posted
Demand for grave diggers and coffins soars in Baghdad Ilham Mohammed, Azzaman
October 27, 2005
Baghdad grave diggers and coffin makers say they have never been as busy as they are now.
Prices are soaring, tempting other professionals to partake their roaring success, they say.
The escalating violence that has gripped the country since the 2003 U.S-led invasion shows no signs of abating.
In the absence of accurate and reliable counts, it is difficult to give exact casualty figures.
But if the anecdotal evidence of Baghdad’s grave diggers is taken seriously, no day passes without scores corpses being dumped at the city’s cemeteries.
"We have seen nothing like this. Mutilated bodies beyond recognition, bodies shot in the head with hands still cuffed.
"I have been in this profession for most part of my life. But what I see now scares me to death," said Haj Abu Muhanad, 66.
But in the meantime business has never been so profitable for Muhanad and his colleagues.
"Business is flourishing. One day they (he refused to identify) brought to the cemetery 30 corpses in one car. Sometimes it occurs to me that one day there will be no more Iraqis left to walk the streets of Baghdad," he said.
Muhanad said he rarely buries people who had died of natural causes.
"Most of the bodies brought to us are either killed by explosions or firearms."
Relatives of the dead, if they are present, "are normally very generous," he said.
Burying a corpse now costs up to 100,000 dinars (approx. $75) while under normal circumstances a grave digger would charge about 10,000 dinars.
The flow of dead bodies to the cemeteries in Baghdad and the one in Najaf, where Muslim Shiites usually bury their dead, is very restricted now and grave diggers say they may pile several corpses in one grave.
"The great number of dead bodies we receive is forcing us to bury them (corpses) over each other. Occasionally we may come across another corpse as we are trying to make room for the new arrivals," said Abu Omar.
For this reason the diggers no longer have the bodies buried at least 3 meters under ground as has been the tradition so far.
"We also do not have time to dig as deep when you have so many dead bodies around every day," he added.
But the new burying practices are contrary to Islamic tradition, according to Haja Umm Mohammed, the female grave digger who handles dead women.
Umm Mohammed is charged with washing female dead bodies in line with Islamic practices.
She says she had seen dogs excavating shallow graves and unearthing the bodies.
Omar agreed and said he himself had to rebury corpses dug up by wild dogs.
Prices of coffins have soared due to high demand in which many of Baghdad carpenters are cashing in today.
Nonetheless, Haj Khalil Muhsen says, demand is still higher than supply.
"For example now I make an average of 20 coffins a day and have to send customers away. I now employ five workers and intend to have many more. Previously mine was a one-man carpentry," Muhsen said.
"For this reason many of Baghdad’s carpenters who previously looked down on our profession have turned to coffin-making which has indeed become very profitable," he said.
posted
4art what is your point here. Think they are more in demand in Iraq than in the US? Think they are hiring the unemployed diggers since suddam is no longer putting them to work by the 1,000's if he did dig a hole for them at all?
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posted
So assuming he did gas them (because you really don't know that he did because IRAN around the same time was gasing their people supposidly) we've killed about 100K of their people let's be "conservative" and say 50K..
And 1,000's were digging holes for saddam.
I'm trying to understand your logic here.
I think the point is the mindless warmongering and killing of innocent people.. Maybe?
Remember, when you see saddams torture video that they have, most of the videos are of prisoners, rapists, theives, murderers themselves.
The middle east uses a system like an eye for an eye.. While you think it's toture to cut off a thieves hand.. Compare it to what we do here in the US., someone RAPES someone and they get 5-10 years.. Actually there was a guy who molested 4 kids and got 8 years in jail..
In the middle east you'd get your winky cut off.
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posted
Don't ask for the link because I'm not going to look for it now... but the number was above a hundred grand. Infact I remember the arguement being that Saddam killed more muslims than the world combined.
-------------------- Spend Word For Word With Me And I Shall Make Your Wit Bankrupt.
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"A study published by the Lancet says the risk of death by violence for civilians in Iraq is now 58 times higher than before the US-led invasion."
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posted
But not because of us... because of islamic fundamentalists...
You are attempting to blame us for terrorists killing Iraqi civillians... Nice try ... Iraqis are striving for freedom and are being punished by those who hate freedom... namely... terrorists... and well... you.
-------------------- Spend Word For Word With Me And I Shall Make Your Wit Bankrupt.
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posted
But back to my original point. Saddam only killed a hundred grand? Heck, we killed more than that by 2004, according to this article.
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posted
Yeah... but you fail to grasp the fact that I don't care about your stupid articles... thus far you have not shown me one article that was written by anything bipedal. More hate mongering by the sad pessimistic purely commie left. Always blame america... always find fault with america.... THEN FRIGGEN MOVE TO FRANCE.
-------------------- Spend Word For Word With Me And I Shall Make Your Wit Bankrupt.
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So Friggen Leave then... If you hate us that much...LEAVE... we are bad we killed the Japaneese... we harmed so very many... we are eveillllll.... LEAVE. WHAT do you want us to do?
Pick daisies all day? This witless utopia you want does not exsist.
Pay attention as this next bit is important: This world has always and will always be ruled by the agressive use of force. Your rantings are not working... the world is not changing because of you... get over it... you are not that important.
-------------------- Spend Word For Word With Me And I Shall Make Your Wit Bankrupt.
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I wish for no conquest... no blood to be shed. All I want is peace and prosperity. We disagree upon how to achieve it... Which is of no suprise. How could we disagree if you weren't wrong?
-------------------- Spend Word For Word With Me And I Shall Make Your Wit Bankrupt.
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Sadly, I provide source material for my arguments, while you merely spout off whatever crapola works for you at the time.
Don't forget: we're the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons against a civilian population.
You are, by your own admission, merely an agitator.
6,475,988,992 people on this planet, and you are just ONE of them.
Not important at all, really.
-------------------- I know it well, sir: you have an exchequer of words, and, I think, no other treasure to give your followers; for it appears by their bare liveries that they live by your bare words.
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posted
Interesting posts. The way I see it, you can get out sooner or later, but with the same ending, but you will have to keep sending more body bags.
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