Observations regarding the search for missing persons in Colombia September 17, 2008 I. Mission EQUITAS is a victim-centered, evidence-driven, scientific and humanitarian organization, which provides families of disappeared and missing persons in Colombia’s conflict with pro-bono, independent, scientific contributions for the advancement of their cases, as well as psychosocial accompaniment during this process. In addition to its casework, EQUITAS aims to develop relevant research and tools that can enhance official forensic practices, guide public policy, raise social awareness, and promotes the work of victims’ associations, governmental institutions, and non-governmental counterparts involved. EQUITAS acts on lessons obtained from its casework to make contributions far beyond its cases, extracting knowledge to identify best practices, implement new procedures, and create innovative approaches to help the issue of disappeared and missing persons in Colombia. II. General Observations Following are our observations and recommendations related to the search, recuperation, analysis and identification of missing persons in Colombia. a. It is important to have a structural view of the problem, in order to provide long term, sustainable, and coordinated solutions to the problem of missing persons. Colombian authorities, non-governmental organizations, victim associations and international cooperation agencies have advanced significantly in recognizing the National Search Plan, as an organized route to document, recover and identify missing persons in Colombia. This technical route has been proven internationally, and sets the search for missing persons as a state issue, with long-term responsibilities. It recognizes the right to know what happened and where their loved ones are, as well as the right to an efficient investigation that leads to their identification and sanctioning those responsible. Although Colombia still does not know what is the number of persons forcefully disappeared, the problem is of such a magnitude 1, that it will need long-term, institutional coordinated efforts that should not rely on results related to a specific law, such as the Justice and Peace Law. It should also consider the process is made sustainable with the cooperation of state entities, families, civil society, international, church and independent expert organizations. b. It is important to change result indicators related to the search, recovery and identification of missing persons, through sustainable strategies, and educational long-term processes. Colombian authorities and civil society need to understand that this process will take a few decades and that recuperating bodies alone is not enough. It is necessary to follow a correct methodology in order to document context and the truth of events surrounding violent death in Colombia, as well as increasing the possibilities of identification of these remains. Creating awareness, changing result indicators, and expecting nonimmediate and more sustainable results is a key challenge not only for authorities in charge of searches, but also for society as a whole. The primary result for families is the identification of their loved ones, and knowing the truth surrounding the events on their death. EQUITAS considers that the notion of the rights of victims, and their families has expanded displacing the previous paradigm of punishment for “human rights violations” based primarily upon traditional criminal law and retributive justice principles. The formal recognition of “victims and their families” allows for the incorporation of notions of reparative justice into existing justice models contributing both to the transformation of traditional criminal law, and growth of human rights’ “remedies” for victims and their families. Recent developments in procedural innovations connected with the creation of the International Criminal Court, and a further substantive development embedded in a recent decision of 1
EQUITAS, in a joint effort with the BENETECH Human Rights Program produced a statistical report, based on 14 governmental and non-governmental databases, and only in Casanare between 1998-2006, we estimated 2553 persons missing, 1500 reported missing, and 40% as an undocumented rate.
