Argentina: new light on 1976-83 disappearances

The Nation newspaper from the United States reports on the release of 47,000 pages of classified US documents that shed light on the “infrastructure of repression” in Argentina from 1976 to 1983, Argentina’s role in Operation Condor and “most important, the fate of hundreds of desaparecidos who were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered”.

Egypt: “systematic” enforced disappearances

Amnesty International reports that authorities in Egypt are “systematically using arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances to silence any dissent and create an atmosphere of fear”. It says the Shehab Center for Human Rights recently reported more than 6,421 cases of enforced disappearance in Egypt during the period from 2013 to 2018. https://bit.ly/33b3pjW

Mexico: exhumations at mass grave in Coahuila

Noticieros Televisa from Mexico reports on the exhumation of 47 sets of human remains being carried out by a team of 45 forensic experts at a mass grave in Saltillo in the…

Mexico: missing activist found dead

Human rights activist Arnulfo Cerón Soriano has been found dead in the state of Guerrero in southwest Mexico, the New York Times reports. Cerón disappeared on 11 October. The mountains of Guerrero are home to poppy fields cultivated for opium, and the state has seen some of the worst violence of Mexico’s drug wars. https://nyti.ms/2XwuQDV

Major migrant rescue off Libya

Ninety-four refugees and migrants, including four pregnant women, have been rescued off the coast of Libya by a vessel operated jointly by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders, Aljazeera reports. More than 1,000 people have been feared drowned in the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organization of Migration (IOM). http://bit.ly/37r8NmH

Croatia: commemoration for Vukovar victims

A commemoration was held on Wednesday for victims exhumed from a mass grave at the Ovcara farm on the outskirts of Vukovar, Croatia, where 200 wounded soldiers and civilians…

Enforced disappearances in Africa

Countries in Africa must acknowledge that enforced disappearances are happening, an article in Open Democracy argues. Noting that enforced disappearance was practiced during the colonial era “against freedom fighters and to instill blind obedience” it says the practice is being used today “to silence political opposition, activists and human rights defenders”, and cites cases in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Libya. https://bit.ly/2OoJzMY

Mexico: more victims found at farm in Jalisco

EFE Noticias reports that human remains of at least five women and 20 men have been found on a farm in the municipality of Tlajomulco, in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. Fifty-two bags of human remains have been found at the site since early November. Six people have been identified (Original in Spanish). https://bit.ly/2NZCT98

Mexico: training for families of the missing

Noticieros Televisa from Mexico reports on the work of a team of forensic anthropologists that has delivered workshops…

Colombia: massacre victims identified

The Associated Press reports that individual burials witnessed by family members have taken place in the town of Bojaya in western Colombia after scientists used DNA to identify the remains of 79 victims of a 2002 massacre. The victims were initially buried in a mass grave. https://yhoo.it/35ebxSh

Malaysia: enforced disappearance

Norhayati Mohd Ariffin has sued the Malaysian government over the disappearance of her husband, activist Amri Che Mat, three years ago, Yahoo Singapore reports. Amri was 43 when he vanished on 24 November 2016 in Kangar, in the northwest state of Perlis. Norhayati has accused the police of failing to investigate the disappearance and the government of negligence. http://bit.ly/3324SsQ

Syria: mass grave found near Aleppo

The Syrian Network for Human Rights reports that Civil Defense workers have found a mass grave containing the remains of six persons in the town of Turkman Bareh about 40 kilometers north…

Sri Lanka: election results and missing persons

Following the election Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President of Sri Lanka, families of missing persons from the country’s Tamil community have expressed concern, SBS News from Australia reports, amid allegations that Rajapaksa “orchestrated the disappearances of political opponents, journalists and civilians” during the country’s civil war. Gotabaya has consistently denied any knowledge or involvement in the disappearances and war crimes. https://bit.ly/2r14wFO

El Salvador: President urged to open records of missing persons

Relatives of people reported to have gone missing at the hands of security agencies during El Salvador’s Civil War have urged President Nayib Bukele to open the military archives, el Diario reports. Between 8,000 and 10,000 went missing during the conflict, which ended with a peace agreement in 1992 (original in Spanish). https://bit.ly/2Kwp8fU

Colombia: highest number of disappearances

A report by the NGO Human Rights Everywhere mapping enforced disappearances in 19 countries in…

Myanmar: ICC to investigate atrocities against Rohingya

The International Criminal Court has authorized an investigation into alleged crimes in Myanmar committed against the country’s Rohingya minority, such as enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests, Amnesty International reports. Amnesty’s Director for East and Southeast Asia commented that “it remains essential that the UN Security Council refers the situation in the whole of the country to the ICC”. https://bit.ly/2pkgqdg

Venezuela: extrajudicial killings

A special report released by Reuters documents the outcomes of a four-month investigations into extrajudicial killings conducted by Venezuelan police forces. Reuters has reviewed internal government data revealing that 5,280 people died in police hands last year, 160 percent more than in 2016. https://reut.rs/3714Bts

Mexico: Mothers of Missing Migrants seek solidarity

Mothers of missing migrants from Central America have begun an annual journey through Mexico highlighting cases of migrants who went missing while crossing the country on their way…

Spain: exhumations at Civil War mausoleum

Spanish authorities will endeavor to exhume some of the thousands of Civil War victims in the Valley of the Fallen, weeks after the remains of dictator Francisco Franco were transferred, Reuters reports. A source at National Heritage, the state organization that manages the Valley of the Fallen, said they had received 31 requests for exhumations. Forensic examiners will be brought in to offer technical and legal assessments on whether the exhumations can be carried out. http://bit.ly/2qV84cl

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 223 new identifications this year

BHRT reports that 91 exhumations and 314 re-exhumations have been carried out this year in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in the identification of 223 victims of the 1992-95 conflict. Representatives of the International Commission on Missing Persons took part in the roundtable at which the BIH Missing persons Institute announced these figures. (Original article in B/C/S). http://bit.ly/3732TYD

Syria: international investigation

Syrian refugees…

Sudan: Families still wait for justice

Families of Sudanese protesters who were killed or went missing when the military cleared their protest camp in the capital Khartoum are still waiting for justice, Anadolu Agency reports. In September, Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok ordered the formation of an investigation committee into the deadly dispersal of protesters on 3 June, which left more than 100 dead. The committee has yet to announce its findings. http://bit.ly/2QetrQM

Mexico: Ayotzinapa families urge President to speed up investigations

Parents of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa who disappeared in Iguala in the Mexican state of Guerrero in September 2014 met on Monday with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Agencia EFE reports. The group indicated that it will increase its calls for action if there are no concrete results from the current investigation of the case (original in Spanish). https://bit.ly/33CCKh8

Colombia: 17 years after massacre families bury their loved…