2024-01-03 18:45:00
Illustration: Angélica Herrera / ICRC Colombia
When people die and disappear as a result of armed conflicts or other situations of violence, their bodies must be treated with respect and dignity. People’s bodies must be searched, recovered and identified. Today’s humanitarian work includes these tasks, whose implementation is supported by the incomparable tools and specialized knowledge offered by forensic sciences. In Colombia, the ICRC carries out humanitarian recoveries when the competent authorities are unable to do so.
Transcription
[Jorge]: This episode narrates moments experienced in the exhumation process of people who died and disappeared in the armed conflicts in Colombia.
Listeners are advised to listen carefully and maintain discretion.
[Jorge]: It is important to know that the forensic work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) not only focuses on the search and recovery of missing persons, but begins from the moment of collecting information about the person, the circumstances around his disappearance, and the analysis of information provided by relatives
In Colombia, the ICRC carries out humanitarian recoveries when the competent authorities are unable to do so.
To begin, an extensive investigative task must be carried out by the ICRC to evaluate the context of each case.
[Dramatizado]: We already have all the data and a possible burial site.
Team, it’s time to go to field work…
[Jorge]: Forensics perform a decisive role when searching, locating, finding, recovering and identifying missing persons in the context of armed conflicts.
Although the goal is to find them alive, this does not happen in most cases.
[Jorge]: There is a search from the heart so the relatives try to make sense of the experience of disappearance.
Therefore, when the earth is removed, memories, dreams, feelings and conversations are also excavated.
[Dramatizado]: This appears to be part of a shirt…
Now we have to continue digging, but with more care.
[Jorge]: We know that… in rural areas, there are several scenarios that the equipment can encounter.
Pedro Pérez has been working in the ICRC’s forensic team for more than 5 years.
Reaching a specific point even with a prior investigation does not guarantee the discovery of the missing person.
[Pedro Pérez]: With families we have to be quite transparent, we have to be quite clear with the work we carry out as forensics in a process of searching for missing people.
Because, although we have a lot of information, let’s say already evaluated, already documented about a burial site, this does not guarantee that we are going to find it and that also leads us to another scenario, and that is that once we manage to identify a burial site, we can intervene in it. , we manage to recover each bone structure and recover this deceased person, we will not be able to know who is the person wanted until all the necessary analyzes are done for full identification.
[Jorge]: Pedro, but what do you mean by full identification?
[Pedro Pérez]: It is scientifically guaranteed that it is the person sought, beyond all reasonable doubt, and that families can have the peace of mind and confidence that once the body is identified, it is their loved one that they are receiving.
So that is why we have to be clear from the beginning of the process and explain to families each stage of the process and the importance of an identification process.
Generally we later finish or well when we finish the exhumation and excavation stage we deliver the bodies to the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, so that they can do the corresponding analyzes within the identification process, that is, compare all the information. obtained from the analyzes carried out on the body of the deceased person with all the information provided by the family, this information is compared.
[Jorge]: Pedro and How is it compared?
[Pedro Pérez]: If it is a man, if it is a woman, how old was he, what height could he be, if he had any medical history that could have affected the bone, the clothing and also of course the genetic profile, once all that has been compared information, also including dental information, which is very important, we can already see the lights if it is the person or not, all that information is condensed into a single expert identification report and let’s say if all that information that is compared matches, we can already be talking about a successful identification process and that is where we can also notify families that the body that was recovered is the body that is, let’s say, being analyzed and identified in the forensic laboratories.
[Jorge]: Pedro, and the territory that can be so relevant, what difference does it make if we are searching in the jungle, a plain or a mountain?
[Pedro Pérez]: It is an important question and it is worth clarifying why the human body does not decompose in a standard way and everything will depend on the climatic conditions and the physicochemical conditions of the soil in the area where the body was buried.
So we are going to have cases with acidic soils and with super high humidity that is too high, as in the case of Chocó, which can be very different, so we find a body, let’s say in the Sucre savanna or in the southern savannas of Córdoba where there is no level of humidity and where the soils are a little drier, then that will also determine, let’s say, how much the bones of the person who is buried are preserved or degraded.
[Dramatizado]: This appears to be a bone, I am going to examine it and confirm that it is a human body part.
[Jorge]: This is where you should ask about this very particular knowledge… How do you know that what was found was a human bone and not that of an animal? because I understand that they are very similar.
[Pedro Pérez]: Knowledge of human anatomy and human osteology.
Osteology is that science that studies, let’s say, all the bone structures of the human being; It is fundamental, it is fundamental, because that is what we are going to say, to provide both theoretical and methodological tools for the extraction of a skeletonized body and that goes hand in hand with the anthropologist in charge of the exhumation being able to identify Whether they belong to a human being or not is the first thing we are going to ask ourselves, whether the body corresponds to a human being or not and also other details that will give us, let’s say, the guidelines to continue excavating according to the position of the bones that We are seeing in the excavation.
[Jorge]: And what is the process of extracting what they find?
[Pedro Pérez]: It is very important to have knowledge of anatomy to know and be able to extract the bones in a logical way, in a systematic way, in a way that does not interrupt or that will not generate a negative impact on the identification process.
When there are multiple fossae, this knowledge of anatomy is also very important because we can try to individualize them in situ.
This means, trying to see what bone structure belongs to each body and trying to recover them in an orderly manner according to each body, each structure or skeletal component, so that it can be a slightly simpler identification process in the laboratories where the identification process is carried out.
[Dramatizado]: Everything is ready, we can now deliver it to the institutions of the state medical legal system, from now on the identification will be in your hands.
[Jorge]: The legal medical system is not only made up of the National Institute of Legal Medicine of Forensic Sciences.
There are other state entities that carry out analysis of corpses for identification purposes, such as the CTI of the Prosecutor’s Office, the DIJIN and SIJIN of the Police.
[Jorge]: Pedro… And what is the care of the bodies so that they arrive in their best condition to the institutions for identification?
[Pedro Pérez]: The process of transportation, storage, and packaging as such must be carried out in a way that guarantees the integrity of the bone structures that we are recovering, that is the main thing, and guaranteeing the integrity of the deceased person, that is why it must be done with the greatest possible care. of care and due respect, but also let’s say with all the appropriate materials for its storage.
That is why it is important to have everything in an organized manner, to be able to pack all the bone structures in plastic bags in an appropriate way with a coherent and logical anatomical relationship and to also be able to store them in containers, whether made of Styrofoam or cardboard, that avoid, let’s say, alteration of the the post-mortem bone structures, that is, after death and during the transfer, which is sometimes not easy because we not only make transfers in trucks, we also make transfers on mule backs, we also make transfers in boats along the rivers, so the idea is that we also The integrity of these people that we are recovering on the ground can be guaranteed to the extent possible with the maximum possible measure of protection.
[Jorge]: It is a very complex process that means immense effort and work on the part of those who search for those who were disappeared in the midst of armed conflicts and violence.
[Jorge]: This does not end here, in our next episode we will explain to you what the identification process of these bodies that the ICRC forensic team finds is like and what the support is like for families who hope to give a dignified farewell to their loved one… We are waiting for you. …
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