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.
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.
* * *
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.
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