supported by physical and documentary evidence.”
After the invasion, former Iraqi officials left behind volumes of official papers documenting criminal policies and practices. But neither these, nor relevant sites, were protected.
The report adds: ”The findings are all the more disturbing against the backdrop of a tribunal established to bring justice for serious past crimes.” Human Rights Watch says it is seriously concerned that the tribunal is fundamentally flawed and may be incapable of delivering justice.
”Given what’s at stake here, the extent of this negligence is alarming,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.
”US and Iraqi authorities were aware that these documents and remains would be crucial to the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and other former officials, but they did little to safeguard them.”
Human Rights Watch says Iraq’s interim government should set up a joint Iraqi and international commission for missing persons and a similar body to oversee the handling of documents of the former government.
Human Rights Watch earlier this week criticised American and British troops for failing to protect weapons stores and prevent them getting into the hands of insurgents and terrorists.
Meanwhile, three headless bodies were found in central Baghdad on Thursday, an Iraqi police source said. The unidentified bodies were found beneath a suspension bridge that leads across the Tigris river into the Green Zone, which is the seat of the Iraqi interim government and also houses the US and British embassies.
It is not known if the bodies were those of Iraqis or of any of the two dozen foreign hostages missing in Iraq.
Al-Jazeera television said on Thursday that a militant group had beheaded three Iraqi national guards the militants accused of spying for US troops in Iraq.
A US embassy spokesperson said he had no information about the three bodies found in Baghdad.
Hungary and the Netherlands said they would withdraw their troops from the US-led multinational force in March. Bulgaria said it would cut its military presence by 10%. – Guardian Unlimited Â