Florida to exhume bodies buried at former boys school

This weekend, Florida will begin digging into its tragic past as anthropologists start unearthing what they believe are the remains of dozens of children buried on the grounds of a former reform school.

The exhumations at the Dozier School for Boys -- which closed in 2011 -- are the culmination of years of controversy surrounding the reform school and a mythology that has taken on a life of its own.

Rightly or wrongly, the Florida Panhandle town of Marianna -- just west of Tallahassee -- has become synonymous with the school and its dark past.

Some of those who were once sent to Dozier -- now senior citizens -- have come forward with stories of abuse at the school, including alleged beatings, torture, sexual abuse, killings and the disappearance of students, during the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

On the school grounds buried deep in the woods lies a small unkept patch of land with 31 white crosses. Rusting away with time, they mark the final resting place for the unknown students that the state has confirmed were buried there.

Nearly 100 children died while at the school, according to state and school records, many as a result of a tragic dormitory fire in 1914 and a deadly flu epidemic in 1918.

The poorly-kept state records cannot account for what happened to 22 children who died at the school. And, no one knows who is buried where.

"They were poor kids and a lot of times, people never came to visit them," said Elmore Bryant, a lifelong Marianna resident and head of the NAACP in Jackson County, Florida, which includes Marianna.

"Even when they were dismissed, they got home, their family had moved. So, who was going to pay attention if something happened to them while they was at Dozier?"

Some believe the bodies are African-Americans, disposed of by the Ku Klux Klan. This gravesite is in what was traditionally known as the "black side" of the reform school -- a reference to the era of segregation.

Many believe another cemetery exists on the sprawling, wooded, 1,400-acre property, but it has not been found.

Last year, a research team from the University of South Florida, on a humanitarian mission to help identify these bodies for surviving families, used ground-penetrating radar, and found that there are as many 19 more bodies buried in the surrounding area -- completely unmarked.

After clearing the area, the team determined that a total of 49 graves exist.

"These are children who came here and died, for one reason or another, and have just been lost in the woods," said Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist leading the USF team who once worked on an international forensics team that amassed evidence used in Yugoslavian war crimes trials.

She has lobbied for an exhumation of the remains because, as she put it, "When there's no knowledge and no information, then people will speculate and rumors will persist or questions remain."

Robert Staley spent about 10 months at the Dozier School for Boys between 1963 and 1964 for allegedly stealing a car.

He says he was taken to the "White House" on his very first day.

"I came out of their in shock, and when they hit you, you went down a foot into the bed, and so hard, I couldn't believe," said Straley. "I didn't know what they were hitting you with."

Years ago, Staley and several others who spent time at Dozier came forward with allegations that they were beaten with long leather slaps inside a small white concrete building, they forever call "the White House."

The men became known as the "White House Boys."

One former administrator, Troy Tidwell -- a one-armed man accused of abuse by several former students -- admitted that "spankings" took place, but denied that anyone was ever beaten or murdered.

Florida first started looking into the allegations in 2008, after some of the White House Boys -- who had met on the Internet and shared similar stories -- called on then-Gov. Charlie Crist to investigate.

At Crist's request, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an investigation and its final report in 2009 accounted for 31 boys buried in the cemetery.

The investigation failed to clear up the mystery over what happened to the dozens of other students who died at the school whose bodies have never been accounted for.

FDLE closed the case due to lack of evidence that anyone had died as a result of criminal conduct. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice closed the school in 2011, 111 years after it first opened.

Then last year, forensic anthropologists from USF used their ground-penetrating radar to find what appeared to be 19 more remains than previously thought to have been buried on the school grounds.

That discovery along with pressure from the NAACP and high level officials, including Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Florida, led to action by the state. Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and his Cabinet voted to allow the USF forensics team to exhume the bodies, against the objections of Jackson County commissioners.

"There were children that disappeared that really were not accounted for, so I think that a new day has come here," said Wansley Walters, secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.

"What we have now is an opportunity to really get down to the truth and also try to bring some healing to the victims and the families."

Owen's story

State records say one boy buried here is 14-year-old Owen Smith.

"He had no ambition to do anything but play music," said his sister Ovell Smith Krell, 84.

She says her older brother ran away from home in 1940 at age 14 to become a musician in Nashville, but never made it. Owen Smith was arrested in a stolen car, and sent to the reform school in Marianna.

He ran away from the school, but got caught, he wrote in a letter to 12-year-old Ovell a short time afterward.

A few months later, his family received a letter from the school, notifying them that Owen had run away for a second time.

"So far, we have been unable to get any information concerning his whereabouts," wrote Millard Davidson, the school's superintendent at the time. "We will appreciate your notifying us immediately if you receive any word from or concerning him."

Owen's family decided to travel to Marianna to find out what was going on, but just before leaving, there was a call from the school with word that Owen had been found dead.

"They think he crawled under a house to try and get warm and that he got pneumonia and died," said Krell.

She said her mother asked that Owen's body be taken to a funeral home. The family had to borrow a car for the trip and when they arrived in Marianna two days later, school officials allegedly told them that their son was already buried.

"They said that the body was so decomposed, you wouldn't be able to identify him ... they took him straight out to the school and buried him," she said.

Owen's classmate told the family a different story.

According to Krell, the boy said as he and Owen tried to escape, "my brother was running out across a field, an open field, and there was three men shooting at him, with rifles."

"I believe to this day, that they shot my brother that night, and I think they probably killed him and brought him back to the school and buried him," she said.

Closure, but criminal charges unlikely



Ovell Smith Krell, like other relatives of those believed to be buried at the school, is hoping the exhumations result in a sense of closure for her family.

Any remains that are exhumed will be taken to the University of South Florida in Tampa to be examined in an effort to reunite these lost boys with their families -- if possible.

Earlier this summer, DNA swabs were taken from a handful of surviving family members that have been found. If DNA can be matched to the bodies exhumed, these families want them to be buried properly in family plots.

"I would take him and put him down with my mom and dad in their cemetery," Krell said. "I hope I get that chance."

Whatever may be found in the exhumations of these long forgotten children, it's highly unlikely that anyone could ever be charged with any crimes.

"You have to have witnesses," said Glenn Hess, the state attorney of Jackson County, Florida. "Nobody can place a name with a homicide victim and a perpetrator."

And that's nearly impossible considering the amount of time that has passed.

"There are these general stories about the beatings and all that went on, but that's not unusual for reformatories in the '30s and '40s," he told CNN.

But this doesn't matter to Elmore Bryant, the NAACP leader. He's lived here all his life. He thinks the truth behind the mystery of Marianna will finally be found.

"I don't think the bones will lie. The bones will tell the truth," he said. "I'd want the truth to be known how I died."

Saturday 31 August 2013

ICMP: Missing persons issue deserves attention of whole world

The Sarajevo-based International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) issued a statement on Friday to mark August 30, the International Day of the Disappeared, saying that the issue of missing persons was one of the most important problems that should be addressed by all governments.

In the statement, ICMP Director General Kathryne Bomberger recalled the fact that about 40,000 people had gone missing during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s alone. Thanks to huge efforts that have been made, about 70 per cent of reported missing person cases have been resolved, but the remaining unresolved cases require equal attention, she said.

In addition to the countries of the former Yugoslavia, Peru, Argentina, East Timor and South Africa are countries that have made the greatest effort in prosecuting those responsible, and civil society is actively engaged and modern forensic methods, including DNA, are used.

"Today ICMP joins hundreds of thousands of families of missing persons from the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as Cyprus, Iraq, Spain, Lebanon, Kuwait, Libya, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Nepal, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, Algeria, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Yemen, Somalia, South Africa and many other countries around the world in paying tribute to missing persons. In doing so, ICMP joins hundreds of thousands of families of missing persons in raising awareness about this global issue, whose resolution is not only important to provide a sense of closure for individual families of the missing, but for the implementation of the rule of law and the establishment of peace and justice," the statement said.

Saturday 31 August 2013

http://dalje.com/en-world/icmp--missing-persons-issue-deserves-attention-of-whole-world/481199

Ecuador’s missing persons

The type of missing person announcement you see here can be found at practically any bus stop or busy street in Quito. Friends from Cuba often ask me what has struck me the most about Ecuador so far. Well, there you go: its missing persons.

I had expected something else to make a deep impression in me, something like extreme poverty. I actually haven’t seen any of that yet, to the point that I dare say Cuba is poorer than Ecuador. What’s more, Quito is an extraordinarily beautiful city, a city of modern buildings nestled among immense volcanoes and mountains.

What has struck me the most about Ecuador is the number of missing person announcements one comes across. The missing are almost always young people (of both genders). It is said they are kidnapped by organ traffickers. It is also said that they are very rarely found.

Seeing the photo of a missing child is truly heartbreaking. Some days ago, authorities discovered a whole series of “de-homosexualizing” clinics, where some of the missing young people would end up, secretly sent there by their parents to be subjected to a medieval treatment aimed at making them give up their sinful ways (as though it worked that way).

What does the treatment consist of? Getting the kids out of bed at 4 in the morning, in the chilling cold of the Andes, and hosing them with cold water. Luckily, Ecuador’s Minister of Health is already devoting efforts to shut down these “institutions”, operating (needless to say) outside the bounds of the World Health Organization.

The photos of people who have gone missing for even worse reasons, however, continue to be posted. It is quite shocking. Ecuador strikes me as a safer country than its neighbors in the region, but it seems the worse can happen to you at any moment.

It is said a leading member of the opposition to President Correa, was implicated in these kidnappings and organ “business”. But the laws in Latin America were not made for the powerful, and no action has been taken.

There is always at least one photo of a missing person at every bus stop in Quito. Though I never know the person in the photo, I can’t help but imagine the pain their family feels, and to suffer over the tragedy that befalls these young people who end up as unwilling organ donors and lose their lives to this terrible business.

