IRAQ: One Iraqi man finally discovered what happened to his father and brothers after Saddam's forces removed them, reports Jack Fairweather in Baghdad
The last time Husam saw his family together they were crouching in terror in their living room in Najaf.
It was a few weeks after Saddam's Republican army had crushed a Shia revolt in 1991.
Husam's family had not taken part in the fighting, but that didn't spare them Saddam's henchmen looking for revenge.
One April morning the Republican Guard began seizing all men of military age in Najaf from their homes. "The whole street knew what was happening. We could hear screams coming closer down the street. They were taking all the men they could find," said Husam.
Twelve years old at the time, Husam was sent to hide on the roof, leaving his parents, three sisters and four brothers, three of them older, downstairs.
He heard the soldiers enter the family home in Najaf's old city.
"I heard my mother screaming. She was saying "Don't take my husband. We didn't fight the government." Husam said he was too scared to watch his father, a carpenter, and his three older brothers being driven off by the soldiers in a lorry.
"My mother told me they were blindfolded and handcuffed, and not allowed to speak," said Husam. "We were told they would be returned to us in one month, that they were just going to be questioned at Radwaniya prison in Baghdad," said Husam.
Husam never heard from them again. A year after the incident, his mother died of a heart attack after moving to Baghdad. Husam was forced to leave school and took a job as a mechanic to support his one remaining brother and three sisters.
Husam didn't find out what happened to his father and brothers until last year, a month after Saddam's fall.
"I heard there were mass graves being found around Najaf. I was sure my family would be there," said Husam, who still works as a mechanic.
By the time Husam and his sister reached the al-Sakran mass grave, south of Najaf, locals had already begun the work of exhuming the bodies. Hundreds were digging with spades, and in some cases their bare hands.
He saw lines of corpses placed next to freshly made coffins.
Members of the Shia al-Dawr party had identified many of the corpses by prison tags on the dead.
It took him three hours to locate his father, and all three brothers.
"They were no more than bones and a few clothes. I was crying the whole time."
Iraqi officials reported that over 1,200 bodies were found at al-Sakran. It remains one of the largest mass graves yet discovered in Iraq.
The next day, Husam finally laid the remains of his family to rest in Najaf's main cemetery.
Husam said he briefly joined a Shia group assassinating Ba'athists, but left after a month when his sisters told him he must lead a normal life. He recently got married, and his sisters have husbands, he proudly said.
He says he does not want to see Saddam executed for his crimes. "I want Saddam to be put in a cage at a zoo so the Iraqi people can watch this evil man until the day he dies."