<<previous | index | next>> IX. Witnesses to the al-Mahawil Arrests and DetentionsThere are many others in the al-Hilla area who witnessed the mass detentions and executions. Their testimonies provide further evidence of the mass detentions at al-Mahawil military base and the subsequent executions of thousands. Iskandar Jawad Witwit, the newly-appointed mayor, was a high-ranking air force officer based at al-Mahawil at the time. He said that the Iraqi government was able to crush the uprising in al-Hilla by March 11, 1991, and immediately began a massive arrest campaign throughout the area:
Witwit, who was himself arrested on March 16, 1991 on suspicion of supporting the uprising, explained that part of the massive al-Mahawil military base had been taken over by individuals and organizations directly involved in the arrests and the killings, including high-ranking Ba’th party members, General Security, Special Security (al-Amn al-Khas), the intelligence services (mukhabarat), and leading members of the pro-government Albu Alwan tribe, including its head shaikh, Muhammad Jawad Onaifis, who is currently in U.S. custody on suspicion of involvement in the al-Mahawil executions. Another eyewitness, himself a soldier at the time of the mass executions, provided detailed information to Human Rights Watch about the involvement of Special Republican Guard troops in the detentions and executions. Salim Murgan Hitban drove from al-Najaf to Babel on March 8, together with his cousin Karim `Abd al-Sadiq Hitban, aged thirty-five, and also a soldier. The two men had just completed a three-day leave and were returning to their military base when they were stopped outside al-Hilla by Special Republican Guard troops, whom they identified by the red triangular badges on their uniforms. The Special Republican Guards, he said, detained everyone who came to their checkpoint, loading more than one hundred persons into their trucks, and took them to the al-Mahawil military base:
The conditions in the al-Mahawil detention camp were very abusive:
23 Human Rights Watch interview with Iskandar Jawad Witwit, al-Hilla, May 17, 2003. 24 Human Rights Watch interview with Salim Murgan Hitban, al-Mahawil, May 16, 2003. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid.
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