An Iraqi man holds the identity papers of two of his missing

WASHINGTON, May 29 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A survivor left for dead in an Iraqi mass grave in 1991 has linked thousands of bodies unearthed this month to mass killings by Iraqi Republican Guards and Baath Party officials, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday May 28.

In a 14-page report, "The Mass Graves of Mahawil: The Truth Uncovered," the New York-based rights monitor cited eyewitness accounts that confirm the victims were killed during the Iraqi government's suppression of the Shiite uprising that followed the 1990-1991 Gulf War.

According to some estimates, as many as 15,000 bodies are believed to be buried in graves discovered several weeks ago near the Mahawil military base, just north of the southern Iraqi city of Hilla.

The report is the fruit of interviews carried out over five days by Human Rights Watch researchers at three mass grave sites.

By interviewing relatives who said they had identified victims through identity documents or items of clothing, the researchers said they were able to establish who many of the persons in the grave were, and when and how they disappeared.

Farmers living close by offered accounts of the daily executions and burials they had witnessed in 1991.

The report also included testimony from a survivor of the massacres -- who was 12 years old when he was dumped in a mass grave with his mother and two relatives, but miraculously was not shot and managed to escape alive.

Human Rights Watch said the survivor's testimony made the crucial link between the arrests of thousands of Shiites in the area in March 1991, their detention and ultimate execution and burial.

The eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that Iraqi security forces had taken their missing relatives at roadblocks or in house-to-house searches following the collapse of the popular uprising that swept the area as Iraqi forces retreated from Kuwait.

The report was critical of the "chaotic manner" in which the graves were excavated earlier this month and said the temporary U.S.-led administration in Iraq should do more to protect the sites.

"The U.S. authorities had every reason to anticipate that protection of mass grave sites would be an urgent matter," said Peter Bouckaert, senior emergencies researcher for Human Rights Watch.

"Yet they made no effort to enlist local authorities to establish a mechanism that could help Iraqis recover their loved ones with dignity and also preserve evidence that might convict those responsible for these enormous crimes."