Searching for Mexico's drug war 'disappeared'

With thousands of people missing after six years of murderous violence linked to Mexico's drugs cartels, families say they want more done to find their loved ones.

It was a warm night in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and heavily armed troops were patrolling the streets, at the height of the war on drug cartels here.

Victor Baca, 21, had just dropped his girlfriend at her home and was buying a hot dog with two friends at a fast food stand.

Suddenly, and apparently without reason, troops approached the three young men, arrested them and drove them away.

That was three years ago - and the last time Mr Baca's family ever saw him.

"We think that part of the reason the military gave him a hard time was because he wasn't identified," says his father Gerardo Baca, explaining that his son may have forgotten his ID before going out that night.

"We didn't know they were arrested until the next day, when one of his arrested friends was sent to the state police," he added.

"We have no idea of the whereabouts of my son."

The fate of Victor Baca is one that is shared by many people in Mexico, where fighting between rival drug cartels and the military crackdown in response has seen an estimated 60,000 people killed in six years.

According to figures released earlier this year by Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, 16,000 bodies remain unidentified and a total of 24,000 people are missing

At the top of a hill in the city, beyond the rows of graves covered in floral tributes, lies an area of wasteland that has to be disturbed regularly by gravediggers.

"Yesterday the morgue sent 12 bodies to us as they were not identified," says Luis Aredondo who runs the cemetery.

"They send us 10 to 12 bodies every three months and then they are buried here, in an area of 2,000 sq m."

These are the unknown victims of Mexico's drug wars - people who'll get no funeral, have no gravestone and who will, after a year, be buried in a mass grave. At this site alone the bodies of 600 unidentified people are buried.

For one observer of the crimes carried out in the fight for lucrative drug supply routes into the US, the numbers of those missing may be an underestimate.

Professor Monica Serrano from the Colegio de Mexico, a university in Mexico City, says the cartels' use of threats and extortion to boost funds is forcing people to leave their homes and in many cases make themselves "disappear".

"In (the state of) Guerrero what we've seen is partly these movements which are the direct results of threats," she explains, adding that some figures suggest up to 400,000 people across the country may have been forced to uproot in this way.

"This is not yet being documented - we are just coming to terms with what is likely to become a major feature of the current violence."

It is difficult to determine the full extent of people going missing because of corruption among police officers and troops, according human rights observers and families of those missing.

Mexico's ambassador to the UK acknowledges the problem but says the government has invested in "institution building" and is boosting the numbers of police. Graves in the cemetery in Acapulco Graves in the cemetery in Acapulco. 24,000 people remain missing in Mexico

"We are looking at this in a very serious manner," says Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza.

"We have to build up the capabilities of the police to investigate and the justice system to process (the criminals).

He admits that corruption "is a problem, wherever you find it" but says the government has been building up larger federal and state police forces.

"Of course every single case is important and every single case shall be treated as important," he says.

"You have to build up the capabilities to deal with that."

For the parents of Victor Baca there is still hope that their son will return - and they have a simple motive to keep urging the authorities to deal with their case, despite the risks.

"It is love," says Gerardo Baca, "love of father and love of mother for our son."

Tuesday 30 October 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20070488

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CTV rescuers haunted by experience, inquest told

The first police officer at the scene of the CTV building collapse says rescuers will always wonder whether they could have done more to save those trapped under rubble.

Coroner Gordon Matenga is investigating the deaths of people in the central Christchurch building as a result of the February 2011 earthquake, focusing on eight people who initially survived the collapse but later died when rescuers could not reach them.

Sergeant Michael Brooklands told the hearing on Tuesday that rescuers will always be haunted by the experience but believes they did all they could, given the circumstances.

Mr Brooklands said many of those who were first to help did not consider their own safety.

He said when more search and rescue teams arrived the recovery slowed down because it was more safety conscious.

However, another witness, Detective Sergeant Rex Barnett, told the hearing that the officer in charge of the Urban Search and Rescue Team was too concerned with rescuers' safety and efforts were hampered.

Sergeant Michael Brooklands related how the Fire Service was told to stop trying to put out a blaze in the building for fear of drowning trapped survivors.

Mr Brooklands said dealing with the large fire in the remains of the CTV building after the quake was a catch-22, as drenching the blaze risked drowning people, yet leaving it increased the likelihood of burns or smoke inhalation.

He said he had to ask fire fighters several times to put out one part of the fire where he believed that someone was trapped.

Mr Brooklands recounted pulling bodies out of the rubble that had been affected by the fire, but was not sure whether it was the blaze that killed them.

Tuesday 30 October 2012

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/canterbury-earthquake/119500/ctv-rescuers-haunted-by-experience,-inquest-told

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Death toll in Rivers’ floods rises to 30

The death toll of flood victims camped in various parts of Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State has increased to over 30. Among the dead were two new born babies. The sad news of flood victims, dying in their camps, hit the airwave when some of the ward councillors in charge of such camps raised the alarm that inmates were dying due to poor sanitary conditions of the camps. But the increase in the death toll was given by the traditional ruler of Ahoada, Eze P. C. Ihua Maduenyi, the Eze Ahoada III.

