Amnesty: Sri Lanka needs to maintain Office on Missing Persons

Amnesty International has commented on an Interim Report issued by Sri Lanka’s Office on Missing Persons (OMP). The report notes that guaranteeing justice regarding the fate of the disappeared “is merely the start of a longer process of healing and accountability”, and it recommends prosecutions in order to break “an enduring climate of impunity”. http://bit.ly/2OJzvks

Transitional justice in Nepal

The Kathmandu Post reports on efforts in Nepal to draft new legislation on transitional justice. In 2015 the Supreme Court struck down provisions of the law establishing the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CIEDP), but the law has not yet been amended. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the CIEDP were formed in February 2015 with a two-year mandate. The TRC has completed a preliminary investigation into around 2,800 of the 63,000 cases filed, without probing any cases in…

Spain: Franco’s victims speak out

The Guardian reports on a national debate over “stolen babies, torture, mass graves,” which it says is the legacy of the “Pact of Silence” that accompanied the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain. Interviewing survivors of the disappeared it says that “Spain’s historic scandals have been hidden by decades of ‘national amnesia’.” https://bit.ly/2yr1FXz

Wim Kok, former Dutch Prime Minister dies at 80

Wim Kok, the former prime minister of the Netherlands died on Saturday in Amsterdam, the New York Times reports. After he and his cabinet stood down in 2002, Mr. Kok became a Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), and worked right up until his death on issues related to accounting for the missing, first in the former Yugoslavia and then throughout the world.  https://nyti.ms/2EDqi8M

Mosul: “hundreds of bodies recovered in 2018”

From the beginning of 2018 until mid of October, more…

UN warns against “new practice of extraterritorial abduction”

The Daily Star newspaper from Bangladesh reports on an address to the UN General Assembly by Bernard Duhaime, Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, in which he warns of “a new and very worrying practice of extraterritorial abductions by states”. The Working Group will submit an in-depth study to the UN Human Rights Council on the practical implementation of the obligation to investigate enforced disappearances. https://bit.ly/2J8GoWs

Myanmar: disappeared villages in Rakhine state

More than a year after a massacre in the village of Inn Din in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine province, “there were no specific signs of the outburst of sudden, gruesome violence that killed 10 Rohingya Muslims, and no trace of the mass grave in which they were buried,” the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports. https://bit.ly/2P8ZhhA

Remains recovered from Sri Lanka’s largest mass grave will be taken to the USA

According…

Indonesia: mass graves on the island of Palu

In an extensive photo report, AFP reveals the impact of the 28 September earthquake and tsunami on the Indonesian city of Palu, including aerial photographs of mass graves, established by the authorities for reasons of public health. http://bit.ly/2PdGFgF

Secret detention in China

The recent disappearances of A-list actress Fan Bingbing and the president of Interpol Meng Hongwei have again focused international attention on China’s use of secret detentions, the BBC reports, citing among others the author of “The People’s Republic of the Disappeared”. https://bbc.in/2Ow6g4x

Journalists at risk of enforced disappearance

The free speech organization, Article 19, has published a statement supporting the resolution on the safety of journalists adopted by the UN Human Rights Council last month. Article 19 notes that “According to UNESCO’s most recent global trends report, 530 murders of journalists were recorded between 2012 and 2016, with the rate of impunity for…

Pakistan: 36 missing persons had been traced in Sept 2018

Dawn newspaper in Pakistan reports that the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIED) accounted for 36 missing persons in September, of whom 13 are currently detained in internment centers. The CIED has frequently uncovered cases where individuals have been held incommunicado in government detention facilities. https://bit.ly/2pWFHXC

Gambia Launches Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Gambia has launched a truth and reconciliation commission to look into crimes committed under former President Yahya Jammeh’s government, which is accused of torturing and killing perceived opponents, Voice of America reports. Victims, witnesses and alleged perpetrators of crimes are to begin testifying to the commission later this month. The process is expected to take around two years. http://bit.ly/2J213vE

Mexico: 16 bodies found in mass grave

Police have found 16 bodies in a clandestine burial pit on the outskirts of Guadalajara in Mexico, including the bodies of two women,…

Accounting for the missing in Indonesia

The New York Times reports that two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi, the Indonesian government has ended the formal search for remains. It notes that weeks in the tropical heat have raised concerns about the health of rescue workers, but the decision is “hard news for mothers, fathers, daughters, grandparents who gather at the edge of the destruction each day, searching for the bodies of loved ones.” https://nyti.ms/2pU6LXx

Enforced disappearances in India

An opinion piece in the Counterview portal highlights the fact that India has not defined enforced disappearance as a criminal offence in its penal code and as a result, families of the disappeared file complaints under broader legal provisions. The piece calls for the appointment of a commission to investigate enforced disappearances in line with international standards. https://bit.ly/2Cie82s

Iraq: new Yezidi mass grave

A mass grave in the village of Kasr…

“Thousands of bodies” not yet recovered in Raqqa

The Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reports on the situation in Raqqa, Syria, a year after it was retaken from Da’esh. Amnesty’s research director Anya Neistat notes that following the battle for the city, the dead were buried quickly in mass graves or left under the rubble. “We are still talking about thousands of bodies that have not been recovered,” Neistat told AFP. https://bit.ly/2Emky3i

Extrajudicial killings in Central African Republic

Human Rights Watch has highlighted a situation in which, it says, fighters in the Central African Republic “feel free to kill at will, despite the presence of United Nations peacekeepers”. HRW says Seleka rebels captured and executed at least nine civilians, including seven women, on 6 September 2018. http://bit.ly/2NIiJwK

Libya: 35 bodies found at mass grave near Tripoli

AFP reports that 35 bodies have been found in a mass grave in an agricultural area some 15…

Indonesia: search for missing children after the earthquake

Nearly two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, parents and children separated in the chaos are trying to locate one another, NPR reports. In the first ten days, UNICEF and Save the Children registered about 100 unaccompanied minors and have also received reports from families of more than 200 missing children. While families have identified some of the dead, hundreds of unidentified bodies have been buried in a mass grave east of the town of Poboya.   https://n.pr/2PvGBpd

Sri Lanka: Compensation for war victims

The Sri Lankan parliament has passed a law to pay compensation to victims of the 30-year-long separatist war between the Sri Lankan Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to Business Standard. According to official figures, around 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts, including the separatist war, in the north…

Indonesia: major search and rescue operations due to end

Nearly two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the Indonesian city of Palu, the government says it has imposed a rescue deadline to stop the spread of disease, and because it has become increasingly difficult to identify bodies, the BBC reports. More than 2,000 people are known to have died and around 5,000 are still feared missing. https://bbc.in/2RGCV5B

Libya: mass grave containing 75 bodies found

A mass grave containing 75 bodies has been found near the former jihadist bastion of Sirte in western Libya, according to the Daily Mail. Seventy-five decomposed bodies were recovered in the presence of the public prosecutor. The coastal city’s municipal council spokesman, Mohamad al-Amial, said the find was made “a few days ago” and that the bodies were believed to be of Da’esh group members, although there was no confirmation. https://dailym.ai/2PsvEoq

China’s Xinjian region gives…