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FROM THE FIELD
More than 20 years
after the end of the Iran Iraq war families of the missing have the right to know their fate
TV news footage transmitted:
Eurovision ENS
27th August, 11:45 GMT Associated Press Global Video Wire (AP/GVW)
27th August, 09:15 – 09:30 GMT
and replay 1415-1430 GMT
For information on footage:
Didier Revol, ICRC, Geneva,
tel: +41 22 730 36 81
or drevol.gva@icrc.org
On the International Day of the Disappeared (August 30th), the International Committee of the Red Cross is calling on Iran and Iraq to clarify the fate of those reported
missing during the 1980 to 1988 war.
During the war the ICRC registered almost 40,000 Iranian and more than 67,000 Iraqi prisoners of war.
Many of them were voluntarily
repatriated, but tens of thousands of soldiers, including some POWs remain unaccounted for today.
More than 20 years after the end of the war many families in Iraq and Iran are still
waiting for news of their missing relatives.
"Families have the right, the need to know, what happened to their loved ones.
It is extremely important for families to know that
the person has died in that particular battle or place, that the bodies are retrieved and that the body is brought back to the family so that the grieving and mourning process can take place for this
family" said Eric Marclay, the ICRC deputy head of operations for the Middle East.
25 year old Iraqi fighter, Noori Jaloob, was separated from his unit in June 1983.
For years
his family lived in a state of limbo, unable to grieve or mourn until they knew for certain what had happened to him.
In 2008 they learnt from the TV news that he had died.
Under
an agreement between the ICRC, Iran and Iraq* his remains were transferred to the Al Zubair Martyr Centre in Basra, which specialises in handling the remains of soldiers from the Iran Iraq war.
"I am thankful to God that I had the chance to see my son and bury him", says his 77 year old mother Sabria.
The task of tracing those missing in action or detained as POWs has been
complicated by Iraq's successive wars over the past decades.
The Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights estimates that between 375,000 to one million soldiers and civilians went missing between
1980 and 2003.
"The ICRC is the voice of the thousands of families who are waiting for news of their loved ones" says Jamila Hammami, ICRC delegate in charge of the missing persons file
for Iraq.
In Iran and Iraq the ICRC has facilitated the exchange of information about missing persons, provided technical support to the authorities, trained forensic experts in the
identification of remains and, where necessary, supplied equipment and repaired storage and archive facilities.
During the Iran Iraq war the ICRC repatriated sick and wounded prisoners of
war held in Iraq and Iran, transferring them via Larnaca airport in Cyprus.
Editors Notes: * On 16th October 2008, the ICRC, and the Iraqi and Iranian governments signed a memorandum of
understanding in Geneva to speed up efforts to account for those missing from the 1980-1988 war.
They agreed to improve the collection and sharing of information, particularly relating to
prisoners of war and the handing over of human remains.
SHOTLIST 00:00 The road from al Mudaina to Basra
00:04 Destroyed boat and bridge over the river Euphrates
00:08 Bombed Sunni mosque
of Al Helah x 2
00:19 Old tank from Iran Iraq war close up Basra
Old tank from Iran Iraq war wide shot Basra
00:26 Military graves of remains of soldiers from Iran Iraq war who have been
identified but not yet claimed in Basra (various images) Iraqi family who have recovered remains of their brother who died during Iran Iraq war.
00:36 Moshem Jaloob, brother of dead
soldier, Noori Jaloob, with mother, Sabria and ICRC delegates at home in Basra
00:41 Sabria wiping tears from face
00.46 Photo of dead brother Noori
00:51 Family looking at photos of Noori
01:18 Sabri
holding picture of Noori as a baby
01:22 Synch: Moshem Jaloob (in Arabic) "Thirty of them went out on patrol, a combat patrol.
But only 29 returned.
The one who didn’t
return was my brother"
01:30 Synch: Moshem Jaloob (in Arabic) "He was like a father to us.
He had a special place in our hearts.
He never did anything to hurt us so that is why I
really thought he would come back.
