Saturday 7 March 2009

Peru: Exhumation of More Victims

The Equipo Peruano de Antropología Forense (EPAF, Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team) will begin exhuming around 50 bodies from a mass grave near Huanta, they have announced. The victims were presumably murdered by the Peruvian Army in 1984. The forensic anthropologists hope to take DNA samples to compare with those of relatives and try to identify the dead.

There are two interesting further points made in the article. First is that the human remains have not been lying under the earth since 1984. They were moved from Pucayacu, where the killings took place, but reburied in a common grave in a cemetery when it was decided that there was "not enough evidence" to prosecute anyone for the murders.

Second, former general and Ayacucho regional commander Adrián Huamán and former Navy officer and military base commander Gabilondo García del Barco are under investigation for the events. But the main wanted man for the killings themselves, Navy Major Álvaro Artaza, himself disappeared in mysterious circumstances and has been declared dead. A Navy man disappeared? It makes you wonder what happened to him.

Exhumaran 50 presuntas victimas del Ejercito peruano despues de 25 años (Que)

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