the UN Human Rights Committee2, as well as the Missing Report3 from ICRC, incorporate victims' rights, without compromising the rights of the accused – thus creating a balanced combination of retributive and reparative justice. That is, victims should be at the center of the search process, as a form reparation in itself. c. Psychosocial support must empower families in order to demand their rights related to the search, recovery and identification of their missing loved ones. According to EQUITAS experience, all officials and organizations working with families, independent of their profession, should have a psychosocial perspective that influences the way they communicate, interact and accompany families. This is made evident in the following elements: ! It considers context elements (security conditions, social networks, experience of conflict) in carrying out activities with families and accompanying them. ! It offers information adapted to sociocultural contexts and differential publics (rural, urban, age, gender, etc) on technical procedures related to the search. It should not generate false expectations and consider their needs related to the search, recovery and identification of their loved ones. ! It offers elements and practices with which families can demand their rights and follow up on their cases. This will allow families to take better decisions, demand information and participate in all processes. ! It offers elements and practices that help families identify a support network in order to manage emotional frustration and impacts related to the search. d. It is important to view the problem of missing persons in the context of lethal death and continuing conflict. EQUITAS believes that crimes such as forced recruitment, arbitrary executions, persons dead in combat, homicides, kidnappings, and at times domestic violence, are directly related to the issue of missing persons and non-identified bodies, and the impact of conflict on a day-to-day basis. There needs to be a change in result indicators for the Police and the Military, related to their “positivos�, in order to prevent continued, systematic and generalized use of forced disappearance, under or related to other crimes. It is important to create social and political awareness on the gravity of forced disappearance as a crime against humanity in relation to transitional peace processes, demobilization of armed groups, and ordinary justice processes. A comprehensive understanding of missing persons from the perspective of lethal death, should offer key aspects for public policy related to preventing disappearances from happening. III. Needs according to the National Search Plan Following are the main needs related to the four technical phases of the National Search Plan. a. Collecting information: ! Update and maintain information systems: Despite recent advances in making SIRDEC (the system for missing persons in charge of Legal Medicine Institute) the interinstitutional tool to register missing persons in Colombia, there needs to be sustained work at a regional level in order to update, complete and input old cases in the system, and cross reference them with other data bases (such as persons who have left the country, persons killed in combat, arbitrary executions, jails, hospitals, demobilized persons, kidnapped, and others). ! Develop other lines of evidence on possible burial places: The National Prosecutors Office relies excessively in testimonial information in order to locate clandestine gravesites. It is important to develop and use other lines of evidence (archaeological, aerial photography, satellite imagery and others) as good practice to analyze and cross information on probable sites. ! Collect complete antemortem information: Church, victim associations, Red Cross, ICRC, nongovernmental associations and even universities could help reconstruct biological information (ante-mortem) on missing persons and accompany victims from a psychosocial perspective during the process. Outreach by medical and dentist practitioners could also support this documentation in marginal rural areas. 2
Mariam Sankara et al. v. Burkina Faso, Communication No. 1159/2003, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/86/D/1159/2003 (2006).
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The Missing: Action to resolve the problem of people unaccounted for as a result of armed conflict or internal violence and to assist their families, Geneva, 2003.
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b. Analysis of information: ! Specialize State entities on specific functions on the search phases: It is important to specialize state entities en functions along the National Search Plan, in order to stop duplication of responsibilities, competition or lack of results. The search, recovery and identification of missing persons should not rely on a temporary unit of the Prosecutors Office, such as the Justice and Peace Unit, but more, on long-term units such as the Human Rights and DIH Unit. Exhumations for example, should not be carried out by different entities and teams, but should be a specialized responsibility of CTI (Cuerpo TĂŠcnico de InvestigaciĂłn) countrywide. Based on specific functions and responsibilities it is possible to focus funding efforts related to infrastructure and human resources needed in each entity. ! Have a regional and national documentation and analysis strategy: The problem of forcefully disappeared persons is a national issue, which implies a systematic, rigorous, nationwide documentation strategy, including bodies thrown in rivers, caves, and cemeteries. Also, regional approaches are important in order to understand patterns and modus operandi related to generalized and systematic crimes. However, it is important to cross-reference information with a wider concept that considers missing persons in conflict, before classifying the crime, in order to concentrate efforts in finding them. ! Strengthen coordination efforts on the MBU: The Urgent Search Mechanism (Mecanismo de BĂşsqueda Urgente-MBU), as a means for prevention is currently not working. The procedures related to it are not clear, identifiable, and effective. There is a need for centralized cross-referencing information, for example, using databases of missing persons and non-identified persons. Also, immediate accountability on behalf of all entities carrying out actions within the mechanism. ! Guarantee participation of families in search processes: State entities need to understand that families are not only sources of information. They not only have the right to permanent information during the search process, but also have the right to participate in the different search procedures if they want to. This implies close work and communication with them, taking into account their needs before, during and after technical procedures in concrete actions, psychosocial support and funding their participation in technical procedures. c. Recovery and forensic analysis: ! Document cause and manner of death during human remains recoveries: There needs to be more systematic work documenting context of remains, using archaeological methods in exhumations. Cause and manner of death, as well as torture and possible sexual violence, can only be documented on sight, and in context. Good work related to field recovery implies good planning procedures that involve security measures, previous land prospecting, technical tools according to the place, adequate climate, adequate team and experts, coordination among entities, family needs, among others. ! Participation of independent experts: According to international protocols4, impartial, independent and competent research on forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions among other grave crimes against humanity, is guaranteed with independent commissions, or parts contributing to transparency in technical processes and quality of results. Universities adequately trained, could have high academic standards in order to provide long term services related to this issue. ! Strengthen other scientific methods of identification: There is an excessive trust in genetics as the solution to identification, and identification as the only result of the search for missing persons. Genetics is a complementary scientific method, based on statistical analysis that is the probability of being related to someone. Therefore, the universe of missing persons and good ante-mortem information is a key aspect to this work. Also, many cases in Colombia could be resolved with good dental or radiographic work (less costly and effective), elements that State entities do not document in detail. d. Final disposition of remains: ! Dignified return of human remains to families: Family associations have put forward the need to dignify the memory of the missing persons, through a procedure of delivery of remains and mourning ceremonies that consider organization, logistic and economic aspects according to traditions, beliefs and cultural needs. 4
The UN Manual on Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, NY, 1991 and the UN International Guidelines for the Investigation and Documentation of Torture, NY and Geneva, 2001.
