Ayacucho, Peru: The first public exhibition of clothing and personal items from the mass graves at Putis, Peru, held in Huanta this past weekend, made some progress toward identifying the victims of the 1984 massacre.
The exhibition was held by the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF), an Advocacy Project partner that exhumed the Putis graves in May. According to an EPAF press release, more than 300 people attended the exhibition, and some relatives successfully identified 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.
The Putis site is the largest of Peru’s mass graves, and marks one of the most brutal incidents in the country’s 20-year internal conflict. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that in December 1984, 123 men, women and children from the communities of Cayramayo, Vizcatampata, Orccohuasi and Putis were executed by units of the Peruvian Army and buried at Putis.
The two-day clothing exhibition followed a ceremony in Huanta honoring the International Day of the Missing. The exhibition is now in the community of Santillana and will arrive in Putis later this week.
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Posted Oct 6th, 2008