Saturday 31 August 2013

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=98447&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+havanatimes%2Fapge+(Havana+Times+Posts)

3D maps created in real time could aid disaster search and rescue

Highly detailed 3D maps of indoor and outdoor environments can now been created in real time with no drift thanks to a new mapping algorithm. The maps could be created in the immediate aftermath of a disaster to help search and rescue teams navigate and understand hazardous or unknown environments.

Researchers from MIT and the National University of Ireland used a low-cost Kinect camera to test the algorithm by filming environments and creating richly detailed 3D maps as they went. The camera recognises locations it's seen before and so when it returns to its starting point it forms a closed loop and stitches the images together.

Some of the scenarios in which this technology could be used in include "architecture and surveying-type operations, autonomous robotics settings and disaster management scenarios," Thomas Whelan, a PhD student at NUI, tells Wired.co.uk. "For example, areas of a building could be scanned in real-time by an architect to quickly design, visualise, and evaluate a renovation project. Or, a human operator could scan in parts of a building during a disaster scenario to evaluate the damage after an earthquake."

3D mapping is nothing new, but it has long suffered from a phenomenon known as "drift", which adds up all the small errors in the estimated path taken to create a disjointed map. To generate accurate maps, you have to know which of the millions of points need aligning. In the past this has been tackled by running the data over and over, but this isn't a practical approach to making maps in real time.

"Being able to map in real-time has a number of significant advantages, such as being able to perform decision making regarding the mapped area as it is being explored, which again is important for autonomous robotics and search and rescue type situations," says Whelan.

The new algorithm, however, keeps track of the camera's pose and positioning throughout its journey so that when it returns to the start point, it knows which adjustments to make. A Kinect camera takes images at 30 frames per second, which allows the algorithm to measure the camera's movements between each frame. It can then fix the points where walls and stairways don't meet and untangle the warped pathways, manipulating them so they accurately represent the space they've moved through.

"The density and fidelity of the maps enables the use of advanced object detection and semantic analysis techniques, providing very high level information about the area explored."

Maps of various indoor and outdoor locations in London, Sydney, Germany and Ireland, as well as in MIT itself, have been created using the technique. The team have made a video demonstrating the method which show maps being created and twisted into shape in real time.

The most exciting part of the work is probably the idea that autonomous robots could use the technology to help them make decisions about which direction to travel in and gain a deeper understanding of their environments, but it has the potential to be used in all sorts of situations.

"I have this dream of making a complete model of all of MIT," says Whelan's colleague John Leonard, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. "With this 3D map, a potential applicant for the freshman class could sort of 'swim' through MIT like it's a big aquarium. There's still more work to do, but I think it's doable."

Saturday 31 August 2013

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/30/real-time-3d-mapping

The downing of Flight 007: 30 years later, a Cold War tragedy still seems surreal

The idea that Soviet fighter jets would shoot down a Boeing 747 airliner seems shockingly unbelievable. Two-hundred sixty-nine innocent people died in a largely forgotten Cold War attack that took place exactly 30 years ago this weekend.

On a sultry August night in 1983 at New York's JFK airport, Alice Ephraimson-Abt, a brilliant, 23-year-old, blue-eyed blonde, was about to board Korean Air Lines Flight 007 for Seoul, South Korea, halfway around the world. For one last time, she held her father, New Jersey businessman Hans Ephraimson-Abt, before saying goodbye. "There were hugs and I-love-yous," her father, now 91, told CNN.

Alice -- who was excited about heading Beijing to teach English and study -- could have been a diplomat -- a contributor to peace, her father said. "Her death was a great loss to her generation."

The ramifications of the shoot-down of Flight 007 reverberated far beyond the lives lost. It sparked global outrage, conspiracy theories and an activist movement that continues today. It also joined a list of disturbing developments that made 1983 one of the scariest years of the Cold War. Not since 1962's Cuban Missile Crisis had the world teetered so close to the unthinkable, according to declassified documents released last May.

It seemed like each month brought with it new and troubling headlines.

President Ronald Reagan, in March, said the Soviet Union amounted to an "evil empire." A few weeks later Washington announced it was working on a new space-based weapon. The press dubbed it "Star Wars."

That October, on the Caribbean island of Grenada, a coup and the deployment of pro-Soviet Cuban forces prompted the Pentagon to invade with thousands of troops. The following month the United States and NATO staged war games that depicted a nuclear attack scenario.

Fear seeped into TV, movies and music. In November, more than 100 million viewers tuned into ABC's nuclear attack drama, "The Day After." The following month, film crews began shooting "Red Dawn," about a Soviet invasion of America. Playlists on radio and MTV included "99 Luftballoons," a Cold War protest song.

But it was the downing of KAL 007 that opened many eyes to the Cold War's widening wave of darkness, its increasing uncertainty and its growing threat to peace.

Alice Ephraimson-Abt's flight made a refueling stop in Anchorage, Alaska, and -- following the tradition of the well-traveled family -- she phoned her father. She told him about a U.S. congressman, Rep. Larry McDonald, who also was aboard. One of 61 Americans on the plane, McDonald was a conservative Georgia Democrat and outspoken anti-communist.

What we know about the next five hours aboard Flight 007 comes from CNN interviews with ex-Soviet officials, the cockpit voice transcript and a 1993 report from the United Nation's International Civil Aviation Organization.

After the 747 took off for Seoul at 4 a.m. local time, the crew set their autopilot. What they apparently didn't know was, it was set to fail.

The plane began drifting off its intended course, and heading toward Soviet territory.

Hours later, passengers heard the familiar crew announcement, "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing at Seoul Gimpo International Airport in about three hours. Local time in Seoul right now is 3 a.m. Before landing, we will be serving beverages and breakfast, thank you."

But sadly, there would be no landing.

Twenty-six minutes later, the captain was announcing an emergency decent and ordering crew to put on oxygen masks.

Fighter pilot: 'I had a job to do'

As it neared Soviet airspace, Flight 007 was being tracked at military installations. Soviet fighter pilots and their commanders knew they were being watched, too. U.S. spy planes patrolling the region created a constant state of tension, they said later.

American surveillance aircraft included Boeing RC-135s, the military version of a Boeing 707, which looked very much like a civilian airliner.

Packed with electronic surveillance gear, RC-135s often flew figure-eight patterns near passenger routes.

By this time Flight 007 had deviated more than 200 miles from its planned route.

Commanders at Dolinsk-Sokol airbase scrambled two Sukhoi Su-15 fighter jets and ordered them to intercept the airliner.

"I could see two rows of windows which were lit up," Soviet pilot, Col. Gennadi Osipovitch, told CNN in 1998, describing the 747's tell-tale double-deck configuration. "I wondered if it was a civilian aircraft -- military cargo planes don't have such windows."

"I wondered what kind of plane it was but I had no time to think," Osipovitch recalled. "I had a job to do. I started to signal to [the pilot] in international code. I informed him that he had violated our airspace. He did not respond." The Soviets fired warning shots with brightly-lit tracers, said Soviet Lt. Gen. Valentin Varennikov.

Inside KAL 007's cockpit, the flight crew appeared to be unaware of the Soviet fighters flying alongside. The pilot failed to react, the general said, and continued on course.

No attempt was made to contact the airliner via radio. The Soviet pilots failed to follow "ICAO standards and recommended practices related to the interception of civil aircraft," the ICAO report said.

Soviet command gave Osipovitch his instructions. "My orders were to destroy the intruder," Osipovitch remembered. "I fulfilled my mission."

When news of the shoot-down reached Washington and Moscow -- both reacted with outrage.

Reagan called the attack a "massacre" and a "crime against humanity" with "absolutely no justification -- legal or moral."

Soviet leader Yuri Andropov accused Washington of a despicable setup: a "sophisticated provocation masterminded by the U.S. special services with the use of a South Korean plane."

During the following months, Moscow cast a shroud of secrecy over the crash site off Sakahlin Island, never revealing whether it had found the plane's wreckage, flight data recorders, survivors or bodies. Victims' families were forced to grieve without burying their loved ones.

Unwilling to surrender, a handful of family members formed an advocacy group -- the first of its kind. Alice Ephraimson-Abt's father was among them.

As a kind of living memorial to Flight 007, Hans Ephraimson-Abt and his colleagues formed the American Association for Families of KAL 007 Victims, which pushed and worked with government bureaucrats around the world to learn all the details surrounding the disaster -- with limited success.

Then, something amazing happened: the Cold War ended.

Somehow, the world had made it through.

The breakup of the Soviet Union opened doors to KAL 007's data.

In 1992, during a top-level meeting in Moscow, Russia finally released the cockpit voice recorder transcript. It was 10 p.m. in a dimly lit meeting room of the Presidential Hotel when an interpreter for the U.S. ambassador translated the Russian transcript into English for Ephraimson-Abt and other delegates.

For the first time, Alice's father would know how his daughter and the 268 others had perished.

Slowly -- word-by-word -- he learned a terrible truth: the plane wasn't destroyed in the air.

Missile fragments "hit the back of the plane destroying three of its four hydraulic systems, severing some cables" and punching holes in the aircraft's walls, said Ephraimson-Apt, citing a Boeing report to the ICAO. "No perceptible cabin pressure was lost and all four engines continued to operate."

The damaged plane continued flying for 12 minutes -- spiraling toward the ocean below -- until it "crashed into the sea with most passengers smashed into pieces or drowning," Ephraimson-Apt said.

"That was -- emotionally -- a rather hard thing to take."

Questions breed suspicion

Thirty years later, almost all the important questions surrounding the crash have been answered, said Ephraimson-Abt. "What is not resolved is what happened to the bodies of our loved ones. The Russians to this day claim they haven't recovered any bodies."

So what happened to the bodies?

