MICHAEL APPLETON

IRAQ: MASS GRAVE

After the Shiite uprising in southern Iraq in 1991 thousands of those thought to be involved either directly or indirectly were executed by the Iraqi government. Many of these killings were carried out with mass executions where thousands of victims were blindfolded, shot, and buried. In the weeks following the fall of Baghdad Iraqis were given the opportunity to exhume the remains of family members who were killed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. In swampland on the outskirts of Hillah, Iraq lies one the largest of these mass graves. In May of 2003 the residents in the surrounding areas began the grim task of digging up and identifying those who had been murdered 12 years before.

A blindfolded human skull at a mass grave in Hillah, Iraq. Most of the hundreds of bodies found at the site were found to be blindfolded and bound.
   
Iraqis remove human remains after exhuming them from the newly discovered mass grave.
   
Local residence of Hillah look into one of the pits dug at the mass grave.
     
  
Volunteers organize the remains of executed Iraqis for waiting family members.
   
Volunteers work to identify the remains of a man.
   
A woman holds the remains of what she believes to be her son.