2004 Photo Contest, General News, 3rd prize
Photographer

Dario Mitidieri

Katz Pictures

01 May, 2003

Relatives of the missing search through corpses recovered from a mass grave near Al Musayyib. According to human rights groups, an estimated 300,000 people disappeared in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule. Some went missing in the 1980s, when Saddam ordered the detention and execution of thousands of communists, Shiite Muslims and rival members of his Baath Party. Most disappeared in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraqi Republican Guards suppressed twin revolts by Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south. The discovery of mass graves began soon after the overthrow of Saddam's regime in April 2003.

About the photographer

Dario Mitidieri

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