That simple question triggers intense debate among Flight 007 conspiracy theorists. Some believe the lack of bodies indicates that the Soviets somehow rescued Rep. McDonald and other passengers -- and then imprisoned them for years. That's the theory explored in the 2001 book, "Rescue 007," by Bert Schlossberg, a son-in-law of one of the victims. The book cites witnesses who reported seeing passengers housed in Siberian prisons.

"A lot of people wanted to believe that -- for their loved ones -- but I don't think there's any veracity to it," said attorney Juanita Madole, who represented 100 Flight 007 victims and their families for decades.

Another theory said the Soviets intentionally destroyed any bodies they found because they wanted to hide evidence of the incident. "That's just speculation," Madole said. "People like to speculate. It makes it more intriguing."

The whereabouts of the bodies of Flight 007 stands as a Cold War mystery that may never be entirely solved.

Pilot error

Overall, the ICAO said pilot error contributed to the disaster, despite the fact that the crew brought respectable experience to the flight. KAL 007 pilot Chun Byung In reportedly had logged 11 years operating civilian airliners. Before that he'd reportedly served as a stunt pilot in South Korea's Air Force.

Author Asaf Degani, a former NASA expert on cockpit information systems, says KAL 007's autopilot was probably in "heading" mode. That setting tells the plane to follow a course according to the magnetic compass -- which can vary in accuracy up to 15 degrees at high latitudes.

It was this autopilot mode that is believed to have put the plane into Soviet airspace. If the autopilot had been flying under the plane's highly accurate, computerized "INS" (inertial navigation system) setting, the 747 would have flown a different path, keeping it very close to -- but still out of -- Soviet airspace. The pilots, Degani suspects, may have mistakenly thought they were flying in INS mode.

"Chances are much less that this kind of confusion would happen now," says Degani, "because, by the turn of the century most commercial airliners flying intercontinental routs had display systems that show which autopilot mode -- 'heading' or 'INS' -- is actually flying the airplane.

"Unfortunately," said Degani, "These design changes came too late to help the crew and passengers of Flight 007."

Tensions rise and fall

International military tensions have continued to rise and fall since 1983 -- putting civilian airline passengers at various levels of risk.

In the volatile Persian Gulf -- just five years after Flight 007 -- the USS Vincennes shot down an Iran Air Airbus A300 flying from Teheran to Dubai. The Navy mistakenly ID'd the airliner as an attacking fighter jet and fired on it, killing all 290 passengers and crew.

And although the Cold War is long over, tiffs between Washington and Moscow continue, even in 2013. "I think there's always been some tension in the U.S.-Russian relationship after the fall of the Soviet Union," Obama said August 9. "There's been cooperation in some areas; there's been competition in others."

As for Hans Ephraimson-Abt -- he and fellow family members have helped other families, nations and airlines form advocacy and support organizations after some of the worst plane crashes of the past 30 years. In 2000, many of these organizations around the world united under the international Air Crash Victims Families Group, which enjoys invited "observer" status at the ICAO, and stakeholder status at the European Union. And it all began as a handful of family members supporting each other during one of the scariest periods of the Nuclear Age.

Permanent memorials for KAL 007 include a small cemetery marker on Russia's Sakahlin Island, and a 90-foot tower in Wakkanai, Japan, where some remains and personal effects that washed ashore in 1983 are kept. The tower consists of 269 white stones and two black marble slabs inscribed with the names of passengers and crew.

Memorial services at Wakkanai will mark this weekend's anniversary. But Ephraimson-Abt won't be there.

Instead, he expects to remain at home in Ridgewood, chatting by phone with fellow KAL 007 family members who've supported each other through the years.

"We all know what we remember -- so not many words have to be said," he acknowledges. "We're beyond consoling each other. But we never forget that each year there is a date when we particularly remember our love ones."

Saturday 31 August 2013

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/31/us/kal-fight-007-anniversary/

Ombudsman calls for Agency to identify disappeared during terrorism years

Peru’s ombudsman has called for the government to create an agency responsible for finding those who were reported missing during the country’s internal conflict in the 1980s and 1990s, state news agency Andina reported.

Eduardo Vega, the head of the Defensoria del Pueblo, said that finding the individuals is a “humanitarian task” that the government should complete.

“We need, and this is an appeal, to create an entity in charge of looking for disappeared people, with resources, equipment, and through this work that I would like to call a humanitarian task, recover their remains and hand them over to family members,” Vega said.

Vega added that the internal conflict has left “a wound that hasn’t yet been healed” in Peru, as many families still do not know what happened to the remains of their loved ones.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, CVR, in its 2003 report initially listed 8,558 people as missing and included a register of 4,644 burial sites to exhume. However, by 2011 forensic specialists at the Legal Medicine Institute concluded that more than 15,000 disappeared during the 1980-2000 conflict and that there are more than 6,400 mass burial sites. In 500 exhumations carried out to date, 2,478 bodies have been recovered, of which 60% have been identified and 53% have been returned to their relatives for burial.

Next week, starting Sept. 3, forensic specialists will begin exhuming bodies at a mass grave in an area in the La Mar province of Ayacucho known as Oreja de Perro (Dog’s Ear), where 204 bodies of villagers killed by Shining Path rebels were buried. Meanwhile in the Ayacucho capital of Huamanga, when there are sufficient resources, investigations continue at the Los Cabitos military barracks —in investigations during 2005, 2007 and 2009, forensic specialists found 50 bodies and the partial remains of another 50, as well as four ovens, one with human remains, thus confirming the systematic torture, murder and disappearance of local villagers by military personnel during the conflict.

Forensic investigations are to be made on several other military barracks, when the Legal Medicine Institute is given the financial resources.

Almost 70,000 people were killed during the conflict between the Maoist-inspired Shining Path rebels and state security forces, according to the final report issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The large majority of the people killed during the conflict were poor, indigenous people were caught in the middle of the conflict between the Shining Path and the state.

Friday 31 August 2013

http://www.peruviantimes.com/30/ombudsman-calls-for-agency-to-indentify-disappeared-during-terrorism-years/20099/

Minister moves fast on Pike mine re-entry plan

Solid Energy's board has approved a staged re-entry proposal and it's in the hands of Energy Minister Simon Bridges, RadioLive reports.

"I'm not prepared to put a timeline on this but we're moving as quickly as possible," Mr Bridges told NZ Newswire on Friday.

"In the end, any plan to explore the drift must be safe, because more lives can't be put at risk, technically feasible and financially credible."

Mr Bridges says he's considering the plan and taking advice from officials at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

The plan has to be approved by the ministry's high hazards unit, and will need cabinet sign off.

Families of the 29 victims of the 2010 explosion have been trying for years to find a way into the mine to recover the bodies.

They worked with the government, health and safety experts and Solid Energy - which now owns the mine - on the re-entry plan.

It involves a seal being put in, allowing a team to go 2km up the mine's drift to the point where it collapsed.

It's thought most of the bodies are beyond that point, but families' spokesman Bernie Monk has previously said it's hoped some can be recovered.

The government has promised $10 million to help pay for the operation, if it gets final approval.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8714893/pike-river-re-entry-another-step-closer

Cebu ferry tragedy toll now 96

Two more bodies were recovered from the wreck of the MV St. Thomas Aquinas late Thursday afternoon, bringing the confirmed death toll in the August 16 sinking of the ferry off Cebu to 96, with 41 still missing, authorities said.

Lieutenant Jim Alagao, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Central Command, said the bodies were those of a male and a female.

Lieutenant Commodore Noel Escalona, operations officer of the Naval Forces Central has issued a call for more volunteer deep-sea divers as the current pool of divers need to rest from their constant immersion underwater.

"If there are any qualified deep-sea divers, they may reach us at the Naval Task Group," he said, adding that the divers must be able to dive to a depth of 150 feet.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/69690/cebu-ferry-tragedy-toll-now-96

Enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka

As the world marks the International Day of the Disappeared today the London based human rights group Amnesty International (AI) called on the government to investigate thousands of cases of enforced disappearances reported in Sri Lanka.

According to AI, in Sri Lanka, some 12,000 complaints of enforced disappearances have been submitted to the UN since the 1980s – making it second only to Iraq. But it says the actual number of disappeared is much higher, with at least 30,000 cases alleged up to 1994 and many thousands reported after that.

“The number of disappeared people in Sri Lanka is astounding. The government has to stop making empty promises and once and for all seriously investigate the tens of thousands of cases of enforced disappearances,” said Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka expert.

This year’s Day of the Disappeared coincides with the visit of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, to Sri Lanka. She met the family members of some of the disappeared.

Amnesty International has documented several new case studies of enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka that have never been published before.

On 26 July 2013, the Sri Lankan government announced that it will establish a Presidential Commission of Inquiry to look into enforced disappearances from the final years the conflict (1990-2009), but AI says there are questions about the commission’s independence from the government.

Similar commissions appointed in the past have accomplished very little and some have had close ties to the authorities, undermining their independence. There have been ten commissions on disappearances since the early 1990s, but their recommendations have largely been ignored, and few of the many alleged perpetrators they identified have been brought to justice.

During the final bloody months of the armed conflict in 2009, thousands of people disappeared after their arrest or capture by the Sri Lankan security forces or abduction by the Tamil Tigers. Very few of those cases have been resolved. In addition there has been blatant intimidation reported against families and others seeking to take remedial action.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) gives the security forces wide powers to arrest suspected opponents of the government and detain them incommunicado and without charge or trial for long periods – conditions which provide a ready context for deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture.

Victims and their relatives have faced enormous difficulties in seeking redress. Hundreds of relatives have filed habeas corpus petitions in an attempt to trace ‘disappeared’ prisoners but the procedure has proved slow and ineffective.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://colombogazette.com/2013/08/30/ai-tells-lanka-to-probe-missing/

Enforced disappearances still an appalling reality in the Americas

Enforced disappearances in the Americas are not only an inheritance of the dark past of the authoritarian governments of the 1970s and 80s, but also an appalling ongoing practice, Amnesty International said as it marked the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

“In Colombia and in Mexico, the authorities aren’t facing up to a serious ongoing problem of enforced disappearances,” said Guadalupe Marengo, Amnesty International’s Americas Programme Director.

