Revering the dead is a purely human ideal; unfortunately, it is only an ideal. There have been many occasions – scattered like ashes throughout history – where the dead have been treated less than favorably, sometimes downright improperly. Bodies were, in these haphazard and callous instances, not placed in a finished mahogany beneath a smooth slab of granite, but rather piled up like stacks of rotten meat. Each of these dead, lying like sardines in unlabeled cans, seem to die into a form of irrevocable anonymity. Perhaps though, remembering these individuals as part of a larger number is a way of remembering these individuals as one part of history we hope never repeats itself. In doing so, here are the top ten mass graves:
10
Maguindanao Massacre
Just 3 years ago, the most brutal mass-murder in journalistic history took place, in which at least 34 journalists were deliberately killed as casualties of political terrorism. There was tension in Maguindanao (a province of an island in the Philippines) as an election was underway; two rivaling members of the same party running for the same office. Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, who was filing his certificate of candidacy, received threats that his rivals (supporters of the Andal Ampatuan, Sr. family) would cut him up into little piece afterwards. Thinking a battalion of journalists would prevent such things from occurring, he invited 37 of them to accompany him. Unfortunately, they were no deterrent, as his caravan was stopped by 100 armed men who went on to slaughter all or most of Mangudadatu’s group in the most heinous of ways (e.g. women, some who were journalists, were raped and shot in the genitals). They were all set to be buried in a mass grave dug two days earlier (along with their vehicles), until they were caught in the act by a helicopter. A shovel found near the site bore the name Ampatuan. A total of 58 people were killed, a count which included – aside from an exceptionally high journalist count – Mangudadatu’s wife (who sent him a text upon recognizing the attackers as Ampatuan’s men), his two sisters, as well as some lawyers and aides.
