A Voice For the Voiceless

The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.

The Impact of Service



"I look at myself as having the potential to be as strong and caring as the amazing women I met in Kenya."

Kate Cummings (Tufts University) volunteered in 2009 as a Peace Fellow for Vital Voices in Africa.

For more 2009 feedback click here.


Translate this page:



TAKE ACTION FOR ADVOCACY

  • News
  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Search

Resources > Global Issues > Peru – The Sear... > EPAF Newsletters > Press Release Sep...

Press Release Sept 1, 2008

More Than 300 People Attend Putis Clothing Exhibition in Huanta

EPAF Hopeful that Recovered Information Will Lead to Identifications of Massacre Victims as Exhibition Moves To Santillana and Putis

Ayacucho, PERÚ - After a special ceremony honoring the International Day of the Missing in Huanta, more than 300 people participated this past weekend in the first public exhibition of clothing and personal effects found within the mass graves of Putis exhumed by the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) last May. The clothing exhibition will move today to the community of Santillana until Tuesday and arrive in the community of Putis Wednesday and Thursday.

The ceremonial event was attended by Edwin Bustíos, mayor of Huanta, authorities from the Public Ministry, the Public Defender's office, the Council of Reparations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peace and Hope, EPAF, and the victims' associations of Ayacucho, Apurimac, the Cantuta, and the National Association of Detained, Kidnapped, and Disappeared Families of Peru (ANFASEP), among others.

During the two days of exhibition in Huanta, more than 300 people - some relatives, others friends, neighbors, and the general public - arrived to be present and give their testimony to help in the laborious task of trying to identify those disappeared in Putis. The relatives of the victims of Putis, between moments of gentle sobbing and anger, meticulously examined the pieces of recovered clothing and personal effects that correspond to the more than 100 assassinated individuals in Putis 24 years ago.

When the clothing exhibition ended, some relatives have successfully identified certain pieces of clothing of their loved ones. EPAF was able to collect 62 new profiles of ante-mortem data that contain valuable information to help identify those killed in Putis.

EPAF is in charge of the classification and exposition of the clothing, a crucial part of an investigation process meant to clarify the events that occurred in Putis as well as other communities across the country.

Back