“Both countries’ governments are failing to effectively investigate these cases and bring those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice. This impunity only fuels new enforced disappearances, as the perpetrators believe there are no consequences for their actions.

Meanwhile in other countries in the region – including Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti – thousands of people are still missing decades after internal conflicts and political repression.

“For truth and justice to prevail, it’s absolutely essential that the victims’ relatives find out the whereabouts of their disappeared loved ones,” said Marengo.

“Each person matters. Within the horrific figures of thousands of disappeared, lies the pain and trauma of the relatives searching for their loved ones.”

Mexico

In Mexico, more than 26,000 people were reported missing or disappeared between 2006 and 2012 – many at the hands security forces or criminal gangs. The almost complete failure to investigate most cases has prevented the true number of enforced disappearances, in which public officials are implicated, from coming to light. However, the National Human Rights Commission is just examining 2,400 ongoing cases of enforced disappearances.

In a report launched last June, Amnesty International documented more than 85 emblematic cases of enforced disappearances out of 152 cases of people reported disappeared or abducted.

“Impunity remains almost total and, in spite of repeated promises from the authorities, the search for the victims is still ineffective. The Mexican government does not seem to be really committed to end enforced disappearances,” said Rupert Knox, researcher on Mexico for Amnesty International.

“The authorities are keen to blame criminal gangs for all disappearances, ignoring their direct responsibility to prevent and punish the cases in which public officials are implicated and their obligation to investigate all cases before ordinary civilian courts. The relatives of the disappeared are frequently denied any information and families are often forced to carry out their own investigations at great personal risk. It is the brave and constant demands of relatives for truth and justice, that keeps the flame of hope alive,” said Knox.

In the northern city of Nuevo Laredo alone, four people disappeared in the space of six days from 29 July-3 August this year after marines stopped and detained them at different checkpoints around the city. Despite eyewitness testimony confirming the detentions, the naval authorities continue to deny responsibility for the disappearances and the government has done nothing to locate the victims.

Colombia Colombia’s long-running internal armed conflict has left at least 25,000 victims of enforced disappearances in its wake since 1985. According to official figures, there were more than 190 suspected cases in 2012.

“Enforced disappearances carried out by paramilitaries and the security forces, either acting alone or in collusion with each other, have been a hallmark of the country’s 50-year-old armed conflict, and many cases continue to be reported,” said Marcelo Pollack, Amnesty International researcher on Colombia.

“Very few of the perpetrators have ever been brought to justice. Recent legislative measures to broaden the scope of military jurisdiction are likely to make it even harder to bring to justice those suspected of criminal responsibility for human rights abuses, including enforced disappearances.”

Both Mexico and Colombia have ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance but have failed so far to recognize the competence of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances to receive and consider individual complaints, placing in doubt their commitment to uphold their treaty obligations in practice.

In other countries across the region, enforced disappearances are no longer as prevalent as in the past, but they do still happen.

Brazil

In Brazil, the whereabouts of Amarildo, a bricklayer from Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s biggest favela, are still unknown after he was detained by police officer on July 14 after he was reportedly mistaken for a wanted drug dealer. Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International have denounced his disappearance.

Police say he was released after a criminal records check, but none of his relatives or friends have seen him since, and surveillance cameras installed near the entrance to the police station recorded Amarildo’s entry, but not his exit.

Dominican Republic

The case of Juan Almonte in the Dominican Republic is as emblematic as Amarildo’s, but older and more complex. An accountant and a member of the Dominican Committee of Human Rights, Almonte was last seen on 28 September 2009, when witnesses say he was detained by police officers while walking to his office in Santo Domingo.

The police have always denied arresting him and the authorities have not complied with repeated calls from the Inter-American Commission and Inter-American Court of Human Rights to investigate his case. Following his disappearance, his relatives and lawyers reported being monitored by police, both in cars and in the street in front of their houses. Juan’s sister also received anonymous telephone calls asking her to stop publicizing her brother’s disappearance.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/enforced-disappearances-still-appalling-reality-americas-2013-08-29

Nepal marks Int'l Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances

Nakkali Budhamagar had given birth to her first child, when the ‘people’s war’ was launched in Rolpa in 1996. She was so focused on raising her child that she hardly noticed the rebellion around her. It was only when her husband Buddhiman, a school teacher, was interrogated by security forces on charges of being a Maoist sympathiser that they decided to move to Kathmandu in 2003.

Buddhiman left for Malaysia after that. However, when he returned in 2005, he could not make it beyond the airport. His whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

Nakkali’s story is one of the 932 cases (INSEC data) of disappearance during a decade-long Maoist insurgency. According to a report of the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) released on the eve of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on Thursday, about 90 percent of the missing are males, while 66 percent of them were married when they disappeared.

Seven years after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), the government has not made public the whereabouts of the missing. Although families of the disappeared find the government’s interim relief package ‘ridiculous,’ the bankrupt wives of the missing men are left with no option but to accept it. “I had to take the money despite that fact that I lost my husband. It was never a bargain for money but the state treated like one,” she says. “Accepting the amount was painful, but I had no other option.”



The CPA had committed to make public the whereabouts of the disappeared within six months of the signing of the accord. However, nothing of that sort has happened so far. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) identified 846 cases of disappearance s and recommended the government take action, but in vain.

The bill for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was brought in through an ordinance. However, that too landed into controversy for failing to meet international standards. Legal experts and rights activists say the bill is fraught with problems.

A group of victims jointly filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court in March, challenging the ordinance. Among other things, they demanded that the provision of blanket amnesty on serious human rights violations be scrapped. The SC has postponed hearings on the case five times.

International rights institutions, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights‚ Human Rights Watch and International Commission of Jurists, have already objected to the ordinance.

“We are not hoping for anything to happen from the government side as the chief justice himself is the executive head,” says Ram Kumar Bhandari, founder of the National Network of Families of Disappeared and Missing. Bhandari’s father was detained and disappeared by the state in 2001. “The government has violated our cultural rights and snatched away our dignity by not making public the whereabouts of our family members,” he says.

While the families of the disappeared are in a limbo as they don’t know whether they should be performing the last rites of their loved ones, this fact has exposed women in particular to abuses and social discrimination.

The ICTJ report says that the wives of the disappeared are considered neither ‘wives’ nor ‘widows’ and that they lack a ‘recognisable social status’ in Nepali society.

“It is hard to accept that my husband is dead until I see his body,” Nakkali says.

Transitional Justice Advocacy Group, a loose network of NGOs, INGOs and victims’ groups actively working in the field of human rights and transitional justice, is organising a series of programmes to commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Through the programmes, it plans to raise awareness on the issue of enforced disappearance s.

“Political parties tried to protect their interests instead of protecting the rights of the victims,” NHRC member Ram Nagina Singh told an interaction organised by the NHRC here on Thursday.

And now with the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, there is no parliament to discuss the non-compliance of recommendations made by the NHRC to take action against those responsible for the disappearances, Singh said.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://ekantipur.com/2013/08/30/headlines/Disappeared-mens-wives-bearing-the-brunt-Report/377222/

Five things you should know about disappearances

Every year in dozens of countries around the world, thousands of men, women and children are detained by state authorities for no reason, never to be seen again. They are the “disappeared”. In 2012 alone, Amnesty International documented such cases in 31 countries. Here are five facts you should know on International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, 30 August.

Since the beginning of the uprising that led to armed conflict in Syria two years ago, there’s again been a dramatic increase in the authorities’ use of enforced disappearances to silence opposition and sow fear among their friends and relatives. Thousands of people have been arrested, with many held incommunicado at unknown locations at which torture and other ill-treatment are reported to be rife. This adds to the some 17,000 people, mostly Islamists, who were disappeared in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the country.

In Sri Lanka, some 12,000 complaints of enforced disappearances have been submitted to the UN since the 1980s. But the actual number is much higher, with at least 30,000 cases alleged up to 1994 and many thousands reported after that.

In Mexico, more than 26,000 people were reported missing or disappeared between 2006 and 2012 – mainly in the context of the violence between drug cartels and security force deployments to combat organized crime. The security forces are responsible for some of these but investigations in almost all cases are so poor that victims are rarely found and virtually no one has been held to account.

More than a third of the countries where Amnesty International documented enforced disappearances in 2012 were in sub-Saharan Africa, in: Angola, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and South Sudan.

Despite constant requests by the relatives of the missing, the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), responsible for the investigation and prosecution of crimes under international law, failed to investigate hundreds of the enforced disappearances and abductions that took place during the 1998-89 armed conflict in Kosovo, and in its aftermath.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/day-disappeared-2013-2013-08-30

In Kashmir, 'half-widows' suffer in silence

Forty-year-old Haleema Begum was once a proud and happy homemaker, but now she lives on the support of her parents and neighbours.

Haleema became a half-widow 12 years ago when her husband, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, was abducted by gunmen. Half-widow is a term used to describe the women whose husbands are missing in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the Association of Parents of Disappeared People (APDP), more than 8,000 people have gone missing in J&K during the last two decades of turmoil. “One morning he left home to drop tiffin box at his brother’s shop. But he never returned. He was abducted by masked gunmen and taken to unknown place. For 12 years we have been going from pillar to post but to no avail,” Haleema told dna.

Tragedy struck again for Haleema when her son fell from a tree some years later. “We could not afford Rs25,000 for his surgery and that is why his arm has been permanently dislocated. We have no means of livelihood. My husband had surrendered and joined police as an SPO. He was the breadwinner. Now we are living on the support of my parents and villagers,” she added.

Similar is the story of Riyaz Ahmad Mir, who has not given up his fight for justice for his father Ghulam Mohammad Mir, a government employee. Mir was picked up from his home by the security forces 16 years ago. “We have filed a case. Insha Allaha we hope justice will be done,” said Riyaz.

On the International Day of Disappeared (August 30), human rights activists have demanded naming and shaming of those responsible for the disappearance of people. “The institutional culture of institutional culpability and impunity has resulted in enforced and involuntary disappearance of at least 8,000 persons. This is a crime against humanity. The government of the day is also complicit in this crime against humanity,” Khurram Parvez, Programme Coordinator, J&K Coalition of Civil Society.

“Almost 7,000 unmarked graves have been discovered in five districts so far. But the government is not willing to conduct DNA test of the bodies. Therefore on this day we not only want to show solidarity with victims but also press for justice to these victims,” Khurram added.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1881810/report-in-kashmir-half-widows-suffer-in-silence

30 August: International Day of the Disappeared

The International Day of the Disappeared (30 August) is a reminder that a great number of people are missing as a result of conflicts around the world.

Each year, on this day we commemorate those who have gone missing in armed conflicts or other situations of violence – and remembers the plight of their families.

The impulse for the day came from the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of Detained-Disappeared (Federación Latinoamericana de Asociaciones de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos, or FEDEFAM), a non-governmental organization founded in 1981 in Costa Rica as an association of local and regional groups actively working against secret imprisonment and forced disappearances in a number of Latin-American countries.

Work on secret imprisonment is an important part of the activities for a number of international bodies and organizations in the fields of human rights activism and humanitarian aid, including for example Amnesty International (AI), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The International Day of the Disappeared is an opportunity to highlight these institutions' work, increase public awareness, and to call for donations and volunteers.

Of those agencies, the ICRC has additional privileges due to its special status as a non-governmental sovereign entity and its strict policy of neutrality. In some cases, the ICRC is the only institution granted access to specific groups of prisoners, thereby enabling a minimum level of contact and inspection of their treatment. For affected families, messages transmitted by the ICRC are often the only hint about the fate of these prisoners.

Visiting those detained in relation to conflicts and enabling them to maintain contact with their families, is a very important part of the ICRC's mandate. But the definition of the Missing or the Disappeared goes far beyond the victims of enforced disappearance. It includes all those whose families have lost contact as the result of conflicts, natural disasters or other tragedies.

These missing may be detained, stranded in foreign countries, hospitalized or dead. Through its tracing services and working with the 189 national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world, the ICRC seeks to obtain information about their fate on behalf of their families. It reminds governments and other groups of their obligations to respect the families' right to know the fate of their loved ones. It also works with families of the missing to help them address their particular psychological, social legal and financial needs.

Imprisonment under secret or uncertain circumstances is a grave violation of some conceptions of human rights as well as, in the case of an armed conflict, of International Humanitarian Law. The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance as resolution 47/133 on December 18, 1992. It is estimated that secret imprisonment is practiced in about 30 countries. The OHCHR Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has registered about 46,000 cases of people who disappeared under unknown circumstances.

“Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are separated from loved ones in such situations,” said Marianne Pecassou, the head of the ICRC team dealing with the missing. “The families will tell you that what they need more than anything else is to find out what happened to the person who vanished – unfortunately, in too many cases, that question may never be resolved. But they also have other needs that go far beyond this.”

Sometimes the needs stem from legal issues relating to the unresolved status of the missing person. These issues can involve such matters as inheritance, property, marital status or even the custody of children. There can also be financial needs caused by the costs involved in searching for the missing relative or in supporting the family if the person who disappeared was a main breadwinner.

However, as Milena Osorio, the ICRC’s mental health and psychosocial support adviser explains, there are often huge psychological needs as well. These can involve emotional isolation, feelings of guilt, anger, depression or trauma, and tensions among family members or with members of their communities. “The families of missing people frequently find themselves grappling with uncertainty. Most societies have religious or cultural rituals to deal with death,” said Ms Osorio, “but there is very little to help the families of missing persons.”

According to sources, more or less 2,300 persons a day have been missing throughout the world. The status of such person is unknown whether they are alive or dead.

Nothing yet has been effective enough since the laws and jurisdictions are complex ones. In some countries, facilities have been given to post the photographs of missing persons on websites, bulletin boards, milk cartons and postcards.

United Nations in its website claims that enforced disappearance is used as a tool for spreading terror within the social circles. Today, entire global community is affected because of the disappearing. Today it is largely used as a ploy to suppress the opponents of the political parties.

The families which suffer from the dilemma of enforced disappearances without a death certificate or dead body. These pacts of Silence, an unspoken agreement among those involved in the disappearances are done in various countries including Chile.

“Families have the right to know what happened to missing relatives. To find that out is their primary need, but further needs must also be addressed by governments and by organizations such as Red Cross or Red Crescent societies,” said Ms Pecassou.

On 30 August, the International Day of the Disappeared, the ICRC will unveil a publication entitled “Accompanying the Families of Missing Persons: A Practical Handbook,” which is intended to help those within and outside the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement who strive to assist the families of the missing. The 154-page manual is dedicated to “all those who have to endure the anguish caused by the disappearance of a loved one.”

The new publication complements the familylinks.icrc.org website launched last October by the ICRC to help people find missing relatives. The website also provides information on Red Cross and Red Crescent services that help people restore contact with family members in countries around the world.

“In the 10 years since the 2003 International Conference on Missing Persons and their Families, we have developed a much deeper understanding of the wide range of needs of these families,” noted Ms Pecassou. “We understand that our response to those needs, if it is to be adequate, must be holistic and multi-disciplinary. We are hopeful the new manual will provide guidance in that direction.”

In Armenia, the ICRC continues to provide the families of the missing with material assistance via micro-economic projects, such as the distribution of livestock or house renovations. Together with local partners, the ICRC also provides psycho-social support to the families, helping them to cope with the trauma of their loss.

Friday 30 August 2013

Thailand must do more on The Day of The Disappeared

Thai authorities have failed to honor past pledges to resolve cases of enforced disappearance and hold those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said today.

August 30, 2013 is the International Day of the Disappeared.

The government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance on January 9, 2012, but since then there has been no progress in the parliament to ratify this important human rights treaty.

The Thai penal code still does not recognise enforced disappearance as a criminal offense.

''For many years Thai officials have committed enforced disappearances with little fear of being held to account for their actions,'' said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

''The government proclaims its opposition to this heinous crime, but has done nothing to end it.''

For instance, Nasulan Pi was last seen on January 17, 2012, at a teashop near his house in Joh Ai Rong district, Narathiwat province, when two armed men in military uniform forced him into a car and drove off.

His fate and whereabouts remain unknown. Nasulan is the 39th person reported ''disappeared'' since 2002 in connection with the government's counterinsurgency operations in Thailand's southern border provinces.

In March 2007, Human Rights Watch published a report detailing 22 cases of enforced disappearance that strongly implicated the Thai security forces. In none of these cases has there been a successful criminal prosecution of the perpetrators.

Under international law, a state commits an enforced disappearance when government officials take a person into custody and then deny holding the person, or conceal or fail to disclose the person's whereabouts.

Family members and lawyers are not informed of the person's whereabouts, well-being, or legal status.

''Disappeared'' people are often at high risk of torture, especially when they are detained outside of formal detention facilities such as police jails and prisons.

Enforced disappearances occur beyond Thailand's southern border provinces, Human Rights Watch said.

The Justice Peace Foundation, a well-respected Thai human rights group, has documented enforced disappearance cases in other parts of the country since 2011 - including 12 people from the northern region, 5 from the western region, and seven from the northeastern region.

''The many unresolved enforced disappearance cases show the failure of justice in Thailand,'' Adams said.

''The Yingluck government should end this terrible abuse and turn its promise for justice into action.''

Adopting the policy of the earlier government of Gen. Surayud Chulanont in 2007, the Yingluck government since 2012 has provided financial assistance to the families of the disappeared in the southern border provinces.

But offering money is no substitute for serious investigations into the whereabouts of the forcibly disappeared and appropriate prosecutions of those responsible, Human Rights Watch said.

Specifically, Human Rights Watch called on the Thai government to undertake the following measures to end impunity for enforced disappearances:

..Promptly ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

..Urgently adopt all necessary legislation, regulations and other measures, including making enforced disappearances a criminal offense, to fully comply with the convention even before its ratification.

..Ensure that the police and prosecutors conduct prompt, competent, and impartial investigations into all allegations of enforced disappearances.

..Prosecute all officials, regardless of rank, found responsible for enforced disappearances and other abuses, including those ordering enforced disappearances or who knew or should have known about such abuses but took no action to prevent or prosecute them.

..Ensure that all persons detained by the police and the military are held at recognised places of detention, and are not subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Upon detention, their whereabouts should immediately be made known to family and legal counsel. They should be allowed contact with family and unhindered access to legal counsel of their choice.

..Provide prompt, fair, and adequate compensation for the victims and family members of those who have disappeared or were otherwise arbitrarily detained.

..Strengthen the independence and capacity of the police, the Justice Ministry's Department of Special Investigation, prosecutors, and the National Human Rights Commission to ensure more thorough and effective investigations and public reporting of allegations of enforced disappearances and other human rights abuses.

..Invite the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and the UN Working Groups on enforced and involuntary disappearances and on arbitrary detentions, to Thailand to investigate and report on the situation. Recommendations of these special rapporteurs and working groups should be implemented in a timely manner.

''Thailand should make resolving enforced disappearances a top human rights priority,'' Adams said. ''Dozens of families across the country who are waiting for answers expect no less.''

Friday 30 August 2013

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/thailand-day-disappeared-says-rights-group-18724/

Chile marks International Day of the Disappeared

It has been 40 years, but Gabriela Zuñiga is no closer to knowing what happened to her husband than she was the day he was taken by Chilean security forces on Aug.15, 1974.

