May 10, 2004
Does Fallujah cemetery qualify as mass grave?
Angry Fallujans Prepared to Resist Renewed U.S. Patrols
by Dahr Jamail
[Excerpts]
Fallujah, Iraq , May 9 -
A defiant mood persists throughout much of this Sunni Muslim city 60 kilometers West of Baghdad, whose residents had to bury nearly 500 of their dead in a soccer stadium at the height of last month’s incursions by US troops. Residents explained that these hasty burials were made necessary by the Marines having taken control of the city’s main cemetery.
Residents said over half of the dead are women, children, and elderly men. They further pointed out that not all of the military age males were fighters.
Gravestones in the new "Martyrs’ Cemetery," as locals have dubbed the field, seem to confirm this proportion. Many of them are smaller graves, home to the bodies of children. Several plots, bearing only basic descriptions of their residents, contain the bodies of people buried before they could be identified. One gravestone reads, "Old man wearing jacket with black dishdasha, near industrial center. He has a key in his hand."
"Man wearing red track suit," a different marker says. Still another inscription reads, "Three women killed in car by missile while leaving city."
Some bodies were being brought to the makeshift cemetery for reburial as late as this week, having already been buried once in a garden or lawn elsewhere in the city. In many cases, people say they were unable to bring their dead to the graveyard as American snipers shot seemingly anyone who moved about the streets of Fallujah.
Posted by jules_siegel at May 10, 2004 10:32 AM | TrackBack