Ayacucho (ICRC) – The families and neighbours of 28 people who disappeared 25 years ago amid internal conflict in Peru, and whose mortal remains were discovered in a common grave at Putis,
south-west of the capital Lima, are finally going to be able to bury their loved ones with dignity in their own community.
On 19 August, the families received official death
certificates relating to their loved ones.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arranged for transportation for the families and coffins and provided the families with
emotional support.
Dozens of relatives, accompanied by Putis community authorities, arrived last week in Huamanga, the capital of Ayacucho, to receive from the supra-provincial human rights
ministry the death certificates and files specifying the circumstances in which their loved ones perished.
"I can finally bury my Rita so that her soul will rest in peace," said Marina
Quispe Saavedra, her mother, whose daughter was barely 10 years old when she lost her.
Fifteen months ago, she was present as the exhumations took place and recognized the clothing of her
daughter, whose identity was confirmed by DNA analysis.
"The expectation and hope of finding a loved one keep rising as the investigation proceeds.
The exhumation of mortal
remains, the clothing exhibitions, the identification by relatives and, finally, the return of the remains help to bring the families' mourning to an end," said Valeria Gamboni, the ICRC's head of
delegation for Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
"These families have to be able to obtain redress in order to improve their living conditions." Of the 92 bodies exhumed, 28 were positively
identified by forensic anthropologists.
Attempts to identify the others were unsuccessful as it was impossible to compare the DNA taken from the remains with that of presumed relatives,
either because they had all died in the meantime or because of the badly deteriorated condition of the remains.
The issue of missing persons represents a significant challenge for the ICRC,
because 15,000 families still do not know what happened to their loved ones who disappeared during the internal armed conflict that lasted from 1980 to 2000.
For further
information, please contact:
Dafne Martos, ICRC Lima, tel: +51 997 56 02 40
A Guatemalan soldier prepares to patrol at the Laguna del Tigre national park in Waka Peru August 26, 2009. Less than a third of the park, which borders Mexico, remains untouched ...
