Missing People: a new tool for Swedish police

Though the organization is less than a year old, Missing People is fast becoming one of Sweden’s most efficient forces for locating people who have been reported missing.

Last week, the organization located three missing people in three separate cases within the span a few days, including the high-profile case of Anna, a nine-year-old girl who failed to turn up at school near Gothenburg last Thursday.

Jerri Kangasniemi, the organization's treasurer, explains the group's recent success has nothing to do with luck.

“We are not 600 Muppets that are out on a walk; we know what we’re doing,” Kangasniemi tells The Local.

Missing People began to take shape in April 2011, with efforts to find Tony Mattson, a 24-year-old man from Gothenburg who had been missing for several weeks.

"One of our directors was his stepmother. Sadly, he was later found drowned in a canal," Kangasniemi explains.

But the effort proved to be a turning point for the people involved in the search, and several months later, Missing People was born.

According to the group, 7,000 people are reported missing in Sweden annually, and Missing People's aim is to help find them.

The group now boasts 6,000 registered members across the country, as well as a Facebook page with more than 130,000 members, helping to quickly spread the word about people who have been reported missing as well as searches organized to find them.

"Our first real case we had about 200 people, and considering the new social media, that is actually not a lot," Kangasniemi continues.

“Now our members get a text message when a search party is organized. Everything we write today reaches up to 360,000 people."

The group receives about a dozen reports a week. So far this year they have found seven people, including the three people found last week.

Before taking up a case, however, the group requires that the police have also been informed. The person can be anyone missing in Sweden, as well as a Swedish citizen reported missing abroad.

According to Kangasniemi, the group assesses each case individually when deciding how to proceed.

"When we get a report we look at the facts behind the disappearance. Based on those facts we make a judgement call on whether we will go to the public and conduct a search party," he explains.

"In some cases we decide not to do anything."

While posting pictures online and organizing search parties are Missing People's most common tools, it has also employed divers and sniffer dogs in some cases.

In the case of Anna, Missing People was able to help rally about 800 people into a search party within hours, according to Kangasniemi.

Anna was found unharmed early the following morning, with a 24-year-old man discovered nearby.

While he at first claimed to be part of the search party, Missing People volunteers became suspicious and prevented him from leaving the scene.

He was subsequently arrested, admitting later to police that he had abducted the girl.

Despite the large number of people engaged in the search for Anna, Kangasniemi explains that Missing People has methods to ensure that people are divided up in such a way to ensure searches proceed in an organized and effective manner.

There are also safeguards to prevent people like the 24-year-old suspect from infiltrating a search party to glean information about its progress.

“We don’t release that kind of information to anybody, because of the risk of a potential suspect trying to get information,” Kangasniemi explains.

“We would be kind of brain dead if we released that information to everybody."

And Kangasniemi rejects criticism that Missing People volunteers might be inclined to engage in vigilante justice.

"Our only service is finding who is missing. Our priority is finding the missing person for the missing person's family,” he says.

“We inform everyone before the search that if they find anything, do not touch it. If you find the missing person, alive or dead, you always take two steps back and then call the police. We are not interested in becoming private investigators."

Inspector Lars Byström, spokesman for the Stockholm police, tells The Local that the police appreciate Missing People's approach.

"Of course if the person is still alive they should call for help. Yet if the person is dead they should definitely take some steps back and call for the police," Byström says.

He adds that, so far, the police appreciate the efforts of Missing People, explaining they have been a real asset in investigating reports of people who have gone missing.

In two weeks, Missing People's board is scheduled to meet with Sweden's National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen) to discuss future plans.

"We need them. Sometimes we have a lot of other things going on. We always appreciate it when civilians want to help us or other people that are in a difficult situation," he continues.

"We hope to have a good cooperation with them and hopefully we can teach them what to do and what not to do."

Kangasniemi agrees that Missing People has a good relationship with police in Sweden, explaining that “in general the police are extremely positive toward us".

"That may be not so hard to understand considering we actually do find people," he adds.

Friday 16 November 2012

http://www.thelocal.se/44442/20121115/

Tanzania: Lake Victoria Boat Accident Claims 7

SEVEN people have been confirmed drowned after their boat was hit by strong winds and capsized as they were fishing in Lake Victoria over the weekend.

