Chile: Exhumation can be act of exorcising the guilt

The history of Chile may be revised yet again if the forensic examination of the body of the country’s famous poet, Pablo Neruda, which has been exhumed, shows that he died of poisoning and not of prostate cancer. The reason for the suspicion about his death is the statement of Neruda’s former driver that the poet told him that his condition had started deteriorating after the doctors gave him an injection. Considering that Nobel laureate was a friend of Chile’s Marxist president, Salvador Allende, who killed himself during a military coup against his government, it is obvious that Neruda was not a favourite of the military dictator, Augusto Pinochet. The poet died 12 days after the 1973 coup.

Pablo Neruda wooed readers with his romantic poetry, but the latest lines in his story could be ripped from a murder mystery. The Chilean poet's 1973 death certificate says prostate cancer killed him.

But his former chauffeur has another theory involving an unknown assassin, a lethal injection and the South American country's notorious military coup.

On Monday, authorities started putting that theory to the test, exhuming the poet's remains as part of a high-profile investigation that could take months to complete.

Manuel Araya, the chauffeur, said he's received threats for making the controversial claim, which has riled some of Neruda's supporters.

That won't stop him from speaking his mind, Araya told CNN Chile.

"I am not afraid of anyone," he said.

Chauffeur: 'They silenced him'

A view of the tomb of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in Isla Negra, some 120 km (75 miles) west of Santiago, on April 7, 2013.

Neruda died on September 23, 1973, just 12 days after a right-wing military coup ousted socialist President Salvador Allende and brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power.

The poet, a Communist Party member, had criticized the coup and Pinochet.

Less than two weeks later, he was dead.

He had been planning to go into exile the next day -- and the timing of his death was no coincidence, according to Araya.

Neruda was a well known political and public figure, having served as a lawmaker and diplomat in addition to his literary career, which earned him a Nobel Prize in 1971.

"I believe that Pablo Neruda was murdered, because Pablo Neruda was a very relevant figure in history, as much in this country as in the world," Araya told CNN Chile. "He was going to go into exile on September 24 and they silenced him before then."

Thousands of people disappeared or died during Pinochet's rule, and many have accused his government of using death squads to wipe out political opponents.

Araya alleges that Neruda was poisoned in a clinic where he was undergoing treatment.

That claim and several other alleged discrepancies surrounding the poet's death drew the attention of Chile's Communist Party, which called for Neruda to be exhumed in 2011.

Evidence suggests that a third party was involved in Neruda's death, said Communist Party attorney Eduardo Contreras. Chilean Judge Mario Carroza ordered the exhumation in February.

Nephew: 'This is a circus'

But not everyone shares the Communist Party's concerns.

After the exhumation request, the head of the Pablo Neruda Foundation -- founded by the poet's widow to promote and preserve his legacy -- said he didn't want authorities to dig up Neruda's remains.

"We are against an exhumation of his cadaver because it would seem to us a true act of desecration," Juan Agustin Figueroa told Chile's Radio Bio-Bio in 2011.

The organization has since adopted a more welcoming tone.

"In this year that marks four decades since the death of Pablo Neruda, we hope also that the investigation of Judge Carroza will help clarify the doubts that might exist regarding the poet's death," the foundation said in a statement last week.

Others aren't convinced.

"This is a circus that I do not want to be part of," Bernardo Reyes, Neruda's nephew and biographer, said last week.

Reyes said party officials never contacted him to discuss their desire to have Neruda's remains exhumed, and he told CNN Chile that he remains suspicious of their motives.

As debate surges, Reyes said he plans to update a biography of Neruda and publish photographs taken of the poet after his death, which show Neruda's physical state and the clothes he was wearing in his coffin.

"It seems that when someone wants to find the truth but ignores all the sides of the story, that is notable," he said.

Expert: Time 'erases evidence'

The investigation into Neruda's death follows another high-profile exhumation.

As part of a massive probe of 726 reported human rights violations during Pinochet's rule, Chilean authorities exhumed Allende's body in 2011, in view of the longstanding belief that he died at the hands of the military and did not commit suicide, but the country’s legal medical service reported two months later that Allende did kill himself with an AK-47 given to him by Fidel Castro.