For 25 long years we really hoped he would come back.
But that was not to be his destiny"
01:55 Family outside with Noori's personal effects
eg military card, decayed wallet and ID tag
02.16 Synch: Sabri Jaloob (in Arabic) "I feel blessed that I got see my son and was able to bury him.
He is now lying in the cemetery where I
would like to lie with him."
02:47Al Zubair Martyr Centre, Basra: 02:52 Various images of staff sorting out human remains including director of Al Zubair Martyr Centre and Jamila Hammami
03:40 Synch
Jamila Hammami, ICRC delegate in charge of the missing persons file for Iraq (in English).
"The ICRC has to be the voice of these hundreds of families who are waiting for news of their
loved ones"
03:49 Synch Jamila Hammami (in English) "We have to know that the solution to this problem is an Iraqi solution first of all.
And there is the need that there is this political
will from Iraq to handle the issue.
Of course ICRC is here to back up that effort by our technical support and training, but also to make sure they are not forgotten and to remind the
obligation of the authorities to provide information for the families of the missing".
04:22Director of the Al Zubair Martyr Centre with the register of all the remains identified and
returned to families from the Iran Iraq war.
04:33 Synch: Director of the Al Zubair Martyr centre Hussein Eide Hassan (in Arabic) "This process (identifying the remains and informing the
families) is very slow and very complicated.
It needs to be supported not only by governments but also by international organisations and other countries so that we are able to return all
these remains back to the families"
04:51 Files piled up high of cases of soldiers whose remains have been identified and returned to their families.
05:01 Military cemetery, Basra
05:06
Military marked graves, Basra Archive video 16 June 1981 repatriation of sick and wounded Iranian POWs from Baghdad to Tehran and sick and wounded Iraqi POWS from Tehran to Baghdad.
Transfer carried out at Larnaca airport Cyprus.
05:17 Iraqi soldiers going onto the plane at Larnaca x 2
05.35 Iraqis on board the plane
05.42 View from the plane window
05.47 Iraqi Red
Crescent officials
05:49 Iraqi on crutches
05:58 Iraqis onboard the plane
06:04 Iranian soldiers (in blue) on stretcher
06:17 Iranians (in blue) going onto the plane
06:38 Iranians (in blue) onboard
the plane
06:49 Iranians arrival home on stretcher
07:05 Iranian soldier (in blue) greeted on arrival home in Tehran.
photos.
07:17 3 photos of dead soldiers in Iran March 1985
07:26 Synch: Eric Marclay, ICRC deputy head of operations for the Middle East (in English) "Families have the right, the need to know, what happened to their loved ones.
It is extremely
important for families to know that the person has died in that particular battle or place, that the bodies are retrieved and that the body is brought back to the family so that the grieving and
mourning process can take place for this family.
The family can make a burial in the tradition that they have in the Middle East and this is the same throughout the world.
It
also helps the whole community and the whole society to come over the resentment that the war generated against the other party" 08:11 Synch: Eric Marclay, ICRC deputy head of operations for the
Middle East (in English) "A person missing in the Middle East is a very complex and sensitive humanitarian issue.
If I look at Iran in particular there are still over 10,000 persons that
are missing from the conflict and families are waiting anxiously for news about their loved ones".
08:33 END For more information, please contact: Dorothea Krimitsas, ICRC Geneva on +41
79 251 93 18 or dkrimitsas.gva@icrc.org for more information on tapes and access to news footage, contact
Didier Revol, ICRC Geneva, + 41 22 730 36 81 or drevol.gva@icrc.org
from 10.09.09 contact
archives.gva@icrc.org To learn more about the missing issue in Iraq and Iran: http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/iran?OpenDocument
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/iraq?OpenDocument
See also ICRC media contacts
This article on www.icrc.org
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki inspects a crater made by a bomb attack at the damaged Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, in Baghdad August 24, 2009. Maliki assured the country ...
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Last updated:Wed Aug 26 10:35:59 2009
