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BAGHDAD - A US forensics expert took the stand in Saddam Hussein's trial for genocide against ethnic Kurds today to tell in grim detail how he unearthed the remains of 27 people from a mass grave in northern Iraq.
Clyde Snow was the first such expert to testify in the trial, which prosecutors have previously said would rely heavily on forensic evidence to show how thousands of Kurds were killed during the Anfal -- or Spoils of War -- campaign in 1988.
During his four-hour testimony Snow also told how he had uncovered evidence confirming the use of mustard and sarin gas against civilians.
Saddam, who was sentenced to death earlier this month in a separate trial, has denied that the campaign, which prosecutors say killed up to 180,000 people, was an attempt to wipe out the Kurds, rather an attack against Iranian-allied Kurdish rebels.
"Iraq is full of skeletal remains from the past centuries. Just give me 10 days and I'll show you a grave for 400 bodies, Arabs and Kurds," he said.
The appearance of the 78-year-old forensic anthropologist from Oklahoma brought objections from the defence counsel for Saddam and his six co-accused, who questioned his credentials. Even the former Iraqi leader weighed in with his opinion.
"I suggested before that international experts be brought in from countries which are not part of the aggression," he said.
Snow, who has worked in Argentina, Bosnia and Ethiopia, said he had unearthed 27 people from a mass grave in Koro village in Kurdistan in northern Iraq in 1991, which he described as typical of thousands of other villages targeted in Anfal.
Showing the court photographs of skulls with bullet holes and other skeletal remains found in the grave, he said many of the victims appeared to have been shot as they sat or kneeled.
The Koro grave is one of a number that have dug up around Iraq and believed to contain the bodies of Kurdish men, women and children who were detained and then executed.
Snow said he had unearthed the bodies of a man and his five-year-old grandson from a separate grave in Berjini village whose skeletons bore no signs of violence -- indicating they may have fallen victim to a chemical attack.
"These were pretty normal skeletons, so what could have caused these deaths?"
In explanation, he said, soil samples taken from four craters where villagers had said chemical weapons had fallen had been analysed in Britain and were shown to contain traces of sarin and mustard gas.
- REUTERS