“I don’t know where he was taken, where he was killed, when he was killed. I know it happened but that is all,” Zuñiga told The Santiago Times.

Zuñiga is now the communications director for the Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (AFDD) that continues to search for answers in the more than 1,000 cases in which there is no information at all about the fate of the victims. The AFDD is spearheading a number of events to coincide with the International Day of the Disappeared, Aug. 30, as well as the upcoming 40th anniversary of the coup which was the spark that instigated the thousands of crimes against humanity committed by military and security forces across Chile from 1973-1990.

“In the first few months of the dictatorship there were a lot of prisoners who didn’t show up on any list,” Zuñiga said. “Then the systematic disappearances started in 1974.”

The term “disappeared” or “forced disappearances” refers to the practice of arresting individuals and secretly detaining them, likely torturing, interrogating and killing them, then secretly disposing of the body without ever releasing any information about the status of the detainee. In this way, the victim simply disappears, with no records of detention or information about their final whereabouts. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, this act constitutes a crime against humanity.

Ana Piquer, director of Amnesty International Chile, told The Santiago Times that states used systematic disappearances to terrorize both the targeted individuals and their families and communities.

“The practice of enforced disappearance has been frequently used as a deliberate strategy to instill terror among the population and extend the sense of insecurity, many times against political opponents, ethnic or religious groups, and inflicts suffering and psychological damage not only to the victims but also to family members,” Piquer said.

Pact of silence

Families are then left without a body to bury or death certificate — instead they only have questions. Thanks to what has become known as the “pact of silence” in Chile, an unspoken agreement among those involved in the disappearances to not say anything, those questions remain unanswered even after the crimes have ceased. Victims’ families lack closure, not knowing with certainty that a loved one is not still out there somewhere, and issues are raised over their legal statuses, often preventing them from somewhat of a normal life.

“I am legally still married to a living man,” Zuñiga told The Santiago Times.

She explained that because her husband was never declared dead, she remains legally a married woman, unable to remarry despite having lost her husband 40 years ago.

“I was 21 when it happened, now I am 60,” she said.

For Zuñiga, having to answer questions like, “Where is your husband? What is his status?” when applying for travel visas, or jobs only adds to the victimization. She noted that the same trauma happened to the children of the disappeared who would have to answer questions about their missing parents when attending school.

Olga Weisfeiler, whose brother Boris is the only U.S. citizen on the list of disappeared, also expressed this feeling of continued trauma. She has tirelessly fought for answers in her brother’s case since his disappearance in 1984, making many trips to Chile in search for documents and clues.

“This prolonged investigation has been very distressing and placed enormous strain on my family,” Weisfeiler told The Santiago Times. “In almost 29 years I have not been able to come to terms with this tragedy. I have been unable to get on with my own life.”

She blames inaction from the government as a major reason for the lack of answers.

“All those cases of the disappeared in Chile are taking too long to investigate and the judicial system in Chile is way too slow,” Weisfeiler said. “It seems Chile is especially prolonging suffering of its people with such slow judicial system. Forty years has already past but more than half of the cases are still not even close to finished.”

One thing that all those looking for answers can agree upon, is that time is not on their side.

“Many of the relatives are dying, and [the perpetrators] are also dying, and they need to say what they know,” Zuñiga said.

The AFDD will be hosting a screening of the documentary “Vivas Voces” about the history of the group and its work to mark the international Day of the Disappeared on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the Cine Arte Alameda in Santiago. They will also have a flower ceremony at the Cementerio General at noon on Saturday.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://www.santiagotimes.cl/chile/human-rights-a-law/26659-chile-marks-international-day-of-the-disappeared

Nepal: ICRC support programme for families of disappeared

A comprehensive support programme, aptly named ‘Hatemalo Accompaniment Programme’, run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with support from the local NGO Kopila Nepal has served as a soothing balm for the families of the people disappeared during the decade-long armed conflict.

The programme was launched by the ICRC with an aim to resolve the psychosocial problems haunting the families of the disappeared. The programme has served as a platform for the families to come together and share their problems.

“I had been living under the illusion that I was the only one with the pain, but the realisation that there are hundreds like me across the country has helped me come to terms with the pain of losing a loved one,” said Radhika Simkhada from Gorkha, currently residing in Pokhara Buspark area. Simkhada had lost her husband and son to the war—both were allegedly disappeared by the state.

Although the exact figures remain unknown, the ICRC data show that more than 1,380 people are unaccounted for till date. Deumaya Gurung from Syangja—whose son Bishnu Gurung allegedly went missing after the Maoist rebels took him on June 12, 2005—said that she had been relieved of the burden, after finding people having similar fate. Rita Dahal, a counsellor for Kopila Nepal, said the victims had been living under mental duress, feeling lonely, weak socially and economically, and tense as they could not confirm whether the missing were dead or alive. And due to various accusations and indifferent treatment by the society, the victims felt dejected. After the programme, the victims are now able to come out in the open and share their problems, added Dahal.

Along with psychosocial counselling, the programme has been providing administrative, economical, legal and social support , said Dahal. According to Andanath Baral, chairperson of the Society of the Families of the Disappeared, the programme had relieved the elderly leading a difficult life after losing their breadwinners. According to the Society, there are 24 families with their kin missing in Kaski. Binod Koirala, chief of the ICRC’s regional office, said the programme is operational in 26 districts benefiting around 1,000 families. Concluding that psychosocial counselling alone does not suffice, the ICRC has started economic sustenance programme, providing the victims with seed money.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://ekantipur.com/2013/08/30/national/icrc-balm-for-kin-of-missing-persons/377235.html

Ghosts linger in Halifax

In April 1912, the Titanic went down after colliding with an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.

But it was Halifax, on Canada's eastern coast, which dealt with the ghastly aftermath of the calamity that killed about 1500 people.

Local mariners of four Halifax recovery ships plucked hundreds of bodies from the frigid water and took them back to their home port.

Walking around the bustling town, signs of its seafaring past are still strongly evoked - as are the chilling stories that surround the tragedies that occurred here.

Staff at The Five Fishermen Restaurant and Grill on Argyle Street, the town's entertainment hub, regularly report seeing odd levitating and disappearing figures dressed in turn-of-the-century garb.

"I saw a tall man wearing a black trench coat and hat standing by the post the other day. Another time there was a woman with a child floating outside the window," says Matt Relf, a barman at the restaurant.

Walking around the dimly lit restaurant, with its dark wood panels and grandeur from a time gone by, it's hard not to be spooked by the tales.

The fact the restaurant is now as renowned for its ghost stories as its delicious cold-water lobster and other Nova Scotian seafood might be because it was previously the site of the John Snow & Co Funeral Home.

Following the Titanic disaster, the bodies of some of the wealthier victims, among others, were brought to the funeral parlour.

Just five years later, in 1917, it was besieged with more mass-scale death when most of the 2000 bodies from the Halifax harbour explosion were carted in.

The explosion was caused by the collision of a French cargo ship, laden with wartime explosives, and a Norwegian vessel in the strait.

But it's not all doom and gloom: Halifax has a colourful charm reminiscent of its nautical past.

Downtown, lines of attractive, multi-coloured terrace houses, now converted into lively pubs and restaurants, serve up the State's signature dish (seafood chowder), Alexander Keith's India pale ale and a hefty dose of Canadian charm.

Further down the hill on the waterfront, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is believed to have the biggest and finest collection of wooden Titanic artefacts in the world.

Here you can sit in a replica deckchair, view an elaborate carved-wood balustrade from the Titanic's forward grand staircase (where you can almost see Leonardo DiCaprio waiting for Kate Winslet in the 1997 blockbuster).

It's in this museum where, for the first time, I can actually fathom two well-known concepts about the tragedy - first, a replica gives my imagination plenty to work with in regards to the size of the behemoth ship and second, the jarring double standards onboard.

A luxurious first-class ticket on the Titanic cost $2500, whereas one could snag a spot in the more cramped third-class quarters for a mere $40.

Maintaining the strict class segregation during the grim clean-up operation, first-class bodies were removed from the Halifax-based rescue cable steamer Mackay-Bennett in coffins, while second and third-class dead were relegated to canvas bags and crew on open stretchers.

The dead were dispatched to three cemeteries in town - Mount Olivet, Baron de Hirsch and Fairview.

The biggest collection of Titanic graves in the world is at the Fairview Cemetery, on the north end of town. Visitors can follow signs through the nondescript but pleasantly green cemetery to lines of small, neat gray granite markers inscribed with the name and date of death of the 121 victims resting here.

Some families paid for larger markers with more detailed inscriptions, but occupants of at least a third of the graves were never identified and their markers bear only the date of death and marker number.

At the far end of the row, there is a stone for the Unknown Child.

The inscription reads: "Erected in the memory of an unknown child whose remains were recovered after the disaster of the Titanic".

He was later identified as Sidney Goodwin, a one-and-a-half-year-old English baby who was lost along with his entire family.

Today the gravesite is overflowing with colourful stuffed teddy bears and toys left by touched visitors.

On the waterfront, children enjoy jumping, climbing and sliding down the belly of a modern submarine- themed playground inspired by the area's nautical theme.

The coast on either side of Halifax is dotted with traditional fishing villages with typical Nova Scotia pastel-coloured weatherboard houses, picturesque lighthouses and the constant rolling presence of the North Atlantic Ocean.

But when the fog comes in, everything changes - the sparkling blue ocean is disguised by thick grey nothingness, punctuated only by a distant roar of waves or an eerie silence.

It's easy to see how so many ships met their demise on this jagged coastline.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/travel/a/-/travel/18705777/ghosts-linger-in-halifax/

INS Sindhurakshak: Six submarine victims identified

The Indian Navy on Thursday identified the bodies of six victims of the August 14 INS Sindhurakshak submarine disaster. The remains were handed over to their respective families.

