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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Answer

Mr. Best: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made with investigations into Iraq's mass graves following the recommendations of the UK forensic team which visited Iraq last summer. [167870] Mr. Rammell: Since the recommendations were made the UK has seconded four UK forensic experts to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) who have been leading CPA efforts on mass graves. A Mass Grave Action Plan has been produced, which details how to deal with the hundreds of reported mass grave sites. A centralised system for reporting potential sites has been set up in co-ordination with the Human Rights Ministry. Around a quarter of reported sites have been assessed. Training seminars have been held in anthropology, archaeology, surveying, crime scene management and scene searching to build Iraqi capacity to undertake mass grave exhumations. A full equipment list for exhumations has been completed and equipment is on order. In addition, the Government has funded a forensic NGO, Inforce, to produce standard protocols and operating procedures to enable Iraqis and international teams to undertake this work to the same standards. Unfortunately, the mobility of the forensic team was severely restricted by the upsurge in violence and kidnappings in Iraq in early April. Security problems have been a major hindrance to them in doing their jobs, which include an unusually high level of travel outside of Baghdad. We have therefore withdrawn them temporarily from Iraq. The forensic team will be able to continue some of this work from outside Iraq. We hope they and other teams will be able to resume work on mass grave sites in Iraq shortly.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

421 c198W; 167870

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Crimes against humanity Homicide Iraq

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk