Sunnis bury 22 dumped bodies
2005-10-08 13:06
Baghdad, Iraq - The 22 bodies, lined up in coffins in a mosque courtyard on Friday, are as shrivelled as ancient mummies after lying a month in the desert where they were dumped, bound and bullet-ridden. They were Sunni Arabs, rounded up from their Baghdad homes one night by men in police uniforms.
Relatives and neighbours in mourning are convinced they were killed by government-linked Shi'ite death squads they say are behind corpses that turn up nearly every day in and around the capital.
At least 539 bodies have been found since Iraq's interim government was formed - according to an Associated Press count. The identities of many are unknown, but 116 are known to be Sunnis, 43 Shi'ites and one Kurd.
Both minority-Sunnis and Shi'ites accuse one another of using death squads - and the accusations are deepening the divide at a time when mistrust is already high over a new constitution that Iraqis will vote on in eight days. Shi'ites overwhelmingly support the charter, Sunnis oppose it, saying it will fragment Iraq.
Shi'ite deaths are generally attributed to Sunni insurgents, who hit Shi'ite sites with suicide attacks, bombings and shootings, but also carry out targeted slayings, leaving groups of Shi'ite bodies to be found later.
But there have been several cases of Sunni Arabs who turn up dead in large groups after being taken by men claiming to be Interior Ministry forces. The largest group of bodies found outside Baghdad was 36 Sunnis discovered in a dry riverbed near Badrah.
The grisly finds have led Sunnis to believe that Shi'ite Muslims who dominate the government and the Interior Ministry are waging a quiet, deadly campaign against them. But the Interior Ministry denies any role and blames insurgents using stolen police equipment.
On Friday, in Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque, mourners for the 22 men shouted slogans against the Badr Brigade, a Shi'ite militia linked to one of the main parties in the government, accusing them in the slayings.
The bodies were found on September 27 in the same Badrah region near the Iranian border outside the southern town of Kut, where they had lain for weeks exposed to the sun. They had been shot, some in the head. Some were blindfolded. All had their hands bound by ropes, plastic or shiny metal handcuffs.
On August 18, some 50 vehicles full of men in Interior Ministry uniforms swept into Baghdad's Iskan neighbourhood and surrounded several streets, going into houses and grabbing the 22 young men - some of them pairs of brothers, said Jamal Amin Mustafa, 60, who lives nearby.
Sheik Abdul-Salam al-Kubaisi, a prominent cleric with the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, accused the government of aiming to "liquidate Sunnis" to knock them out of the political process.
Major General Adnan Thabit, the commander of the Interior Ministry's special forces denied any government role in any slayings. He said insurgents were donning police uniforms and carrying out the killings to enflame divisions.
- AP