IDs hidden by victims in mass graves

BAGHDAD, June 27 (UPI) -- Some of the victims in Iraq's mass graves hid their identification cards, perhaps to offer posterity legal proof of their fate under Saddam Hussein.

The IDs have been found hidden beneath layers of clothes, indicating the victims wanted them preserved even after the bodies were consumed by the desert, reports The Los Angeles Times.

The report says such ID cards have been found in more than 10 percent of the victims found thus far in Saddam Hussein-era mass graves. The discovery is expected to help in the trial of Saddam Hussein and his deputies by allowing prosecutors to trace the victims' background for gathering more evidence, says the report.

"They had hidden them in secret pockets or sewn them in secret areas, especially the women," Michael "Sonny" Trimble, a forensic archeologist who oversees a team exhuming and examining mass graves, told The Times. The findings include remains of Kurdish villagers who were deported from their homes and later executed in the 1988 Anfal campaign.

In the upcoming Anfal trial, Saddam is accused of ordering the killing up to 180,000 Kurdish villagers.