What these incidents confirm is not only South America’s turbulent history of coups and the unnatural deaths of larger-than-life figures, but also how the absence of democracy over prolonged periods had turned the continent into a hotbed of intrigue and violence. It is not surprising that the late Venezuelan president, Huge Chavez, had ordered that the tomb of his idol, Simon Bolivar, be opened to determine whether the liberator had died of poisoning and not tuberculosis. But the investigators did not find any evidence of foul play.

For decades, Neruda has been buried alongside his wife, Matilde Urrutia, in Isla Negra, a coastal area in central Chile.

Excavation crews began work there on Sunday and completed the exhumation on Monday, CNN Chile reported.

Determining what really happened will be a difficult task, since so much time has passed since the poet's death, one pathologist told CNN Chile.

"Time is a destructive factor," said Dr. Luis Ravanal, an investigator for the office of Chile's government ombudsman. "It is an element that erases evidence."

Tissues will have decomposed, he said, and even if some sort of poison were used, there may no longer be any traces remaining. "Science has enormous limitations in this case," he said.

However, if the misgivings about Neruda’s death are confirmed, it will be yet another black mark against Pinochet’s regime and refurbish the Nobel laureate’s reputation as Chile’s Federico Garcia Lorca, the Spanish poet, who was murdered in Spain in 1936. Exhumation can be an act of exorcising the guilt.

Thursday 11 April 2013

http://newindianexpress.com/editorials/Exhumation-can-be-act-of-exorcising-the-guilt/2013/04/11/article1539372.ece

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/08/world/americas/chile-neruda-investigation/

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Heathrow stowaway who fell to his death over London is finally identified

Police have identified a man whose body fell from the undercarriage of a plane last year.

Jose Matada, aged 30, was found in Portman Avenue, Mortlake in September but his identity remained a mystery until now.

Detectives analysed a SIM card found in the Mozambican's jeans and contacted the phone numbers that were stored on it.

They had originally thought he was Angolan because of currency found in his pockets and the fact that a flight from Luanda, Angola had passed over shortly before the body was found.

Officers are now working with authorities in Mozambique to try to find his next of kin.

Mr Matada's body was found soon after a flight from Luanda, Angola, flew over the residential area which is on the Heathrow flight path.

He was wearing jeans, a grey hoody and white trainers and was not a member of air crew or a passenger. He had a tattoo with a very distinctive emblem and the letters ' Z ' and 'G ' clearly visible, a picture of which has been released by the Met Police.

A post-mortem examination found Mr Matada died from multiple injuries. An inquest into his death has been opened and adjourned.

Police were called at just before 8am on Sunday, September 9, to Portman Avenue, following reports of a dead body.

London Ambulance Service attended and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

At the time resident Annie Williams, who lives in the house nearest to where the body fell, said she heard a loud noise when she was opening her curtains.

She said: “I heard a monstrous bang. I thought someone had been hit by a car. There were two fellows going to church and they said there’s a dead body in the street. Not your usual Sunday in Sheen.”

Thursday 11 April 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/11/heathrow-stowaway-jose-_n_3061644.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

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India: PIL seeks policy on disposal of unidentified bodies

A public interest litigation highlighting discovery of thousands of human bodies every year across the country and their unceremonious disposal by dumping them in rivers stirred the Supreme Court on Wednesday to seek response from the Centre and states.

A bench comprising Justices B S Chauhan and F M I Kalifulla asked the governments to respond whether it was possible to draw up a uniform policy to be followed by all states for an honourable disposal of unidentified bodies.

Petitioner Vikas Chandra Guddu Baba through his counsel pointed out that on an average, around 5,000 bodies were found floating in the Yamuna, an issue which had come up during the hearing of the case relating to cleaning the severely polluted river which was once the lifeline of the national capital.

The counsel said in all big rivers, especially Ganga, many bodies were dumped and the bloated half-eaten human remains presented a horrific picture to public.

The bench said at the cremation ghats of Varanasi, considered by Hindus to be the most pious place to be cremated, half-burnt bodies were dumped into the Ganga despite an electric crematorium being set up at high cost. "In the end, it is the mindset," it said before issuing notice to the governments.

The petitioner said the problem was acute as bodies were found at bus-stands, railway stations and hospital premises leading to their dumping by authorities.

