Rafha prisoners: 220 Iraqis remains in Saudi mass graves

Rafha and Artawiyah prisoners and detainee’s Association in Basra revealed on Wednesday, the presence of more than 220 bodies remains in Saudi Arabia mass graves, while confirming that most of the dead were from the southern provinces.

The head of the Association, Ali Mohsen Mijbil said in an interview with "Shafaq News", that "we have a big problem in Saudi Arabia, as during one of the battles in 9/3 /1992 that occurred between the residents of Rafha Camp and the Saudi side, more than forty martyrs from camp were killed.”

Mijbil called "the Iraqi government, parliament and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to bring the remains of the dead Iraqis in Saudi Arabia," noting that "the burying places of the Iraqis are different and many, which is in the form of mass graves as most of the dead are from the southern provinces."

He pointed out that "the number of prisoners in Rafha camp of the people of Basra is up to 13 thousand people," and expressed "his sadness from the lack of serious move by the Iraqi government on the subject."

thousands of southern provinces were transferred mid of 1990, to Saudi Arabia after the uprising that swept most of the provinces failed and after the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait, that was occupied in August 1990, and has managed then from controlling some provinces for days except Baghdad as security forces were able to suppress the uprising immediately .

Republican Guard forces moved and were able to eliminate the uprising in the rest of the provinces, where hundreds of participants were executed and arrested in the uprising, while others fled out of the country.

The Saudi government has opened Rafha camp in the desert area border to shelter the displaced, who left to the camp during the nineties for obtaining political asylum in the United States and European countries, while the others stayed in the camp until the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, as most of them returned to Iraq.

It is noteworthy that Rafha camp was a shelter for about 38 thousand Iraqi refugees, and they used to get care under the supervision of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), it contained a supplying center, a medical center as well as elementary schools, middle and junior high schools for girls and boys, the camp was closed in 2008 after the departure of the last batch composed of 77 Iraqi refugees.

Wednesday 6 March 2013

http://www.shafaaq.com/en/news/5426-rafha-prisoners-220-iraqis-remains-in-saudi-mass-graves.html