He spoke with Daily Sun in his palace in Ahoada. “Over 30 deaths in less than three weeks, the average of 10 persons in just one week is, indeed, very alarming. This high rate of death is most disturbing,’’ he said in an emotion-laden voice. According to him, no day passes without recording, at least, two deaths. He said the alleged failure by the state government to recognise most of the camps compounded the problem.

Investigation by Daily Sun showed that two inmates, a man and a woman, had earlier died at Community Secondary School, Edeoha camp, while in UBE camp in Ahoada, Town, Mr. Goodluck Agi, said to be a native of Ihuike town, died on October 25. The councillor, representing the ward, Marvin, confirmed this, saying the late Agi started vomiting on October 24 and was rushed to the General Hospital where he died.

The Ahoada monarch said a man died at Odiemenyi the same day while two men gave up the ghost the following day, one at Alakpata, another at Odiokwo. He also disclosed how a woman was delivered of triplets and two died as a result of lack of medical care.

The lady was among the displaced persons camped at the General Hospital, one of the camps the government allegedly refused to recognise. “As a result, the woman and her new babies were denied medical care in the hospital where she gave birth,” he claimed.

As if to confirm what the traditional ruler said earlier, there was a report last Friday afternoon that another child, a year-old, just died at the General Hospital camp. The reporter, who had been at Ahoada for the past three days, monitoring the situation, rushed to the camp and the inmates confirmed the sad news, alleging that the hospital refused to treat the child since it was not a recognised camp.

They gave the name of the baby’s mother as Agnes, adding that she just left the camp. Eze Ahoada said the Gov. Chibuike Amaechi committee on flood victims, led by his deputy, Tele Ikulu, recognised only six of the camps, leaving out 15. Residents of Ekpere, he said, took up the challenge of taking care of victims in such camps. He explained that Eze Robinson O. Robinson, Eze of Ekpeye kingdom, raised a 12-man committee to take care of the15 camps allegedly abandoned by the state government. “The challenge in running those 15 camps had been very huge, only the Ekpeye King, Eze Robinson O. Robinson and other well-meaning sons of Ekpeye have been making donations for the sustenance of 15 camps abandoned by the government,” he said.

The Eze Ahoada pleaded with Governor Amaechi, to recognise the camps since the victims are also indigenes of the state. He also called on charity organisations and multinational oil companies, operating in Ekpeye, to take care of natives of their host communities, saying it was only Total Oil E&P that had so far made direct donation to the Ekpeye committee on flood victims.

Tuesday 30 October 2012

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/death-toll-in-rivers-floods-rises-to-30/

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Four Oshikoto crash victims still not identified

Since Saturday grieving families have been streaming to the Oshakati police mortuary to identify the bodies of their loved ones, who were tragically killed in a horrific accident that claimed nine lives and left over 30 others injured.

On Saturday at around 01:00, police reported that seven people died on impact - 35km from Tsumeb on the road to Oshivelo - when a truck collided head-on with a Namib Contract Haulage (NCH) bus carrying 64 passengers.

The identified victims include 17-yearold Josef Elungi, 45-year-old Ndilipo Penias Amwala and 47-year-old Linus Laban. The bodies of 64-year-old Petrus Iikukutu and the only female victim identifi ed so far, Majain-Nambula Shambwila (age unknown), were transported from the Tsumeb State Hospital to the Oshakati police mortuary yesterday morning. They succumbed to their injuries a few hours after the accident.

Unit Commander of the Oshakati Police Mortuary, Warrant Officer Josef Namuandi, insists that despite media reports that 10 people had died; only nine bodies have been recovered. He further urged other families who suspect their relatives were travelling in the same bus to come forward as four bodies - three female and one male - have not yet been identified.

Preliminary reports claim that the truck driver, who also lost his life in the accident, swerved from his lane and ploughed into the incoming bus.

The truck only had two occupants, one of whom is reportedly fighting for his life in the ICU at a Windhoek hospital.

He was airlifted to the capital along with another crash victim. Oshikoto Police Chief, Commissioner Anna-Marie Nainda, yesterday said although the condition of the two passengers who were airlifted to Windhoek due to the critical nature of their injuries had not changed, the death toll remains at nine. She also took issue with the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund informing the media that 10 people, instead of nine, had died in the accident.

“I don’t know where the tenth person came from. I called MVA to enquire where they got their information from, but I haven’t received any word from them yet,” said Nainda.

MVA Fund’s spokesperson Catherine Shipushu told Namibian Sun that their records still has the fatalities at 10.

“According to the information given to us by the police who attended the accident scene, nine people died on the spot and a tenth person died at the Tsumeb hospital,” she explained.

Shipushu did, however, admit that the police, as the custodian of accident reports, are in a better position to confirm the exact number of fatalities.

Tuesday 30 October 2012

http://www.namibiansun.com/content/national-news/four-oshikoto-crash-victims-still-not-identified

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