According to statistics put on the website of Zonal Integrated Police Network, police in states and Union Territories found 41,734 bodies in the last six years.

Thursday 11 April 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/PIL-seeks-policy-on-disposal-of-unidentified-bodies/articleshow/19484928.cms

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Guatemala confronts a dark chapter

The soldiers killed Jacinto Lopez's teenage daughter Magdalena by repeatedly stabbing her in the neck.

Then they shot and killed his sons, 13-year-old Domingo and 10-year-old Pedro.

His in-laws were not spared. Barely anyone in the village was.

These atrocities which took place in the remote Guatemalan town of Santa Maria Nebaj in July of 1982 have never been described in a courtroom.

Until now.

For the first time Lopez has shared his terrifying story in the nation's highest court.

And for the first time "anywhere in the world," according to the United Nations, a former head of state is being tried for genocide by his own nation's justice system. That man is Efrain Rios Montt, an ex-military dictator who ruled Guatemala from 1982 to 1983.

"They killed my family and destroyed our crops," Lopez testified. "They took even my cows."

The attack against the Lopez family was just one of countless assaults in the early 1980s during the war between the Guatemalan government and leftist rebels.

The military used the rebel threat as a guise to exterminate rural Ixil Mayan villages accused of harboring insurgents, prosecutors say. According to prosecutors, the campaign led to the genocide of more than 1,700 Ixil Mayans.

Previous accusations of genocide, such as in Rwanda or against Serbia, have been presided over by international judges. The Guatemala attacks are considered by many experts as the only incident of genocide in the Western Hemisphere during the modern era.

The trial reignites debate over the United States' controversial pro-government policies in the region during the 1980s. It also offers a fascinating look in real time at how a nation is choosing to face its own demons. Painful public testimony could help heal the national betrayal reflected in the faces of many Mayan victims.

Lopez, now 82 years old, is among dozens of witnesses who have testified at the trial being heard by the nation's three-judge Supreme Court.

Guatemala begins first genocide trial

Rios Montt, 86, is accused of authorizing a military strategy so brutal that it was labeled "scorched earth." His attorneys say that the former dictator did not order any of the atrocities.

The United States stands accused in the court of public opinion. Critics say Washington turned a blind eye to the abuses, and worse. The Reagan administration claimed violence was decreasing during Rios Montt's tenure, and in 1983, lifted a U.S. arms embargo. But there are bookends for this dark chapter of Central American history. More recently, the United States has pushed for Guatemalan judicial reform that has made this trial possible.

Horrific memories

For generations the Ixil have lived in mountainous villages in the country's northwest, mostly isolated from the rest of Guatemala and the world. According to the country's 2002 census, Guatemalan Ixil number around 95,000, less than 1% of the nation's population.

They still speak primarily the Ixil language, and most of the witnesses called to the stand so far have spoken through a translator. The horrific stories that more than 70 prosecution witnesses have revealed so far have been hard to hear in any language.

They started raping me ... I don't know how many took turns ... I lost consciousness.

"I was 12 years old," said one woman, whose identity was protected by the court. "They took me with the other women and they tied my feet and hands. They put a rag in my mouth ... and they started raping me ... I don't know how many took turns. ... I lost consciousness ... and the blood kept running. ... Later I couldn't even stand or urinate."

Stories about rape were so widespread that the trial set aside an entire day of testimony just for rape victims.

Their shocking stories prompted many of the hundreds of Guatemalans sitting in the courtroom to use their hands to cover their mouths. The powerful proceedings often wrapped the courtroom in profound silence, only to be broken by the sound of sobbing.

Pedro Chavez Brito was 6 or 7 years old when the military attacked his village in November 1982. Soldiers killed his mother, he told the court. In a frantic bid to escape, he hid with his pregnant sister and her two children among the family's chickens.

It didn't work.

When soldiers found them, they lashed Chavez's sister to the stairs of their home, he testified. The soldiers then set the house on fire, killing her and her two children, Chavez testified. Seven other family members may have died in the fire, he said.

Chavez, like many other survivors, lived to share his story because he fled into the unforgiving mountains.

That's how Maria Cruz Raymundo and her family escaped, too. But conditions there were so harsh that her husband, daughter and son starved to death, she told the court.

More than 100 witnesses have taken the stand so far -- a marathon of gruesome stories.

