Annual Report 2006 (Covering the period January to December 2005)
Title Page and Table of Contents
Mission Reports
In 2005, EAAF continued its work in Argentina to identify people who disappeared during the last military regime, moving investigations forward in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Chaco, Jujuy, Tucumán, Santa Fe, Catamarca, and Entre Ríos.
At the request of the Special Secretary for Human Rights of the government of Brazil, EAAF traveled to Foz do Iguaçu to search for the remains of six members of the militant group Vanguardia Popular Revolucionaria (Popular Revolutionary Front), who were reportedly killed by security forces in 1974.
EAAF carried out a preliminary mission to East Timor to begin an investigation into the Santa Cruz massacre of 1991.
EAAF members worked in the state of Chihuahua on a project to exhume, analyze, and attempt to identify the remains of approximately eighty female individuals associated with the investigation of murdered and disappeared women in Ciudad Juárez and the city of Chihuahua.
At the request of Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, EAAF took part in a South African delegation to Namibia to view recently discovered mass graves in the Oshana and Ohangwena regions bordering Angola. EAAF assessed the conditions of the sites and made recommendations on forensic work for future investigations.
EAAF was part of a delegation to Paraguay sent to collaborate with the governmental Commission for Truth and Justice, offering recommendations on obtaining, organizing, and archiving information on Stroessner-era disappearances.
EAAF conducted three missions to South Africa, working with the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa on apartheid-era crimes. Together with the Missing Persons Task Team, an office under the NPA created to continue with the investigations begun by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, EAAF conducted investigations in seven cemeteries located in the provinces of KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga, and Gauteng.
At the request of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, EAAF participated in the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Darfur. The Commission was established to investigate human rights violations, determine if acts of genocide had occurred, and identify those individuals alleged to be responsible. EAAF assisted with these investigations and made recommendations for future forensic work in Darfur.
EAAF was part of a fact finding mission to Togo conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate recent human rights violations. EAAF made recommendations on possible forensic investigations.
EAAF conducted two missions to Uruguay to provide technical support to a group of local archaeologists searching for the remains of people disappeared in former military facilities during Uruguay’s last military regime. The team assisted with the exhumation, and anthropological and genetic analyses of the remains.
Special Section: Part I (Right to Truth in Argentina)
Right to Truth: EAAF’s work supports the fundamental rights to truth and justice of victims of human rights violations, their families, and societies at large. This section provides an update on judicial processes in Argentina that seek to bring those accused of human rights abuses to justice and EAAF’s contributions to them.
Special Section: Part II (Latin American Forensic Anthropology Association (ALAF) and EAAF awards)
Latin American Forensic Anthropology Association (ALAF): As the 2005 president, EAAF continued to actively support ALAF, participating in the organization of its third annual meeting in Bogotá, Colombia.
EAAF Awards: Awards received by EAAF for its work during 2005.
Special Section: Part III (Documentation and Outreach Activities)
Documentation and Outreach Activities: Producing visual documentation and conducting outreach activities in relation to EAAF’s work is part of the team’s effort to return the results of forensic investigations along with the human stories to affected communities, associations of families of victims, human rights organizations, and related institutions.
