AMMAN (AFP) - US-led forces compromised the case against Saddam Hussein and former Iraqi leaders by failing to safeguard official documents and secure mass grave sites, according to a leading human rights group.
Human Rights Watch said Thursday that the failure of coalition forces to act during last year`s invasion meant crucial evidence for the trials of Saddam and other officials has probably been lost or seriously tainted.
"Given what`s at stake here, the extent of this negligence is alarming," said HRW Middle East and North Africa division director Sarah Leah Whitson.
"US and Iraqi authorities were aware that these documents and remains would be crucial to the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and other former officials, but they did little to safeguard them," she said.
Saddam is in US custody in Iraq awaiting trial on charges of crimes against humanity.
The 41-page HRW report, entitled "Iraq: The State of the Evidence", details what happened to some of the key documentary evidence that the coalition, and more recently the Iraqi interim government, failed to secure.
The US-based rights group said people were allowed to freely loot thousands of official documents, while relatives of "disappeared" people dug up remains found in some mass grave sites.
The forces were then lax in not putting in place experts and providing assistance to ensure that remains were properly exhumed and classified.
The failures, HRW claimed, also frustrated efforts by families to find out the fate of thousand of missing relatives whose vanished under Saddam`s rule.
"This material needs urgent attention. The evidence will be critical to any upcoming trial proceedings," Whitson said.
"And it will also be crucial for Iraqis as they attempt to construct an accurate record of the atrocities they suffered under Baath Party rule."
11/04/2004 - 15:37 GMT - AFP