Another witness, Nicholas Bernal, testified that he, too, escaped to the mountains.

Bernal told the court he had watched soldiers kill his neighbors and then rip out their hearts and burn their bodies.

Each passing day of the trial reveals similar nightmarish stories. Human rights organizations such as the Center for Legal Action in Human Rights and Association for Justice and Reconciliation are broadcasting the trial live on the Internet. In addition, the U.S.-based Open Society Justice Initiative is providing daily summaries on a dedicated website. Testimony in this report is culled from all these sources and state news media.

Shifting U.S. behavior

When Rios Montt assumed power in a coup in 1982, Guatemala was already in the throes of a violent civil war that would last 36 years. The insurgency, and extrajudicial killings by the military, had been going on for two decades as part of the broader conflicts between leftist rebels and hardline governments across the region.

By the time a peace accord was reached in 1996, an estimated more than 200,000 perished.

Rios Montt faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity connected to his 16 months as dictator. He is being tried together with his then-chief of military intelligence, Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez.

Sanchez is accused of designing and executing the army's strategy.

When Rios Montt became president, human rights violations had already prompted the United States to cut off aid to the Guatemalan government. But a political scandal in the U.S. in the 1990s revealed that in fact the CIA continued to provide money to Guatemalan military intelligence sources for years during the civil war.

Now declassified secret CIA cables indicate that the United States had knowledge of the atrocities being committed against the Ixil Mayans, but did little about it, according to Victoria Sanford, director of the Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies at the City University of New York.

"At best they chose to look away, but often they were covering it up," Sanford said.

In one CIA document, from February 1983, the agency reports to Washington that an increase in violence against civilians is due to "right-wing violence."

But the U.S. ambassador at the time added a note to that same memo with a distinct explanation: "I am firmly convinced that the violence described ... is government of Guatemala ordered and directed violence."

Another CIA memo shows the U.S. government may have had knowledge of the violent tactics being employed against the Ixil Mayans.

"When an army patrol meets resistance and takes fire from a town or village it is assumed that the entire town is hostile and it is subsequently destroyed," the 1982 document states. "The well-documented belief by the army that the entire Ixil Indian population is (pro-rebel) has created a situation in which the army can be expected to give no quarter to combatants and non-combatants alike."

Critics blame the United States, in its anti-communist zeal, of standing by during these atrocities by denying them and lifting the arms embargo. Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan went as far as to say that Rios Montt was being given a "bum rap" by critics. At the same time, the United States was backing other strongmen in Latin America against leftists.

But if the United States deserves criticism for remaining quiet during Rios Montt's rule, it also should be credited for supporting Guatemalan efforts to put the former dictator on trial, said Anita Isaacs, a professor of political science at Haverford College whose research focuses on Guatemalan politics.

"This trial wouldn't be occurring were it not for the role played by the United States pushing for reform in Guatemala's judicial system," she said.

In her view, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala from 2008-2011, Stephen McFarland, was "single-handedly" responsible for shifting the country's perception of the United States from meddling to supportive.

McFarland listened to survivors' stories of the civil war and attended hearings in support of the victims, she said.

The trial

The historic nature of the trial isn't lost on the nation's public, although some say too much time has passed for the process to be fair.

Even the current President Otto Perez Molina, a former general who once commanded troops in the Ixil lands, has said he believes there was no genocide. Instead, some see the attacks as a kind of national defense campaign.

The Guatemalan military viewed the Ixil Mayans as rebel collaborators who threatened the government.

This view is shared by protesters with military ties who have stood outside the courthouse, holding signs demanding respect for the military and a fair trial. One demonstrator, Victor Manuel Argueta, told the state-run AGN news agency that the soldiers are "proud of what we did during the civil war."

The army in the early 1980s, he said, "was dedicated to defending the people from those who wanted to usurp power." The trial, he said, is nothing more than a "political lynching."

U.S. declassified documents repeated the Guatemalan military's assertion that the Ixil were protecting the rebels.

But dozens of studies by anthropologists have indicated that it was much more complex than that, said Kate Doyle, director of the Guatemala Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, a leading research institute.

Some Ixil Mayans joined the guerrillas as combatants and others provided food or protection, but still others were unconnected with the rebels. Some even actively opposed the rebels, she said.

