Saddam's Treblinka

In 1997 I visited Poland, and our group went to Treblinka. It operated for less than a year and a half, and killed at least 700,000 people--mostly Jews--during that time.

In order to keep the arriving prisoners under control, the Nazis told them they were being relocated and to bring their belongings with them on the trains. When the Jews arrived at Treblinka, they saw what looked like a train station. But when they went through the station doors, the Nazis were there to separate the men from the women and children, force the prisoners to leave all their belongings, strip, and be led to the "infirmary" to be gassed to death.

The hearts of evil men are often the same.

The AP reported yesterday that a mass grave had been found in Iraq, dating from the 1980s, when Saddam ruled. The unusual find in this grave was identification hidden in some of the victims' clothing.

David Hines, who compiles reports on the mass graves, noted that there is a site in southern Iraq where 114 people _ mostly women and children _ were found shot to death. Their remains, he said, make them posthumous witnesses.

"We take great pains not to lose sight that these are all people, these all have a story," Hines said. "What we have is 114 cases of murder."

The site, dubbed Muthanna 2, is at the center of the Anfal case, in which Kurds were told they were being relocated to the south but then were gathered into ravines and raked with gunfire.

Several of the women were pregnant and others collapsed while holding children. The skeletal hand of one woman was found in a baby blanket that also contained the remains of a baby. (emphasis added)

The Anfal case is scheduled to be Saddam's second trial.

"When we first started, we didn't think we'd find any IDs," said Michael "Sonny" Trimble, a 53-year-old forensic archaeologist from Missouri who is the director of the Iraqi Mass Graves Team.

Trimble said about 12 percent of the individuals found so far had IDs, despite witness claims that Saddam's forces had demanded the documents. He said some women hid them in secret pockets or sewed them inside several layers of clothing.

"So from a criminal case standpoint i think we have a lot of very good data that the Iraq criminal justice system will use later on to present in court," he said.

The chief investigative judge in Saddam Hussein's trial, Raid Juhi, said the IDs were key to allowing investigators to go to the area where they were issued and collect witness accounts. "It gave us more evidence," he said.

Like Treblinka, Anfal reveals the extent to which genocidal dictators will go. To ship the Kurds all the way to the south of Iraq before killing them... well, "premeditated" isn't a severe enough description.

Saddam should die--horribly--for what he did to the Iraqi people. But even a horrible death wouldn't be as much as he deserves.