IRAQ: Thousands missing since war began

BAGHDAD, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - BAGHDAD, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - When 53-year-old Tina Abdallah celebrated the fall of deceased former President Saddam Hussein in March 2003, she had no idea that her suffering had just begun. Four years on, the mother of two is desperate for news about her sons who have disappeared in separate incidents following the US-led invasion of 2003.

"During Saddam's time, people were being arrested and sometimes families couldn't get any information about their loved ones. But the proposed democracy hasn't changed this reality. My two sons have disappeared and I can't get any information. I don't even know if they are dead," Tina said.

"I have gone to NGOs, the Ministry of Human Rights and police departments looking for them but no one could help me. My last attempt was in the US-run prisons, but it was even harder to get to speak with someone there because of the huge number of people with the same problem as me," she added.

Because of unrelenting violence hampering all efforts to collect data, the number of people who have disappeared in Iraq since 2003 is not known. But aid workers estimate the figure to be in the tens of thousands.

"Based on studies done by local NGOs, it is probable that at least 15,000 Iraqis have disappeared in the past four years of occupation," Mukhaled al-A'ani, a spokesman for local Iraqi NGO Human Rights Association (HRA), said.

more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/a8bd8caf93b030f08d3810f356c825da.htm