Woman tells court Saddam forces buried family alive

BAGHDAD, Oct 9 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein's forces buried a Kurdish family alive in a mass grave during a military operation against ethnic Kurds in the 1980s, a Kurdish woman told the genocide trial of the ousted Iraqi leader today.

The court also heard grim testimony about conditions at Nugrat Salman, a desert prison facility in southern Iraq, where poor food and polluted water caused many Kurds who had been rounded up and sent there to fall ill and die.

Two of the four witnesses to testify today spoke about a black dog that dug up and ate the bodies of dead prisoners, and one told how prison guards forced women, including young girls, to bathe in front of them while shooting over their heads.

They were the latest to take the stand to testify about Saddam's 1988 Anfal (Spoils of War) campaign against the Kurds in northern Iraq, in which prosecutors say tens of thousands were killed in poison gas attacks, bombings or executed.

''I know the fate of my family. They were buried alive,'' one Kurdish woman told the court. ''I would like to ask Saddam a question: 'What was the guilt of women and children?'''.

The court heard that identity cards belonging to five of her sisters had been found in mass graves in Samawa in south Iraq.

The woman did not say how she knew her family was buried alive, but U.S.-led forensic experts have said some victims unearthed from mass graves were still alive when they were buried, despite having been shot, most of them at close range.

Thousands of Kurds, including many women and children, were taken from their villages, executed and then dumped in mass graves in northern and southern Iraq, prosecutors say.

Saddam's trial resumed today after a two-week break. Chaos reigned at the previous session, when Saddam was repeatedly ejected from the courtroom and his lawyers walked out over the sacking of the chief judge.

Saddam and his six co-accused were present today, but their defence team continued to boycott the trial in protest at the government's dismissal of chief judge Abdullah al-Amiri for saying Saddam was ''not a dictator''.

Legal rights groups have said the dismissal could hurt the trial's credibility.

More Reuters DKB DB2128