CJA and EPAF Launch New Blog - Unearthing Evidence of Barre-era War Crimes in Somaliland.docx

This week the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team, in partnership with the government of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, opened an international forensic training program in Hargeisa, Somaliland.  

Participants in this historic effort will share their experience with updates that will inform and reflect on the search for the missing and disappeared.  This will give readers a window into the process of fact-finding and forensic investigation of human rights violations in Somaliland, a process that will allow access to truth and justice for the families of the victims. 

Click here to read the blog.

From 1969 to 1991, president and military dictator Siad Barre oversaw a campaign of widespread atrocities that decimated Somali civil society.  To quash separatist movements in the 1980s, the Somali Armed Forces targeted civilians in the northwest, modern-day Somaliland, culminating in the bloody 1988 siege of the regional capital Hargeisa, which claimed at least 5,000 civilian lives. 

Just last month, U.S. Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema awarded $21 million in compensatory and punitive damages against former Somali General Mohamed Ali Samantar for his role in the slaughter. This judgment marks the first time that any Somali government official has been held accountable for the atrocities perpetrated under that regime.

The forensic training program will help to determine the universe of missing people through a systematic approach, ante mortem data collection and research of mass and clandestine graves. CJA is sponsoring the project, which runs from September 24 through October 21, 2012.

For more information, please visit CJA’s website: cja.org

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About Center for Justice and Accountability

The Center for Justice and Accountability is an international human rights organization dedicated to deterring torture and other severe human rights abuses around the world and advancing the rights of survivors to seek truth, justice and redress. CJA uses litigation to hold perpetrators individually accountable for human rights abuses, develop human rights law, and advance the rule of law in countries in transition from periods of abuse.

About the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team

The Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) is a non-profit organization that promotes the right to truth, justice, and guarantees of non-repetition in cases of forced disappearance and extrajudicial execution. EPAF seeks to contribute to the consolidation of peace and democracy where grave human rights violations have taken place by working alongside the families of the disappeared to find their loved ones, gain access to justice, and improve the conditions affecting their political and economic development.