Since the trial began, Rios Montt has fired his attorneys and then rehired them.

Defense attorneys have argued there's no evidence proving that Rios Montt ordered any of the abuses.

His lawyers have repeatedly and unsuccessfully demanded that the chief judge recuse herself. They say the judge violated Rios Montt's rights by pressing on with the trial when his attorneys were not prepared.

A victory, no matter the outcome?

The victims' stories are haunting, and the desire for justice strong, but the task of proving genocide isn't easy.

Prosecutors must prove the attacks targeted a specific ethnic group with the intention of destroying it, said Naomi Roht-Arriaza, a law professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law.

To convict Rios Montt, prosecutors must also convince the judges that he was responsible.

What's at stake is less clear. The genocide charges are without precedent. If Rios Montt and Rodriguez Sanchez are convicted, their maximum possible sentences are unknown.

In 2011, a Guatemalan court sentenced four soldiers to 6,060 years in prison each for their role in the 1982 massacre at Dos Erres, a village where 201 were killed. Thirty years for each death. A fifth soldier was sentenced to the same last year. The unheard of sentences were for crimes against humanity, not genocide.

Given Rios Montt's age, many assume that he will serve little, if any, time in prison if convicted.

For the moment, legal observers say the trial itself stands as a huge triumph.

A national conversation

So many of the Ixil Mayans have described their ordeals using the same phrase: They said the army treated them "like animals."

These heart-wrenching revelations, said Roht-Arriaza, allow victims a very important opportunity.

Finally, they can acknowledge in a public courtroom the horrors they experienced so many years ago.

Several witnesses said they do not seek revenge, but simply want to be "liberated" by having their stories etched in the official record.

They must "make public what they may have kept inside," Roht-Arriaza said. "It opens up the nation to conversation. It lets people see that the justice system works."

Looking into the eyes of some of the victims in the courtroom, it's hard to know if they reflect pain or faith or peace -- or the relief of a weight lifted.

As the witnesses detail their horrifying stories, Rios Montt sits just a few feet away, expressionless. Listening.

As Isaacs put it, this "in itself is a form of justice."

Thursday 11 April 2013

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/11/world/americas/guatemala-rios-montt-trial/

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India: For surgical lessons, a cadaver laboratory of unclaimed bodies at AIIMS Trauma Centre

Bodies recovered by police and then unclaimed will go to the operation theatre so that budding surgeons can hone their skills in neurosurgery, orthopaedics and laparoscopy.

A body bank or cadaver laboratory, first of its kind in the country, is coming up at the AIIMS Trauma Centre within two months. It will serve initially as a training site for doctors in advanced surgical procedures. The project is being funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Department of Health Research.

"We will coordinate with Delhi police to source the bodies," said Dr Sumit Sinha, principal investigator, who will be in charge of the lab. "As per law, a body unclaimed for 72 hours is regarded as unclaimed. We get accident cases from all around Delhi-NCR, and many of the bodies are unclaimed." The hospital authorities will also cremate the bodies.

Doctors say such labs have become common abroad because they allow surgeons to simulate the environment of an OT. "We have visual simulation techniques and some authorised centres where surgeons can operate on animal tissues, but ethical issues are involved in sacrificing animals," said Dr M C Misra, chief of AIIMS Trauma Centre. "We also have virtual simulation laboratories, but these are not the same as learning to operate on the human body. This is a huge leap since we are preparing our doctors better."

Thursday 11 April 2013

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/for-surgical-lessons-a-bank-of-unclaimed-bodies-at-aiims/1100659/

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India: Maha hospital to construct a new mortuary for Maoists’ bodies

Facing shortage of space to keep the bodies of Maoist insurgents killed in police encounters, the General Hospital administration here has decided to construct a new mortuary building.

The mortuary will be constructed within three months to ease the shortage of space and preserve the bodies of Maoist insurgents who are killed in police encounters, General Hospital's civil surgeon R S Faruqui told PTI. He said that the hospital administration has also asked for two more cabinets to meet these requirements, as the two cabinets available have become insufficient to preserve the dead bodies.

Presently, the entire district has only five cabinets with a total capacity to preserve 10 bodies. The police department and the hospital administration are currently facing a shortage of mortuary cabinets and space for keeping these cabinets, he said.