FSL director Dr MK Malve confirmed the development. "We have received DNA samples of 10 bodies so far. Of them, we have matched six samples and the report has been sent to authorities concerned," said Malve, refusing to divulge any further details.

On August 14, there was an explosion on the Russian-made Kilo-class submarine, in which 18 navy personnel were feared dead.

While Liju Lawrence, Seetaram Badapalli, Rajesh Tootika and Vishnu V's bodies were handed over to their relatives, the bodies of Kewal Singh and Malay Haldar will be sent to their native place.

Since the day of the catastrophe, the navy's focus has been to recover bodies of its sailors. Till now, body parts of 11 persons have been recovered.

“Claimants of only four bodies were present. So those were handed over. The other two bodies will be sent to their native place since their families don't stay here,” sources said.

The bodies were badly mutilated and in the early stages of decomposition. The navy had to rely on a DNA analysis for identification.

The bodies were sent to JJ Hospital for an autopsy. They were kept in cold storage, at a temperature of 2-4°C. The morgue in naval hospital INHS Asvini does not have the wherewithal to maintain such low temperatures, said a source.

Bone and tooth samples from the bodies have been sent for DNA analysis at state-run forensic laboratory in Kalina.

Friday 30 August 2013

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1881693/report-ins-sindhurakshak-six-bodies-identified

Mexico train accident toll rises to 11

The number of confirmed fatalities in last weekend's train derailment in the southeastern state of Tabasco stands at 11, but the search for additional victims continues, Mexican authorities said.

"Civil defense elements found two more bodies in the La Tembladera zone. The victims of the derailment now total 11," the Tabasco emergency services office said on Twitter.

Seven of the fatalities have been identified as undocumented Honduran migrants who hopped aboard the northbound freight train known as "La Bestia" (The Beast).

Central American migrants headed for the United States ride on top of the freight train or in openair wagons, with hundreds of people sometimes clinging to the train's cars.

The train derailed around 3:00 a.m. Sunday outside Huimanguillo, a city near Tabasco's border with Veracruz state.

Besides the dangers inherent in hopping onto moving trains, Central American migrants must contend with criminals and corrupt Mexican officials.

Gangs kidnap, exploit and murder migrants, who are often targeted in extortion schemes, Mexican officials say.

Thursday 29 August 2013

http://www.vidalatinasd.com/news/2013/aug/29/11-confirmed-dead-in-mexico-train-accident/

One more body of Lac-Megantic train disaster victim ID'd

The Quebec coroner's office announced Thursday that it has identified the body of four-year-old Alyssa Charest Begnoche, who died in the July 6 Lac-Megantic train disaster.

Begnoche was the 39th identified person out of the 42 bodies that provincial police officers recovered from the rubble of the train wreck in Lac-Megantic's downtown. The train derailment killed 47 people.

It could take months before Begnoche's body is returned to her family. As of mid-August only 10 bodies had been released.

The coroner's office said it will return the majority of the bodies by Christmas. Identified bodies are kept to aid in the process of identifying others, the office explained.

"The task is very complex," coroner's office spokeswoman Genevieve Guilbault said. However, she said that when a body is ready to be released, "the family is informed within 15 minutes."

Provincial police said in early August that they stopped searching for bodies.

"We are certain that we did everything we could (to find the five missing bodies,)" Lt. Guy Lapointe said on Aug. 1.

Thursday 29 August 2013

http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/2013/08/29/body-of-girl-4-who-died-in-lac-megantic-idd

Sao Paulo building collapse kills at least 8 and injures dozens

At least eight people were killed and 25 injured when a building collapsed in Sao Paulo, officials said.

Firefighters worked through the night and into today searching with sniffer dogs to rescue people who may be trapped in the rubble. It is feared the death toll may rise as bodies are discovered.

The commercial building under construction “pancaked” onto itself yesterday. News reports said 35 people had been working on it at the time. People passing by on the street might also have been caught up in the falling debris, the reports said.

Nearby cars were covered with slabs of concrete which broke free from the building as it collapsed.

The two-storey building was for a chain of clothing stores called Torra Torra and had been under construction for three months.

An investigation has been launched into the incident. It was not immediately clear what caused the two-storey building to collapse.

“The work of finding victims requires patience and a skilled search,” Captain Marcos Palumbo of the fire department said.



“The number of deaths is likely to rise. It’s a situation full of risk and difficult access. The teams haven’t had more contact with anybody else under the rubble.”

Collapsing buildings whether under construction or old and poorly maintained

Such accidents involving old and poorly maintained buildings or those under construction occur frequently in Sao Paulo.

Brazil’s economic capital, home to 11million people, is one of 12 cities that will host next year’s World Cup.

Thursday 29 August 2013

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/sao-paulo-building-collapse-kills-8-and-injures-dozens-8787156.html

Three more bodies recovered; Cebu ferry disaster toll rises to 94

The number of fatalities from the collision of a passenger vessel and a cargo ship in Cebu last Aug. 16 further rose to 94 as of Thursday morning, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said.

n a post on its Twitter account Thursday noon, the Coast Guard said this brought down to 40 the number of people deemed missing.

As of 9:45 a.m., the Coast Guard said 733 had been rescued while 94 were confirmed dead, while 40 are missing and the subject of search operations.

Among those found dead on Thursday were two kids and an adult, Naval Forces Central operations officer Lt. Cmdr. Noel Escalona told reporters on Thursday.

The dead bodies were found in the sunken ship’s passenger section, Escalona added.

Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Armand Balilo said search-and-rescue operations by divers from the PCG, the Navy and the Philippine National Police, as well as volunteer divers, were continuing.

“The diving operations continue today,” said Balilo, chief of the Coast Guard’s public affairs office.

Earlier, he said the divers had already covered up to 60 percent of the vessel and were scheduled to look into the ship’s tourist cabins.

According to the PCG official, “three more bodies were recovered this morning, in addition to the 11 found on Wednesday.”

As of 11:58 a.m. Thursday, the number of missing ferry passengers and crew members stood at 40. The command placed the number of rescued passengers and crew at 639 and 104, respectively.

The Coast Guard station in Cebu has been making “revisions on the number of casualties based on body parts recovered, as well as validations by 2Go Travel, the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and representatives of the Department of Health, Balilo added.

The shipping company 2Go Travel operated the St. Thomas Aquinas.

Thursday 29 August 2013

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/477121/14-more-bodies-recovered-from-sunken-ferry

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/324117/news/regions/coast-guard-cebu-ferry-disaster-death-toll-now-94

Enumclaw service honors 32 Marines killed in 1946 Rainier crash

The annual memorial service honoring military men who died on Mount Rainier more than 66 years ago will take place Saturday.

The event, hosted by Pierce County Detachment 504 of the Marine Corps League, is scheduled to begin at noon at Veterans Memorial Park.

On December 10, 1946, six Curtis Commando R5C transport planes carrying more than 200 U.S. Marines leave San Diego en route to Seattle. The aircraft, flying entirely by instruments at an altitude of 9,000 feet, encounter heavy weather over southwest Washington. Four turn back, landing at the Portland Airport; one manages to land safely in Seattle, but the sixth plane, carrying 32 Marines, vanishes. Search-and-rescue aircraft, hampered by continuing bad weather, are unable to fly for a week and ground searches prove fruitless. After two weeks, the search for the missing aircraft is suspended. The Navy determines that the aircraft was blown off course by high winds and flew into the side of Mount Rainier (14,410 feet). In July 1947, a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park spots wreckage on South Tahoma Glacier. Search parties examine the debris and confirm that it came from the missing plane. Four weeks later, the bodies are found high on the face of the glacier, but extremely hazardous conditions force authorities to abandon plans to remove them for burial. The 32 U.S. Marines remain entombed forever on Mount Rainier. In 1946, it was the worst accident, in numbers killed aboard an aircraft, in United States aviation history and remains Mount Rainier’s greatest tragedy.

On Monday, July 21, 1947, Assistant Chief Ranger Bill Butler, age 38, was hiking up Success Cleaver on his day off, monitoring snow levels and climbing conditions, when he spotted some aircraft wreckage, including a bucket seat, high on South Tahoma Glacier. The following day, Butler flew over the area in a Navy reconnaissance plane to assist photographing the area where he saw the debris. The wreckage couldn’t be seen from the air, but Butler was able to pinpoint the location without difficulty.

It was at about the 9,500-foot level on a huge snow-field rife with deep crevasses and sheer ice precipices, below an almost perpendicular 3,000-foot rock wall. The terrain was so treacherous that none of the park rangers or mountain climbing guides recalled anyone ever traversing the glacier’s face. As gravity drags the glacial ice down the mountainside, at an approximate rate of 10 inches per day, fissures open and close, causing avalanches and rock slides and collapsing snow bridges over crevasses.

The accident

The Curtis Commando (C-46/R5C) was the largest and heaviest twin-engine transport aircraft used by the U.S. military during World War II (1941-1945). Originally developed as a 36-seat commercial airliner, it was used to haul cargo and personnel and for towing gliders. Although the plane had a service ceiling of 24,500 feet, it was restricted to flying at lower altitudes when hauling passengers because the cabin was unpressurized.

At 10:36 a.m. on Tuesday, December 10, 1946, six Curtis Commando R5C transport planes carrying more than 200 U.S. Marines departed El Toro Marine Air Station near San Diego on a six-and-a-half hour, non-stop flight to Naval Air Station Sand Point in Seattle. The flight encountered extremely bad weather over southwestern Washington and four of the planes turned back, landing at the Portland Airport. The two remaining aircraft, flying entirely by instruments (IFR), pressed onward toward Seattle.

