Iraq: the first Yazidi victims of the Kocho mass grave identified
Forensic pathologists and experts attend the exhumation of a mass grave of Yazidi victims in the village of Kocho, in the Sinjar district, March 15, 2019. Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
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In Iraq, the first Yazidi victims identified among those found in 17 Daesh mass graves in northern Iraq will be buried in the Sinjar region.
Nadia Murad, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former sex slave under Daesh, is expected on site.
An important step in the post-Daesh era, for these families to begin their period of mourning and for the justice process to begin.
Since 2019, these bodies have been analyzed at the Baghdad Forensic Institute.
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With our correspondent in Baghdad,
Lucile Wassermann
At the Baghdad Forensic Institute, around thirty doctors are analyzing the last bones found in mass graves in northern Iraq.
In front of them, human skeletons cover large metal tables.
“
When we analyze these human remains, we draw up what is called an anthropological profile: we determine the sex, age and height for each case
,” explains Dr. Mohammed Ihsan, head of the anthropology department of the Baghdad Forensic Institute.
Everything is analyzed here, including the clothes.
“
These clothes, this little t-shirt, belong to a young boy.
By analyzing the bones that correspond to this case, we can also estimate that the victim is under 17 years old,
”continues Dr Ihsan, who heads this team.
DNA tests are also carried out and then compared to those of the local population to try to obtain matches.
But in the case of the Yazidis, the results are weak, underlines Dr. Mohammed Majdi, in charge of these analyzes at the mass graves department: “
Sometimes for the
missing from Kocho
, more than one member of the family has disappeared.
There is only one person left alive, so it is very difficult to identify these people.
"
Of more than 500 bodies found around Kocho and analyzed in recent years, 104 have been identified.
The beginning of a long work in Iraq, where Daesh would have left according to the UN
more than 200 mass graves
, containing up to 1000 bodies.
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Also to listen: Sinjar, 5 years after the fall of Daesh
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