Killed Maoist's bodies have to be preserved for a long period, because many a time, they are not identified and even if they are identified, relatives do not come forward soon to claim the bodies, Faruqui said. They are kept in the hospital building itself, causing a great deal of inconvenience to visitors, due to the foul smell from these cabinets.

Patients' relatives and other visitors find it difficult to walk across due to the smell, he said. Therefore, it has been decided to construct another room to house these cabinets outside the hospital building. The new room will be constructed near the existing mortuary which is away from the main hospital building, he said.

Thursday 11 April 2013

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/MAH-OTC-maharashtra-hospital-to-construct-a-new-mortuary-for-maoists----bodies-4232032-NOR.html

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Five more Fromelles WWI dead identified

Another five Australian soldiers killed in the World War I Battle of Fromelles have been identified.

The diggers' remains are among those of 250 Australian and British soldiers recovered from a mass grave at Pheasant Wood in France.

The five take to 124 the total number of Australians identified at the cemetery.

Some 87 Australians and two British soldiers remain unidentified while another 37 have been interred as "A soldier of the Great War - Known unto God".

Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon says the Commonwealth War Graves Commission will erect new headstones with details of the identified soldiers, ahead of a July 19 dedication during the annual commemoration of the Battle of Fromelles.

The latest breakthroughs were made possible by the large number of extended family members, both in Australia and overseas, who provided DNA samples.

"We currently have more than 3000 family member details in our records but we still need more," Mr Snowdon said on Thursday.

Fromelles was the first major action involving Australian troops in France in World War I.

It was fought over July 19 and 20 in 1916 and resulted in more than 5500 Australian dead and wounded. Many of the fallen were never found.

The battle is regarded by some as the worst 24 hours in Australian military history.

In 2009 a mass grave was located in Pheasant Wood on the site where German soldiers had buried Australian and British dead.

All the bodies have now been reburied in the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery.

Mr Snowdon said the joint Australian Army and UK Ministry of Defence project to identify the dead would conclude in 2014, although the Australian Army's unrecovered war casualties team would continue to process any new information.

"We remain hopeful that we will be able to identify more soldiers in coming years," he said.

Thursday 11 April 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/five-more-fromelles-wwi-dead-identified/story-fn3dxiwe-1226618213790

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Korean War: Soldier's remains found in North Korea to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery

The remains of a Korean War Medal of Honor winner from southern Indiana that were recovered nearly a decade ago with the cooperation of North Korea have been identified and will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery this month, the Defense Department said Wednesday.

The remains of Lt. Col. Don C. Faith Jr. of Washington, Ind., who was posthumously awarded the highest U.S. military honor for valor during the battle of Chosin Reservoir in late 1950, will be buried April 17, the department said.

Faith was part of a battalion that was advancing along the eastern side of Chosin Reservoir in North Korea in late November 1950, when Chinese forces encircled and attempted to overrun the U.S. position, the department said. When Faith’s commander went missing, he took charge of the unit, withdrew it to a more defensible position, and led an assault on a Chinese position.

Eyewitness reports and other records compiled after the battle “indicated that Faith was seriously injured by shrapnel on Dec. 1, 1950, and subsequently died from those injuries on Dec. 2, 1950. His body was not recovered by U.S. forces at that time.”

More than half a century later, in 2004, a joint team of personnel from the U.S. and North Korea and “surveyed the area where Faith was last seen. His remains were located and returned to the U.S. for identification,” the department said in a news release.

Scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory determined they were Faith’s through mitochondrial DNA matching Faith’s brother and other means.

Although current U.S.-North Korean relations are tense amid militaristic statements by the Asian nation’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, in the past the two countries have worked jointly to repatriate the remains of U.S. soldiers who died in the Korean War. The remains of a western Indiana soldier, Pfc. Henry Martin Gustafson of Williamsport, were among those of about 400 American servicemen returned by North Korea in 1993 from mass burial grounds. His remains were identified in 2011 and buried in Williamsport.

More than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, the department said.

Thursday 11 April 2013

http://www.indystar.com/viewart/20130410/NEWS/304100106/Remains-Indiana-Medal-Honor-winner-found-North-Korea-buried-Arlington-Cemetary

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