Kagera Regional Police Commander, Philip Kalangi told reporters that the accident occurred at around 10 p.m. on November 10, this year, near Ikuza Island in Muleba District.

He named the deceased as Baruya Masala, a resident of Muganza Village in Chato District, Geita Region, Alex Mwita, from Tarime District, Kipara Kasukari a resident of Mushabago Village in Muleba District and another person identified by a single name as Niko, a resident of Sengerema District, in Mwanza Region.

Others are Obedia Yohana, from Muganza Village, in Chato District, Juma Kengere from Itale Village in Chato District and another person identified as Robert, from Biharamulo District. RPC Kalangi said the ill fated boat was hit by strong winds as the fishermen were heading to Ikuza Island from Rubondo Island.

He said their bodies had been recovered and were handed to their relatives for burial at their respective homes. Two people survived the accident after they were rescued by other fishermen.

Thursday 15 November 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201211150041.html

Victims' families still wait for justice, three years after Maguindanao massacre

Grace Morales knew something was wrong when a friend sent her a text message urging her to go home to listen to radio reports of a massacre close to her home in Maguindanao, a province in the conflict-torn southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

Her husband and sister, both journalists, were among 31 reporters who had accompanied the family of Esmael Mangudadatu, a rival of the politically powerful Ampatuan clan, that morning to witness the filing of his election papers for the post of provincial governor.

The trip on Nov 23, 2009 led to the election-related massacre of 57 people, described by the International Crisis Group (ICG) as “one of the worst acts of political violence in modern Philippine history, and the largest number of journalists slain on a single day ever, anywhere in the world.” About 100 armed men attacked the convoy of vehicles on a lonely stretch of highway and drove them to the top of a hill before killing them all. Several women were raped before they were killed.

Morales, who identified the bodies of her husband and sister and now heads a support and lobby group for the bereaved, says she’s still waiting for justice.

“It's already three years now and yet no one has been convicted. There are many accused who are not yet arraigned or who are still at large,” she told journalists in Bangkok on Wednesday night at the screening of a 2011 documentary on the families’ quest for justice.

“I don't understand why it happens like this,” said Morales. “As one of the families of the victims, that's what we dream of, to have justice for our loved ones who were killed by the brutish people.”

Andal Ampatuan Sr, whose family ruled poor and troubled southern Maguindanao for nearly a decade and has close ties to former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was charged with murder in February 2010, along with 196 others (members of the Ampatuan family, soldiers and police officers and members of a civilian militia).

About 100 of those charged are still at large, rights groups said, and bail proceedings have dominated the trial for the past two years.

Meanwhile, at least three witnesses have been murdered and others talk of intimidation and threats by the still powerful Ampatuan clan. Victims’ families, living hand-to-mouth, also received offers of millions of pesos to settle the case but have so far refused, Morales said.

In their latest setback, on Monday the Supreme Court denied the request of victims’ families for live media coverage of the trial.

"Our enemy is very powerful. Many members of the clans continue to hold government positions,” said Morales. The families of the victims do not have the resources to fight them as many are struggling to survive, she said.

“Most of those who died were breadwinners and those left behind are ordinary housewives with no work experience. One is a 67-year-old grandmother who suddenly found herself saddled with six grandchildren to feed,” she added.

Mindanao, where more than 120,000 people have been killed in 40 years of fighting between government forces and Muslim rebels, has some of the worst social, educational and economic indicators in the Philippines.

A 2008/2009 United Nations Development Programme report said seven of the 10 provinces with the country's worst human development ratings are in Mindanao. Around two-fifths of Mindanao's people live on about a dollar a day, against a national average of 26.5 percent.

In October, the government and the Muslim rebels reached an agreement to end a conflict which had enabled clans such as the Ampatuans to achieve positions of great local power in exchange for supporting then president Arroyo with crucial votes and armed followers.

Despite the peace deal, activists and rights groups say justice remains elusive for victims of the Maguindanao massacre.

The Philippines also remains the third most dangerous country for journalists, with 128 journalists killed since 1986 as a direct result of their work.

Seventy-nine of the killings, including those in Maguindanao, occurred during the Arroyo administration (February 2001 – June 2010) and 11 journalists have died since President Benigno Aquino came to power in February 2011, said the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility in the Philippines.

Thursday 16 November 2012

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/victims-families-still-wait-for-justice-three-years-after-maguindanao-massacre