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! Have a complete Registry of Corpses: Policy While official laboratories are responsible for registering unidentified bodies in the Registro Único de Cadáveres, also known as RUC (Single Registry of Corpses), records are often incomplete and provide little information of these human remains. Additionally, when bodies are recovered in rural areas by poorly trained medical practitioners and local police, unidentified bodies are often buried unrecorded in cemeteries. As such, there is a population of unidentified bodies that are not being included in official registers—be it as unidentified bodies, or as homicides. Recent discussions on how bodies recovered under the Law of Justice and Peace in the last two years modify national homicide figures also need to take into account decades of unreported unidentified bodies that have accumulated in national cemeteries5. ! Guarantee protection mechanisms of unidentified remains in public cemeteries: There needs to be public policy in Colombia geared to regulating the burial and storage of unidentified remains in official laboratories and public cemeteries. This regulation would ensure safekeeping of these remains during the period of time before they are retrieved to be returned to families. Given the volume of bodies currently recovered by the National Unit of Justice and Peace, these measures are essential to ensure that recently exhumed bodies in official laboratories are not lost if they are transferred to these cemeteries. ! Organize, classify, and inventory unidentified remains in public cemeteries: Having an inventory of NN skeletal remains of all municipal cemeteries would help in the search for missing persons, as it would facilitate future cross referencing between disappeared persons (premortem information) and unidentified persons (post-mortem information) more effectively. Furthermore, a detailed inventory, which includes a description of evidence of violence on remains, contributes to identify what occurred to the person, such as cause and manner of death as well as other indications of torture, extrajudicial execution and other violent acts. ! Involve non-state actors in this process: The problem of unidentified bodies in Colombia requires efforts from both governmental and non-governmental actors to help solve this problem. Regional universities with biological anthropologists and archaeologists could make a concrete contribution to the work of organizing, classifying and preserving the remains of NNs in municipal cemeteries so that they be separated and documented.
IV. Other needs a. Support for victims: The search, recovery and identification of missing persons, as a long term endeavor, will require programs and organizations that provide support for families who live the impact of forced disappearance in their lives. ! Income options for their daily survival. ! Economic support in order to participate in search processes. ! Psychosocial support during long-term processes. ! Legal representation of their rights of victims related to truth, justice and reparation. b. Support for public policy measures: The issue of missing persons needs various initiatives related to public policy in Colombia: ! A CONPES document where National Planning Office dedicates a budget to the issue. ! Strengthen the Public Defender program of the Ombudsman’s Office. ! A law on cemetery administration procedures and treatment of Non Identified Bodies. ! Training programs for forensic anthropologists. Certification program for independent professionals and observers. ! Make forensic anthropology, using radiography as an accepted scientific identification method. 5
See “Hallazgo de víctimas en fosas communes modificará las estadísticas sobre homicidios,” El Tiempo, October 2, 2007.
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! Continued training and education for public officers in psychosocial and scientific methods related to the search process. ! Create a plan to prevent continued forced disappearance in Colombia. c.
Create awareness in civil society: There is a need to create awareness on the impact for society of forced disappearances, on the rights of victims, on the responsibilities of society as a whole, of the role of media in order to recognize these acts, dignify the memory of victims and prevent it from happening again.
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