Archeologist Michael Trimble leads the way to justice in Iraq
By Traci Angel
In the blazing heat of the Iraqi desert, archaeologists and forensic specialists lower themselves into a pit, then sort through clothing and personal belongings to gather DNA samples from skeletal remains crumpled together in a mass grave. The investigators search for any form of identification to document the bones of the victims.
This evidence will be used to form a case against Saddam Hussein and his cohorts, who are accused of killing thousands of Kurds and members of other Iraqi minority groups.
“As far as archaeology is concerned, it is probably the most important work I will ever do,” says Dr. Michael “Sonny” Trimble of the Army Corps of Engineers, a St. Louisan who is serving as program director for the Mass Graves Project. The U.S. Department of Justice organized the project to work in conjunction with the Regime Crimes Liaison Office in Baghdad.
After the Bosnian civil war, war criminals were turned over to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. But Iraq is creating its own justice system to try former leaders for the mass murders. Prosecutors and judges will use the evidence from the excavations.
“We are treating these just like homicides,” says Trimble. “Our project happens to be Saddam and his top people, who are accused of murdering thousands—probably tens of thousands—in a mass genocide.”
Trimble had worked in Vietnam for years, helping identify the remains of Americans missing in action. When he was asked to be the director of the Iraq project, he began working to assemble the right team for the stressful, war-torn environment. Excavations continue this summer and may go on for years, after Iraqis are trained in gathering forensic evidence.
Trimble describes finding the remains of women who had sewn hidden identification into their clothes, knowing that they would be killed. “Some of the women are still holding babies,” he says. “The soil is neutral and there is no acid, so the people still have clothes on from when they were killed.” He takes a deep breath. “You have to be clinical, or anyone would go mad.”
He is still haunted by the sight of the body of a young boy who was shot while still holding a ball in his hand. “We had to remove him because I couldn’t go down there and look at him,” Trimble says, then tries to shrug it off. “I don’t know why that ball was such a big deal.”
Prehistoric archeology is easier emotionally, he says. There, the bodies are usually men killed in war by arrowheads. But in these modern graves lie “women and children who died for no reason. Their killers came to the villages and rounded them up just because they were Kurds.”
Trimble was one of 22 federal employees honored at the recent Greater St. Louis Federal Executive Board’s “Excellence in Government” awards ceremony.
