'What fault did my son have?'

2003-03-31 19:36

Beatriz Lecumberri

Umm Qasr - Eight Iraqis stand weeping unconsolably next to an empty coffin and a hastily dug grave on the side of the highway leading from Umm Qasr to Basra.

Inside the shallow hole, limbs askew, lies the decomposing body of Bassem Abdu Zara, killed by British troops last week as he and some friends were trying to flee the fighting that had engulfed southern Iraq.

"What fault did my poor son have?" sobs his elderly father, sitting impotent by the side of the road.

On the third day of the war, Bassem and 10 other people were heading north from there homes in Umm Qasr toward Basra, 55km away, thinking it would be safer up there.

Hassem Farah, one of the survivors, recalls: "British soldiers fired on us. First against the car and then, after we all got out with our hands up, they continued attacking us with machine guns."

The van exploded and caught fire. It was completely gutted.

Farah, who was wounded in the leg, was limping as he returned to the scene on Sunday to help recover the body of his friend.

He said that, beside Bassem, the driver of the van was mortally wounded. He died several hours later in hospital in Umm Qasr where other wounded among the group, including a 10-year-old girl, are being treated.

Alongside the van are the remains of a truck, also burnt out.

Inside are the skeletons of two people, who witnesses say were machine gunned before their vehicle exploded. In Umm Qasr, no one seemed to know who they were, and no one had come to reclaim their bodies.

With no chance to hold a funeral in the middle of the fighting, Bassem's friends buried him where he was killed.

As relatives and others gathered to transfer Bassem's remains into the coffin, a number of cars stopped on the road, their drivers curious to know what was happening. They were quickly waved on for fear of another attack.

Overpowering stench

A short while afterwards, a British armoured car arrives and a soldier gets out, demanding to know what these people are hiding in the hole. When he sees the answer, he sombrely withdraws, his head hanging.

"It's obvious they weren't soldiers," the Iraqis say. "Why did they kill them?"

They were digging as they spoke, first with shovels and then with their hands. As their work proceeded, the stench became overpowering, and they had to put perfume under their noses and cover their faces to keep from vomiting.

Finally, the body appears, unrecognisable, and his friends retrieve it with the help of ropes. The men kneel and weep. A child sitting inside the vehicle that brought them watches on impassively.

"This country didn't need this war; we were better without them," one of the men says as Bassem's body is wrapped in plastic and placed in the wooden coffin, which is hoisted on to the roof of the car.

"He was 30 years old. He only got married four months ago. We were all so happy," his father says, wiping the tears from his eyes as he leaves. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA