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Equipo Peruano de Antropología Forense

 

Equipo Peruano de Antropología Forense (or Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team – EPAF) applies forensic anthropology to the search for forcibly disappeared persons during the period of internal political conflict from 1982- 2000. It is their final goal to restore the identity of the thousands of missing Peruvians that rest in hidden burial sites across the country.



Since its inception in February 2001, the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF), a civil society non-governmental organization, has been the primary advocate for the search, recovery, and identification of missing individuals in Peru. EPAF was formed when a group of Peruvian professionals working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia decided to apply their expertise in their own country. EPAF´s 17-member team applies scientific methods in the fields of forensic anthropology and archaeology in their attempt to restore the identify of thousands of missing Peruvians that rest in hidden burial sites across the country.

In Peru, as a result of the political violence that enveloped the country from 1980-2000, approximately 69,000 were killed and 8,500 people were disappeared according to the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Although the final truth commission report represented closure for some Peruvians, others - especially those who had yet to learn what had happened to their disappeared loved ones - found little resolution. Since the report´s release, EPAF has worked to confirm the actual number of disappeared individuals, traveling across the highlands of Peru gathering information from families residing within those areas hardest hit by the two-decade civil war. As of 2006, EPAF had compiled its own list of 13,000 missing individuals, and more recent estimates approach approximately 15,000.

Through its Memory Project, EPAF collects ante-mortem data from families of the disappeared to preserve the biological and social characteristics of missing persons, as well as the circumstances of their disappearance, death, and clandestine burial. The collection of ante-mortem data is the first step in the correct identification of exhumed, unidentified remains. EPAF uses this data within a comprehensive strategy designed to identify victims of the Peruvian conflict, which also includes the recovery and analysis of remains and the use of DNA testing to complement the identification process.

EPAF also incorporates an educational component into its work, helping different actors already involved in the search, recovery, and identification process understand the components of a forensic anthropology investigation. These efforts - explored through special targeted workshops - focus on the families of the disappeared as well as judicial and governmental organizations, the greater human rights community, and the press.

• EPAF is looking to develop workshops on forensic anthropology given to judges, prosecutors and NGOs; so that they can gain access to the information and skills needed to understand and adopt efficient work strategies using forensic sciences, and improve communication between forensic anthropologists and judiciary agents in their joint work in the forensic investigation of human rights violations.

• The latest official number for documented disappearances in Peru is 13,721, a much larger number than the one originally projected. Still, EPAF believes the number will continue to rise. There is no mean to develop a real, effective strategy for the search of the missing without an approach to the real number, which is why EPAF is working to consolidate all data sources into one list and to collect ante mortem data on each missing person.

• In order to establish the real number of missing people in Peru, and to collect ante mortem data from these victims, EPAF is working to access the far regions that weren’t reached by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and in many cases by no other organization.

• EPAF is also working to establish a database for the disappeared/deceased that will enable to recover and maintain the biological memory of the missing persons, and to cross antemortem, postmortem and genetic data from all the missing persons and remains found during the investigation of Human Right violations.

• The Canines Searching for the Truth (CST) activity focuses on the use of highly trained human remains detection dogs to locate human remains at clandestine burial sites in Peru to support forensic investigations linked to human rights violations. EPAF has obtained dogs for this purpose and has begun using them to search for remains.

• Press Releases

EPAF publishes news through “Correo EPAF,” a monthly publication distributed to the Human Rights network in Peru.

• Reports

Ciencia Forense y Derechos Humanos: Una Propuesta para la Investigación Forense Eficaz de Violaciones a los Derechos Humanos en el Perú

Manual para la investigación eficaz ante el hallazgo de fosas con restos humanos en el Perú

De los Balcanes a los Andes

Investigaciones Forenses y Derechos Humanos

EPAF has recently presented its report on the case of the death and disappearance of nine students and a professor of La Cantuta University, one of the most important cases against the former Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori.

• AdvocacyNet

July 18, 2008
Grieving Relatives Seek Closure as University Massacre Victims are Reburied in Peru

June 4, 2008
Relatives Seek Justice as Peru’s Largest Mass Grave is Exhumed

May 21, 2008
Forensic Team Seeks to Exhume 120 Victims of Peru's Dirty War

October 2, 2007
Forensic Team Tracks Disappeared Peruvians as Fujimori Returns to Face Justice

June 12, 2008
Peruvians Seek Relatives in Mass Grave
BBC News

June 2, 2008
Mass Grave Found in Peru
iAfrica
News 24 South Africa

May 31, 2008
Scientists Find Murdered Children In Peru's Largest Mass Grave
France24

May 31, 2008
Mass Grave of Murdered Children Found in Peru
Japan Today

May 31, 2008
Peru’s Largest Mass Grave With 100 Bodies Of Children Found
A Pakistan News

May 31, 2008
Officials Find Massacred Children, Babies in Peruvian Mass Grave
FOX News

May 30, 2008
Unburying the Evidence of Biggest 'Dirty War' Massacre
Inter Press Service News Agency

May 30, 2008
Scientists Find Murdered Children in Peru's Largest Mass Grave
Yahoo News

May 27, 2008
Peruvian Forensic Team Exhumes Bodies From a Mass Grave Victims Were Forced to Dig For Themselves
Peruvian Times

February 27, 2008
Unmarked Graves Haunt Peru Despite Fujimori Trial
Reuters

December 10, 2007
Peru struggles with its dark past
BBC News

November 21, 2007
Perros Con Narices Finas
El Commercio




Outreach Partners

Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team Asociación Nacional de Familiares Secuestrados, Detenidos, y Desaparecidos del Perú Asociación Paz y Esperanza Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos Centro de Atención Psicosocial Comisión Episcopal de Acción Social Consejo Nacional de Reparaciones Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos Creative Learning Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala Fundación Ecuménica para el Desarrollo y la Paz Instituto de Defensa Legal

International Committee of the Red Cross Asociación Latinoamericana de Antropología Forense Mesa de Concertación para la lucha contra la pobreza Office of the Public Prosecutor Office of the Judiciary Ombudsman Office – Peru Project Counselling Service Red Para la Infancia Regional Office for the Missing Persons - Ayacucho Washington Office on Latin America

• EPAF was the first to introduce international standards for a Forensic Anthropology Investigation in Peru, during its intervention in the case of the Japanese Ambassador’s Residence Kidnapping, in the year 2001.
• Workshops and constant interaction with the families of the victims have allowed them to participate in the process in a different level, and helped them develop conscience of their right to the restitution of their loved ones.
• With EPAF’s impulse, the first Regional Office for the Missing Persons – OPD has been created this year by the Regional Government of Ayacucho, one of the regions most affected by political violence.
• Even though there are still many far regions EPAF is trying to reach, some of them have been reached, and people who had never spoken has been able to do it.

Contact:
Jose Pablo Baraybar
Jr. Mello Franco 341
Jesús María
Lima, Peru
Tel: (511) 424-5490

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