At 4:13 p.m., Major Robert V. Reilly, pilot of aircraft No. 39528, radioed the Civil Aeronautics Administration (now the Federal Aviation Administration) radio range station at Toledo that he was flying IFR at 9,000 feet and, with ice forming on the leading edges of the wings, requested permission to fly above the cloud cover. The plane was estimated to be approximately 30 miles south of Toledo, the mid-point between Seattle and Portland. When Major Reilly failed to contact Toledo, establishing his new altitude, air traffic controllers became concerned. Although buffeted by the storm, the fifth Curtis R5C flew through the weather without major difficulty, landing at NAS Sand Point shortly after 5:00 p.m.

Under normal circumstances, the powerful Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) radio range station at Everett should have been able to receive transmissions from Major Reilly’s aircraft by 4:30 p.m., but heard none. Frantic efforts by the CAA, as well as the Army and Navy, to contact the plane were fruitless. The CAA’s ground transmission network queried other airfields around Western Washington, but there was no trace of the missing transport. All of the Curtis R5C’s had sufficient fuel to fly for 10 hours, giving officials hope that Major Reilly had landed his plane safely at some remote location.

Still, the lost Marines would not be forgotten. The search for the missing plane resumed the next summer, after some of the snow had melted. Meanwhile, the Navy conducted a thorough investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the aircraft’s disappearance. Families of the missing men offered a $5,000 reward to anyone finding the plane.

After analyzing the evidence, Navy officials concluded the missing plane, traveling at approximately 180 m.p.h., crashed into the side of Mount Rainier. Major Reilly was flying an IFR course, corrected for a southeast wind. However south of Portland, the wind changed direction, blowing from the west at 70 m.p.h. This wind shift, unknown to the pilot, pushed the plane approximately 25 degrees to the east, directly on a path into Mount Rainier. Their analysis was bolstered by reports from persons on the ground along the supposed line of flight where the Curtis R5C disappeared, who reported hearing a plane flying overhead. They believed the wreckage, if it could be located, would be scattered on one of the glaciers on the south or southwest side of the mountain.

Search for wreckage and remains

At dawn on Wednesday, December 11, 1946, Army, Navy, and Coast Guard search planes were poised to start an intensive search of the area where the aircraft was presumed to have disappeared. But poor visibility and bad weather throughout southwestern Washington kept all the search planes grounded. Air rescue units remained on alert, waiting for a break in the weather. Another concern was the missing aircraft's color, black, making the wreckage extremely difficult to spot from the air. Most search activity was limited to investigating leads provided by local citizens who reported hearing airplane engines around the time Curtis R5C disappeared.

Although it was well off Major Reilly’s designated flight plan, the search for the aircraft was concentrated around Randle, Longmire, and Paradise in the southern foothills and slopes of Mount Rainier (14,410 feet). John Preston, Superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park, and other park rangers reported hearing a plane fly over the area about 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, just minutes after Major Reilly’s last transmission to Toledo. Many of the rangers thought the aircraft might have crashed into the Nisqually Glacier on the south slope of the mountain.

On Friday, December 13, 1946, Assistant Chief Ranger William Jackson Butler (1909-2000) and Paradise District Ranger Gordon Patterson climbed to Panorama Ridge, elevation 6,800 feet, in a desperate effort to scout Nisqually Glacier for signs of the missing aircraft. But visibility there was almost zero and they were driven back by a blizzard. The rangers reported hearing the roar of avalanches on the glacier, which could have easily buried any wreckage forever.

Bad weather in Western Washington continued for the next five days. High winds and heavy rain caused flooding at lower elevations, severely hindering search efforts and disrupting communications. More than five feet of snow fell on Mount Rainier, making it almost impossible to locate any trace of the plane on the mountain.

On Monday, December 16, 1946, the weather cleared for the first time in a week and conditions were ideal for an aerial search. Twenty-five Army, Navy, and Coast Guard aircraft were launched to search the slopes of Mount Rainier and as far south as Toledo in Lewis County for any sign of the missing Curtis R5C transport. But all the search planes returned without sighting any trace of wreckage. An intensive search around and west of Nisqually Glacier by air and ground units failed to uncover a single clue to the plane’s whereabouts. Still, authorities suspected that the aircraft had crashed on Mount Rainier or somewhere in the vicinity.

Two weeks of searching produced nothing and at that point chances of the Marines' survival were nil, so in late December efforts to find the aircraft were suspended. Park rangers thought that recent heavy snows on Mount Rainier would have covered any signs of wreckage.

In July 1947, a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park spots wreckage on South Tahoma Glacier. Search parties examine the debris and confirm that it came from the missing plane. Four weeks later, the bodies are found high on the face of the glacier, but extremely hazardous conditions force authorities to abandon plans to remove them for burial.

On Wednesday, July 23, 1947, the Navy established a radio relay station and base camp at Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground, altitude 5,800 feet, on the slopes of Pyramid Peak. That afternoon, Butler, accompanied by seven expert mountaineers, hiked five miles from the Longmire Ranger Station to the base camp, where they spent the night. They planned to embark at 4:00 a.m. the following morning, but bad weather delayed the mission.

Finally, at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 24, 1947, the search party started the arduous three-and-a-half mile climb towards South Tahoma Glacier. They split into three groups, each taking a different route, making the search of the glacier safer and more efficient. Because it was believed that vibrations from aircraft motors could trigger avalanches and rock slides, endangering the climbers, all planes were warned to stay clear of Mount Rainier.

That afternoon, the first fragments of an aircraft were found at the 9,500-foot level, strewn over a quarter-mile-wide area and partially embedded in the ice. Initial efforts to free pieces of the wreckage with ice axes proved unsuccessful. Although no bodies were located, searchers found a Marine Corps health record, a piece of a uniform, a seat belt, a temperature control panel and fragments of an aircraft’s fuselage. At about 5:30 p.m., the mountaineers returned to the base camp at Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground with their discoveries. There Navy officials positively identified the health record as belonging to a marine aboard the missing Curtis R5C transport.

On Friday, July 25, 1947, the mountaineers returned to South Tahoma Glacier to search for signs of the 32 missing men, but the weather had deteriorated, greatly increasing the hazards on the glacier. Throughout the day, the climbers, battling rain and snow, were constantly bombarded by falling rocks and encountered two large crevasses that had opened overnight. They recovered additional evidence identifying the wreckage, including a knapsack containing Marine Corps health and service records, and saw considerably more that could not be extricated from the ice. But no bodies were found although searchers dug several feet down into the ice at various locations to inspect debris.

On Saturday, July 26, 1947, Navy officials announced that, due to the extremely difficult and dangerous conditions on the glacier, the search for the missing men had been suspended. Photo reconnaissance aircraft would continue monitoring the crash site so that if and when conditions on the glacier improved, further attempts could be made to find and recover the bodies.

On Monday, August 18, 1947, Assistant Chief Ranger Bill Butler was on a scouting trip around the South Tahoma Glacier with two park rangers when he spotted a large piece of wreckage at the 10,500-foot level. The rangers investigated and found the crushed nose section of the Curtis R5C, which had been buried under several feet of snow since winter. The sun had melted the snow down to the glacial ice, revealing the nose section with the bodies of 11 men tangled inside. The rangers returned to park headquarters at Longmire and notified officials at Naval Air Station Sand Point of their discovery.

The Navy responded immediately, establishing a base camp at Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground. Over the next few days, Navy and National Park Service officials discussed the feasibility of the removing bodies from the glacier for burial. The general census was it would take at least 20 experienced mountain climbers, at great personal risk, about two weeks to bring 32 bodies from the crash site to the base camp. Butler explained that conditions on the glacier were so bad, it took four hours to get to the site of the original wreckage. Snow bridges, which were there previously, had collapsed and new crevasses had opened up all through the ice. Although it was only another half mile up the glacier, it took another four hours to reach the wreckage of the nose section. Before making any decisions, Navy officials advised they would seek expert advice from the Army’s famous Mountain Division about recovery efforts.

Meanwhile, the Navy Department and National Park Service had been planning a memorial service for the lost Marines on Sunday, August 24, 1947 at Longmire. Parents and relatives were due to arrive in Seattle as early as Tuesday. Although circumstances had changed dramatically, the decision was made to proceed with the service.

On Friday, August 22, 1947, 17 climbers, led by Assistant Chief Ranger Butler, returned to the glacier to survey the new site and search for more bodies. In addition to the 11 men found in the crushed nose section, 14 more bodies, most encased in ice, and a considerable amount of the broken plane, were discovered wedged in a crevasse. A heavy volume of rocks and boulders falling from the glacier’s headwall forced the search party to withdraw, but they brought out wallets, rings, watches, and personal papers of many of the men who died. The Naval Public Information Office in Seattle announced that all 32 Marine bodies had been located; 25 had been seen and there was no doubt the other eight were there also.

On Monday, August 25, 1947, 13 climbers, led by Assistant Chief Ranger Butler, returned to South Tahoma Glacier to assess the feasibility of removing the bodies for burial without undue hazard. Included in the survey party were nine experts in mountain and winter warfare from the Army’s Mountain Division. The following day, officials from the Army, Navy, and National Park Service met at Fort Lewis to discuss the recovery problems. After careful consideration, all the experts agreed to abandon the mission because it would endanger the lives of the recovery parties. Clinching the decision was a letter written after the memorial service by parents of six of the Marines aboard the ill-fated plane, stating that sufficient effort had been made to recover their son’s remains.

The 32 U.S. Marines remain entombed forever on Mount Rainier. In 1946, it was the worst accident, in numbers killed aboard an aircraft, in United States aviation history and remains Mount Rainier’s greatest tragedy. Although there have been more than 325 fatalities in Mount Rainier National Park since it was established by Congress in 1899, the plane crash on December 10, 1946, remains the greatest tragedy in the mountain’s history.

Eventually, a stone memorial was placed within sight of the glacier. A duplicate of that memorial was created and placed at Veterans Memorial Park.

Thursday 29 August 2013

http://www.courierherald.com/news/221558041.html

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7820