Ann Clwyd Iraq mass grave a staged photo-op
Tom Young | 12.12.2003 00:20 | Anti-militarism
Ann Clwyd, the British politician who most strongly pushed the humanitarian case for war is shown posing in front of what is a manufactured mass grave photo-op
Note: this article draws no conclusions about human rights in Iraq and under Saddam Hussein. Or the extent of mass killings that took place. It solely concerns the ethics of British left wing politician Ann Clwyd.
Note: this article draws no conclusions about human rights in Iraq and under Saddam Hussein. Or the extent of mass killings that took place. It solely concerns the ethics of British left wing politician Ann Clwyd.
Fresh from asserting in Parliament the truth rumours of prisoners in Iraq being fed head or feet first into plastic shredders, Ann Clwyd visited Iraq in the aftermath of the war. Returning to Parliament in tears she claimed that she personally had counted 10000 remains removed from a mass grave.
Really?
10 000 takes a while to count. In anycase it turns out that the site she visited had in fact yielded fewer than 3000 graves.
But a news photo found on the USinfo site casts doubt on Ann Clwyd's claim to have seen any bodies at all.
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/gallery/iraq-2003/0602mon1.htm
Ann Clwyd has shown standing at site, with a hillside in the background strewn with white plastic sacks. The viewer is invited to make the connection that these sacks contain human remains.
However, the sacks are both too bulky, the wrong shape and to be filled to the brim, to contain anything but sand or earth or some particulate matter. They appear to have been strewn across the hillside, quickly and at random, and have no indication of actually being excavated from anywhere.
The photo bears all signs of being a hurriedly constructed scene to provide a visiting politician with a nice photo-op. What does this say about the sincerity of Ann Clwyd and her views on the importance of human rights abuses and victims? What an utterly cynical display.
Really?
10 000 takes a while to count. In anycase it turns out that the site she visited had in fact yielded fewer than 3000 graves.
But a news photo found on the USinfo site casts doubt on Ann Clwyd's claim to have seen any bodies at all.
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/gallery/iraq-2003/0602mon1.htm Ann Clwyd has shown standing at site, with a hillside in the background strewn with white plastic sacks. The viewer is invited to make the connection that these sacks contain human remains.
However, the sacks are both too bulky, the wrong shape and to be filled to the brim, to contain anything but sand or earth or some particulate matter. They appear to have been strewn across the hillside, quickly and at random, and have no indication of actually being excavated from anywhere.
The photo bears all signs of being a hurriedly constructed scene to provide a visiting politician with a nice photo-op. What does this say about the sincerity of Ann Clwyd and her views on the importance of human rights abuses and victims? What an utterly cynical display.
Tom Young
Additions
Plastic bags
16.11.2006 02:56
Those plastic bags contain whatever was left on the dead bodies (lighters, IDs, wallets, photos) so that family members of the dead may identify the graves of their loved ones. The bags sit on top of mounds where the dead are buried.
The dead bodies are not in the plastic bags, but in the earth. Ann Clwyd could see how many were dead in that mass grave because each grave had a plastic bag on top of it, just as a grave stone would mark a grave.
The dead bodies are not in the plastic bags, but in the earth. Ann Clwyd could see how many were dead in that mass grave because each grave had a plastic bag on top of it, just as a grave stone would mark a grave.
Juliet Barbara
e-mail:
jbarbara@wellesley.edu
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