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Many mothers, wives and fathers go to the morgue every day looking for their missing loved one. (Washington Post photo) |
BAGHDAD — Every morning, Um Kareem goes to Baghdad's main morgue with the hope of finding her missing son.
"I will never stop looking for my son and my daughter-in-law who disappeared in October 2006," the bereaved mother told IslamOnline.net.
"They left three children who are living with us now but they never stop asking about their parents.
"I come practically everyday to the morgue hoping they find them."
Morgue officials keep showing the bereaved mother corpses that fits the description of her loved ones.
"One time I was quite sure I had found my son but soon realized it wasn't him after a spotted a tattoo on one arm that my son didn't have," she recalled tearfully.
"I will keep looking until the last day of my life.
"Even if they are dead, they have the right to be buried in a decent way according to our traditions."
Um Kareem is not alone.
Hundreds of bereaved mothers gather in front of the morgue's doors every day to look for their missing beloved ones.
"It is sad to see mothers standing at our door holding pictures of their sons, hoping they might at least have the chance to burry their children with dignity," a forensic expert at the morgue told IOL.
"But unfortunately, many of them leave without any cue and may never see them again."
More than 34,000 bodies were registered at the morgue since February 2006 and less than 10,000 of them have been identified.
"During two years, we lived inside a battle of terror and suffering," Morgue Director Munjeed al-Rezal told IOL.
"Until today we are seeing the results of that violence and it will take time to disappear."
Horror
According to forensic experts, victims of suicide bombings are the hardest to be identified as their bodies are often torn apart.
Specialists often try to find special marks or tattoos to help identify the victims but in many times, it is impossible to do so.
Worse still, Iraq has no lab to identify the bodies through DNA tests.
After a certain period of time, the morgue officials have to burry the unidentified bodies.
"But before we do that we take pictures of the bodies," explains the forensic expert, adding that many of them show clear signs of brutal torture.
The pictures are shown to wives, husbands, mothers and fathers who come to the morgue looking for their loved one.
They set in rows of blue plastic chairs inside a guarded room of Baghdad morgue as images of unidentified victims flash by at a flat-screen television.
They are shown bodies that in many cases show signs of brutal torture, headless corpses and charred bodies.
"This is the most terrible experience when mothers have to look at the pictures of mutilated, beheaded or tortured bodies," says the forensic expert.
"I once heard from a colleague that a mother had a heart attack as soon as she returned home after recognizing her son among these disturbing images."
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