Iraq, Iran swap remains of 1980-1988 war dead
BAGHDAD - Iraqi and Iranian troops on Sunday exchanged the remains of soldiers killed during an eight-year war between the two countries. It was the first such handover since the two signed an agreement in October to work together in tracing thousands still missing after the war.
The remains of 200 Iraqis and 41 Iranians were returned to their native countries during a ceremony at a border checkpoint near the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which oversaw the handover, said only 23 of the Iraqi and 10 of the Iranian remains have been identified.
More than 1 million people from both sides were killed or went missing during the 1980-1988 war.
The two countries have exchanged remains and prisoners of war before. But Sunday’s handover was the first since Iran and Iraq signed a direct agreement in mid-October to tackle the problem together. Previously, they each dealt separately with the Red Cross.
“The return of the bodies is important for the families of the dead and an essential element in the process of dealing with the past,” said Jamila Hammami, an ICRC delegate in charge of the missing persons file for Iraq. He was present for the handover.
Hammami said many of the families never lost hope.
Jawad Kadhum Hamadi, a 38-year old photographer from Basra, joined two others at the ceremony hoping to find the names of missing family members on the list of those remains identified as part of the exchange.
Hamadi’s brother, Ahmed, has been missing since 1984 during fierce battles in eastern Basra with the Iranian forces.
“I didn’t find his name in the lists,” Hamadi said. “But yet, the hope inside me has not been killed.”
Hamadi said he did not tell his parents, who are ill, about the exchange because he thought it would only upset them further.
“Even if I got his body, I would bury him without telling them,” Hamadi said.
Relations between Iraq and Iran have dramatically improved after Saddam Hussein’s 2003 ouster, which led to the empowerment of Iraq’s majority Shiites after decades of oppression at the hands of the Sunni Arab minority, to which the late Saddam belonged.
A large segment of Iraq’s ruling Shiite elite lived in exile for years in Shiite, Persian Iran before returning home after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Many of them continue to maintain ties with Iran, which the U.S. accuses of arming and supporting Shiite militants in Iraq.
Tehran denies this and says that, like Washington, it too wants to see a peaceful Iraq.
(This version CORRECTS numbers of identified remains.)
SOURCE YAHOO
