Acknowledgements
This report was written by Kenneth Anderson, director of the Arms Project of Human Rights Watch, and edited by Andrew Whitley, executive director of Middle East Watch, a division of Human Rights Watch; Aryeh Neier, executive director of Human Rights Watch; Kenneth Roth, deputy director of Human Rights Watch; and Eric Stover, executive director, Physicians for Human Rights. It was reviewed by Jemera Rone, counsel to Human Rights Watch, and Mostafa Khezry and Joost Hilterman, consultants to Middle East Watch.
This report is based on investigations carried out by a forensic team composed of distinguished international experts in forensic anthropology and archaeology organized by Middle East Watch and Physicians for Human Rights. The forensic team's mission to Iraqi Kurdistan took place between May 26 and June 22, 1992.
Members of the forensic team were:
Kenneth Anderson, forensic team leader. Mr. Anderson, a New York lawyer, is director of the Arms Project of Human Rights Watch.
Luis B. Fondebrider. Mr. Fondebrider is a founding member of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropologia), which has conducted exhumations of the graves of the disappeared in Argentina and throughout Latin America. The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team's forensic evidence was regarded as crucial in securing convictions of several members of the Argentine police and military. Mr. Fondebrider has also worked on forensic exhumations in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and other places.
James Briscoe, forensic team archaeologist. Mr. Briscoe is an archaeologist with Roberts/Schornik & Associates, Inc. of Oklahoma. He has extensive experience conducting archaeological digs in the Americas. The forensic team is grateful to Roberts/Schornik & Associates, Inc. for making Mr. Briscoe available for an extended period of time in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is also grateful to Roger Burkhalter for his assistance with computer graphics.
Mercedes Doretti. Ms. Doretti is a founding member of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. She has undertaken forensic exhumations in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, the Philippines and, most recently, in El Salvador where she has been engaged in unearthing victims of the El Mozote massacre of December 11, 1981.
Isabel M. Reveco. Ms. Reveco is a founding member of the Chilean Forensic Team (Grupo de Antropologia Forense de Chile). The Chilean Forensic Team has conducted forensic exhumations in cases resulting from the 1973 Pinochet coup against the government of Salvador Allende and subsequent repression by the security forces.
Stefan Schmitt. Mr. Schmitt, a German national residing in Guatemala, is a founding member of the Guatemalan Forensic Team (GrupoAntropologia Forense de Guatemala). The Guatemalan Forensic Team, with the assistance of forensic teams from elsewhere in Latin America, has recently begun work exhuming victims of Guatemala's security forces in the Guatemalan highlands.
Clyde Collins Snow, forensic team scientific leader. Dr. Snow is a faculty member of the Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, at Norman, Oklahoma. He is internationally famous for his work in Argentina and many other places worldwide. His work has been the subject of many articles, a book, and television documentaries. He has most recently been in Bosnia at the request of the U.S. Department of State to investigate allegations of war crimes there.
Photographs appearing in this report on pages [ ] were taken by Susan Meiselas and used by permission of Magnum, Inc.
Ballistics and firearms analysis was provided by Douglas D. Scott, Ph.D., of Lincoln, Nebraska, to whom MEW/PHR and the forensic team express their deep appreciation.
Maps were created by Michael S. Miller, a geographer in New York City who provides frequent assistance to Human Rights Watch.
The forensic team gratefully acknowledges the unflagging aid of Jemera Rone and Mostafa Khezry during its mission in Iraqi Kurdistan. It also thanks its local staff of translators and drivers who provided constant and often round-the-clock services on many occasions, as well as the many Kurds who provided testimony to the forensic team and the community of non-governmental organizations in Iraq that assisted the team with contacts and sources. The forensic team regrets that, for their protection, these persons cannot be identified.
Finally, the forensic team thanks Suzanne E. Howard, staff associate of Middle East Watch for her administrative help to the team before and during its work in Iraq. The forensic team thanks her and Barbara L. Baker, staff associate of the Arms Project of Human Rights Watch, for their work in preparing this report for publication.