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New office for missing persons to be set up in Iraq
They'll be busy.
BAGHDAD - UN officials on Thursday announced the establishment of a centre for missing people in Iraq to investigate the “hundreds of thousands” who disappeared, mostly under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

The National Centre for Missing and Disappeared Persons in Iraq will operate under the auspices of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), Iraq’s ministry of Human Rights and other international organizations. The centre will assist with forensics and data investigations and provide support to the families of missing people, according to John Pace, the head of UNAMI’s human rights office.

“It is very difficult to tell how many people are missing, but estimates vary from hundreds of thousands to a million,” he said. “Every week or so there is news of new mass graves being found,” he added.
Gee, didn't read about that in the NYT.
To date, some 200 mass graves have been uncovered, he said. Many contain the remains of Saddam’s political opponents, along with those of Kurds or Shiites who rebelled against his regime.

The centre will also look into the cases of some 600 persons reported missing since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country, Pace said. The UN Mission’s Office on Missing Persons and Forensics in Kosovo will help with the training of local experts, UN officials said.
Posted by: Steve White 2005-09-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=130919