Weak financial allocations hinder the closure of the mass graves file

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[size=52]Weak financial allocations hinder the closure of the mass graves file[/size]

[size=45]The file of mass graves of ISIS victims in the liberated provinces comes up from time to time. Despite the passage of nearly five years since the defeat of the extremist organization, this case rivens the wounds of the victims' families every time there is news of the opening of a new cemetery.[/size]
[size=45]The last tragic scenes, represented by the recent announcement by the Civil Defense and Forensic Medicine Unit in Nineveh Governorate, the opening of a mass grave of unidentified bodies in the Al-Najjar neighborhood on the right side of the city of Mosul.[/size]
[size=45]The director of the forensic medicine department in Nineveh, Hassan Wathiq, said that "100 bodies were recovered from the mass grave that was found on the right side of the city of Mosul, including the bodies of women and young children, as well as the bodies of ISIS members."[/size]
[size=45]He added, "There are many mass graves scattered throughout Nineveh Governorate that will be opened in the coming period," noting that "the number of bodies that have been recovered since the liberation of Mosul until today is estimated at thousands."[/size]
[size=45]He described the file of mass graves as "thorny," adding, "We are working today to finish the file of the Badush prison mass cemetery, and we are preparing for the second phase of the process of opening this cemetery after completing the first phase."[/size]
[size=45]faltering activity[/size]
[size=45]The organization committed thousands of murders against Iraqi citizens, and buried them in mass graves in the governorates of Nineveh, Anbar and Salah al-Din. However, most of these graves were not opened amid conflicting statements between the concerned authorities.[/size]
[size=45]For example, ISIS, which imposed its control over Nineveh Governorate in 2014, took advantage of the "Khasfa pit", south of the city of Mosul, to liquidate its opponents and throw them into it.[/size]
[size=45]In turn, an official in the Directorate of Mass Graves said, “Most of the works in those cemeteries are stumbling, and some of them have stopped in Nineveh Governorate, due to the lack of financial allocations, and the clear lack of government interest in this file, so we resorted in many of our activities to international organizations to support the local effort. in financing the relevant teams.[/size]
[size=45]The official, who declined to be named, added in a statement to (Al-Mada) that "the directorate has a clear plan, which is based on several basic factors, and takes into account the various humanitarian aspects, in this thorny file, but it is awaiting approval of the budget, and that plan needs financial payments, To conduct the work of the competent committees, as we obtained promises from some political blocs, to follow up on the matter.”[/size]
[size=45]The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the United Nations Human Rights Office have documented 202 mass grave sites in Nineveh, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din and Anbar governorates in the northern and western parts of the country – but there may be many more than that.[/size]
[size=45]Official reports indicate that the largest number of these cemeteries is from Nineveh Governorate (95 cemeteries), followed by the governorates of Kirkuk (37 cemeteries), Salah al-Din (36 cemeteries), and Anbar (24 cemeteries). While the families of the victims are waiting for the fate of their relatives to be revealed, the Iraqi authorities still do not have a central record of the numbers of missing persons, or who has been confirmed dead and present in those many graves.[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, the families of the victims are fighting a fierce battle; Other than the battles of loss, sadness and waiting. They are forced to follow long bureaucratic procedures (reporting to more than 7 government departments), which take a long time and exhaust the families of the victims. While these families do not obtain in return any information or procedure that would reveal the fate of their children.[/size]
[size=45]Several teams and international organizations have been active in those governorates for several years, and they have taken the responsibility to open this file, such as the United Nations Investigation Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS (UNITAD), the International Commission on Missing Persons, in addition to the International Organization for Migration.[/size]
[size=45]The majority of these cemeteries are concentrated in Nineveh Governorate, specifically, in 6 main sites: Sinjar, Zummar, Qayyarah, Karaj district, Badush, and the Al-Maqala area.[/size]
[size=45]Claims to facilitate procedures[/size]
[size=45]In this context, a member of the Commission for Human Rights, Fadel Al-Gharawi, denied the existence of a real number of mass graves in Iraq, noting that research and excavations are still ongoing.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharawi said in a statement to (Al-Mada), that "there are many mass graves in the country, and the search is still underway by the specialized teams affiliated with the Martyrs Foundation in order to reach those graves and open them successively, in addition to another activity, to launch a wide campaign, It relates to the file of obtaining DNA from the families of the victims, in order to match the remains extracted from those graves.”[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that "this issue is very big, and it requires a huge effort, a special budget, and great capabilities, in matters of forensic medicine, and (DNA) laboratories, and these obstacles prevent us from completing the opening and closing of all cemeteries, and reaching the victims who were executed by ISIS in massacres." collective.”[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that "this file is considered a humanitarian file, and the government must take the lead in supporting the mass graves team, and facilitating special procedures for opening these graves and reaching the victims and their families."[/size]
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