Searching for the Disappeared

by Michelle . · 2009-07-09 19:11:00 UTC
Topics:

During South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in the 1990s, witnesses often requested help locating the bodies of their missing loved ones, speaking with great pain of the desire to give a proper burial to those who one day simply vanished, and hopefully, finally, find some sort of closure.

The search for missing bodies is a common, long-term quest in societies emerging from violence. South African activists abducted by state security forces in 1985, known as the Pebco Three, were finally found by forensic investigators in 2007. A mass grave containing the remains of 6,000 victims of the 1994 genocide was recently discovered in Rwanda. The Tutsi families are believed to have sought refuge in a nearby church, where they were surrounded by militiamen.

Ukrainian gas workers recently stumbled upon a mass grave with up to 5,000 Jewish Holocaust victims, and a French priest continues to look for more. Cash rewards have been used to solicit information on the graves of those killed during the war in Bosnia.

International teams of forensic investigators continue the search for victims of genocide and mass atrocity, for international and national courts, or simply to assist the surviving families of the victims. The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense, EAAF), for example, was first establish to investigate the fates of the disappeared from Argentina's "Dirty War," and now conducts similar missions world-wide.

As a witness told the South African TRC, regarding her son:

"...we do not know what happened to him, we do not know where he is and we would like to have his body brought back to us so that we can bury him, put in the right place, so that all my family can rest in the future days."

[Photo from Pictures of the Year International: Francesco Zizola Magnum Photos / U.S. News & World Report -- "The Killing Fields" Near the southern village of Mahawil, relatives of missing Iraqis gather at the site of one of the largest mass graves uncovered in Iraq. The victims were executed after the failed Shiite uprising in 1991.]

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
PREVIOUS STORY:
The G8 and Global Health
NEXT STORY:
Campaign about Apple Factories in China Gains Wide and Diverse Support

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.