In May 2003, I stood alongside the late British MP and humanitarian Ann Clwyd at a mass grave near Baghdad, a site that bore the remains of thousands executed by Saddam Hussein's regime. Among the haunting remnants, one image has stayed with me—a child's lock of hair, neatly plaited and tied with a small red ribbon, matted with mud. That grave near al-Mahawil, one of the largest discovered after the fall of the Baathist regime, was believed to hold up to 15,000 souls. Its unearthing was a chilling reminder of the brutality that once gripped Iraq and the enduring grief of families seeking answers.
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