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Dear all I am fully persuaded that mass graves exist, mainly because, as I have said in one of the introductions to the News Mailings, I don't see how the Iraqi state could have regained control of the country in the circumstances created by us in 1991 without using very brutal means. But that having been said, Tom is right to raise the question. In theory nothing should be easier than to create a case against Saddam Hussein's government for human rights violations. But the people who have an interest in doing it have not been doing it very well. We get a lot of unsubstantiated accusations. I've no reason to disbelieve them but it makes a big contrast to the care CASI always used to take in presenting the case against sanctions. I think in particular that the Iraqi Prospect Organisation has been disappointing in this regard. The last time I visited the Indict website it did seem to be amassing a detailed case, but it took them a very long time before they really started to get down to it. I also think Tom is right to raise the question of the killing of Uday and Qusay Hussein. It seems to touch the wilder realms of conspiracy theory to suggest that these were faked but I can't help wondering what happened to the DNA tests. We were told that we were going to have the results of independent DNA tests and then instead we got the photographs, which, as everyone knows, don't prove anything. Though once we're in this territory how could ever trust the people who said the DNA tests were genuine?! Best wishes Peter > From: do227@cam.ac.uk > Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 16:56:36 -0000 > To: casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk > Subject: Re: [casi] List of mass grave sites in Iraq with sources > > > Tom, > This document is a compilation of media reports by a group of > Archaeologists for Human Rights. The fact that they only list one source is > most likely because they aren't able to read and list every account in > every media source. In fact, any count based on media sources is likely to > be far lower than the reality, in the same way as the number of war deaths > at iraq body count is probably far lower than the number who died in the > war. Journalists don't record everything! > > Also, as Colin and others have pointed out, there can be no doubt that > Saddam killed many, many people. And I'm fairly dubious about how deeply > you can analyse news photographs. Not only is it very hard to tell whether > a photo was faked by looking at it without any idea of the context, but, at > least in my experience, journalists 'arrange' and 'improve' photographs in > all kinds of ways, but very rarely completely fake something with no > connection to reality. I just don't believe that significant numbers of > journalists are faking mass graves that aren't there. > > If you really want to know what's going on, I'd suggest getting in touch > with somebody at Amnesty or Human Rights Watch rather than trying to > extrapolate from the media. UN investigations I don't know about - anyone > following what they're doing? > > Dan > > --On 26 October 2003 11:09 -0400 Tom Young <tombo_combo@lycos.com> wrote: > >> www.afhr.org/download/english.pdf >> >> Useful resource for people interested in the subject. >> >> Many seem to be based on a single media report with no follow up. Is >> there any UN organisation visiting these sites and giving detailed >> reports on what is found? >> >> >> >> ____________________________________________________________ >> Enter for a chance to win one year's supply of allergy relief! >> http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;6413623;3807821;f?http://mocda3.com/1/c/563 >> 632/125699/307982/307982 This offer applies to U.S. Residents Only >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. >> To unsubscribe, visit >> http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the >> list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are >> archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. > To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss > To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk > All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk > _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk