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From Dust to Dust: Ethical and Practical Issues Involved in the Location, Exhumation, and Identification of Bodies from Mass Graves

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From Dust to Dust: Ethical and Practical Issues Involved in the Location, Exhumation, and Identification of Bodies from Mass Graves 44(3):251-258,2003 COVER PAGE From Dust to Dust: Ethical and Practical Issues Involved in the Location, Exhumation, and Identification of Bodies from Mass Graves Erin D. Williams, John D. Crews Foundation for Genetic Medicine, Inc., Reston, Virginia, USA There are many potential purposes served by the investigation of human remains: criminal fact-finding, archaeological exploration, forensic research, and others. This paper focuses on the identification of remains from mass graves to find missing persons. The primary goal of such efforts is to honor the memory of the dead by bringing closure to living fam- ily members, thus supporting the human rights of both the living and the deceased. Cultures, customs, political, and in- terpersonal specifics will vary, but that singular goal should remain the central guiding principle. This article presents ethical and practical issues resulting from efforts to locate, exhume, and identify the remains of mass fatalities. Key words: death; DNA; DNA fingerprinting; ethics; forensic anthropology; forensic medicine; human rights; jurisprudence. Excerpts from the Personal Journal of Erin Wil- The September 11, 2001, attacks on the United liams: States’ World Trade Center and Pentagon were sud- My God. Oh my God. I feel shock? Isolation? den, dramatic, well recorded, and heavily publicized. Grief? Alone. A few hours ago a hijacked plane That day is indelibly marked in the minds of the US crashed into one World Trade Center building in people. Though unpleasant to consider, the conse- New York City. Soon after, a second crashed into the quences of these attacks are not unique. Mass killings other tower. Then another crashed into the Pentagon have taken place around the world in a variety of ven- and a fourth crashed outside of Pittsburgh. My God. ues for centuries (1). Exploration of the events that cause mass casualties, and the scientific, ethical, and As I watched on live television, first one, and humanitarian lessons learned from the identification then the other World Trade Center towers collapsed. efforts that follow, may assist those whose families are Apparently people tried to flee by jumping out of win- dows. My God. I can’t imagine. The irony is not lost still dealing with grief, no matter their location or on me. My friends were worried about my safety trav- circumstances. eling here [to Croatia and Bosnia]. And in my ab- Without direct experience, it is impossible to sence, what United States government officials are grasp fully the effects of any tragedy on a population. calling an “act of war” was committed in the US – More specifically, within any population, individuals’ one in my home state of Virginia. reactions to dealing with human remains will vary ac- cording to an assortment of factors. For instance, peo- [September 11, 2001: Dubrovnik, Croatia] ple may characterize the remains themselves as rela- tives, specimens (2), body, body parts, tissue, corpses, It is estimated that about 40,000 bodies remain property (3), heritage (4), evidence, objects (5), worth- unidentified in mass graves from the breakup of the less materials (6), and eventually as archeological arti- former Yugoslavia. Less than 4,000 are presumed facts (7). Recognizing this variation, the authors be- dead in the US from the 9-11 attacks. Unlike here, the lieve that the best outsiders can do to assist survivors US attacks had no rape or concentration camps, no of mass casualties is to approach them with humility, years of bombing and war. And the number dead are a willingness to listen, and a desire to help. such a tiny percentage of the U.S. population com- The liberalization, democratization, and capital- pared with the percentage of the local population ization of countries in the 20th century opened the killed by the wars in the Balkans. I am grieving for doors for those advocating strict adherence to human myself, and yet my personal losses seem almost insig- rights (8). Unfortunately, many societies that are the nificant compared with those of the people around beneficiaries of newly implemented human rights me. within their countries have had to suffer the severe in- [September 20, 2001: Tuzla, Bosnia] justice of intense human rights violations before such www.cmj.hr 251 Cover Page: From Dust to Dust Croat Med J 2003;44:251-258 reforms could take place. A number of humanitarian One major factor that undermines exhumation organizations have been created to help bring justice and identification efforts is “poor communication to the families of the missing, and also to bring some with the relatives of the missing” (13). Understanding level of respect to victims themselves (9,10). Physi- the survivor population is important, yet difficult be- cians for Human Rights and the Truth and Reconcilia- cause the effects of mass casualties on a population tion Commission are two such organizations. These are varied and complex. Violence can cause people and other similarly oriented organizations face a spec- to lose not only their loved ones, but also their means trum of problems in gathering information on missing of income (14). It can deprive children of their parents persons (11). There are a great many reasons why a as well as their roots. Survivors may feel tremendous government, population, or society would not want guilt, not only for having lived while others perished, to uncover its past (11). but also for having taken measures, both through ac- In creating this article, we have drawn from a tion and inaction, necessary to stay alive (15). wide array of sources. Many are specific to the situa- Survivors may have suffered not only the deaths tion in the former Yugoslavia because of our direct ex- of those close to them, but also a series of other trau- perience with the identification efforts there. The au- mas. For instance in Bosnia, beginning in February thors hope that the exploration of issues, no matter 1992, the Serbian war machine initiated a campaign their origin, will generate a resource of value to those to rid the province of its pro-independence Muslim involved in identification efforts around the globe. majority by, for example, subjecting women and This paper focuses on efforts to find missing per- young girls to torture and rape (16). Men were held in sons through the identification of remains from mass concentration camps, were starved, beaten, and often graves. It begins by painting a contextual picture, with murdered (8). Mosques were destroyed (16). The some of the psychological effects that mass casualties shelling of hospitals and medical relief facilities by have both on a population and on those seeking to as- the Bosnian Serb army compounded the population’s sist survivors. The next sections of the article intro- injuries (8). Many well-educated Muslims were exe- duce topics surrounding the identification process cuted by the Bosnian Serb army (16), or fled to escape and issues related to each topic. The final section re- the atrocities (17), often finding their way to other Eu- turns to the central guiding principle that may serve as ropean countries or North America where they settled the foundation for future work. as refugees (18). For survivors of such traumas, even after the kill- ing subsides, the effects may still multiply. Some op- Psychological Effects of Mass Human Tragedy portunists may spread disinformation and conduct on Survivors and Recovery Teams scams “played out on desperate families, with mean- ingless but costly information peddled to them on the Many of the ethical and pragmatic issues that whereabouts of the missing” (19). Those wishing to arise around the identification of human remains stem obscure the past may seek to intimidate or undermine from interactions between or involving surviving fam- not only survivors, but also those seeking to assist ily members and humanitarian organizations’ recov- them (20). ery teams. Both of these groups are intimately in- Some survivors in the former Yugoslavia believe volved in numerous aspects of the identification pro- that thousands of the missing could still be “hidden by cesses. However, both are also comprised of individ- the former warring parties in secret camps or places of uals in uniquely stressful situations. The following ex- detention” (21). Not knowing the whereabouts of a ploration of some typical characteristics and concerns loved one creates what has been described as “tor- of survivors and workers dealing with human remains menting uncertainty” (22) and a “painful limbo” (14). is intended to engender understanding in order to enhance opportunities for collaborative approaches Stress related to mass casualties can manifest it- to issue resolution. self physically with somatic presentations, such as headaches, non-specific body pain, dizziness, weak- Survivor Characteristics ness, and fatigue (15). Victims may also experience psychiatric and social dysfunction (15). A major pro- Without a body to bury, without assurance of tective factor against the all of these effects is the pres- death, real grieving cannot even begin, because it is ence of a community able to “provide mutual support viewed as disloyal. This is not denial, but reality. and nurture problem-solving strategies.”(15). In the Without the certainty of death, the status of family case of war, opposing forces routinely target these as- members remains unclear. The women are not even pects of a community, leaving the population less widows, but widows waiting to happen, an agonizing able to heal itself (23). role. Post-war transition governments may pose an- The families cannot “get over it,” nor should we. other set of difficulties for survivors. They may seek to When we push toward what is unattainable closure, “obliterate history and those who have been killed in the anger and conflict result not because of their de- the past.
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