DNA helps resolve crimes of Argentina's Dirty War

Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:22pm EDT

* Forensic technology aids search for dictatorship victims

* Identification allows prosecutors to open rights cases

By Kristina Cooke and Alexandra Ulmer

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Small red coffins are stacked inside a bleak office just blocks from Argentina's Congress, a chilling reminder of the thousands of people kidnapped and killed during the bloody 1976-1983 dictatorship.

Inside the boxes are the bones of recently identified victims of the so-called Dirty War, waiting to be picked up by relatives for a proper burial three decades after they were murdered by their own government.

Identifications have sped up in the last 2-1/2 years, thanks to improved DNA technology and a public campaign urging relatives of the disappeared to donate blood samples.

Forensic anthropologists have identified 120 Dirty War victims since 2007, about a third of the total identifications made in the last 27 years, enabling families to finally find closure and bring human rights abusers to justice.

French activist Yves Domergue, whose remains were identified this year, was 22 when he disappeared in 1976. His family had been looking for answers since. [ID:nN28178273]

"Now we can properly mourn and also begin new trials against those responsible," his brother Eric Domergue said.

Human rights groups estimate as many as 30,000 people were abducted and killed during the military dictatorship. Many were anonymously buried in local cemeteries while others were pushed from military aircraft into the sea.

"The perpetrators thought that even if we discovered the bones of the people they threw into the sea or buried in the ground, we'd never know who they were," Domergue said. "It's thanks to science that we got Yves back."

Anthropologists found Yves Domergue's body in an unmarked grave in Santa Fe province last year and matched DNA from his bones with blood samples his parents and brother provided.

Spurred by a campaign that started in 2007 and was relaunched last week, about 3,000 families have so far donated blood to a DNA database managed by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, a nongovernmental group.

"The database means the families will have the possibility of getting answers practically forever," said Luis Fondebrider, one of the team's founding members.

This week his team is sending 600 bone fragments and 900 blood samples to a private U.S. lab that helped identify victims of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, hoping their sophisticated software system will find matches.

DETECTIVE WORK

DNA technology has improved significantly over the last few years, making the identification process faster and more accurate, said Ed Huffine, an executive at the Bode Technology Group, the U.S. lab that analyzes the Argentine DNA.

Ever-smaller DNA samples can be detected and extracted from degraded remains, meaning bones that could not tell a story before, now can.

But the process of identifying victims and building a case against those responsible is an arduous one that begins long before samples are sent for costly DNA analysis.

The bones can reveal the age, sex and diseases a person suffered, but about half the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team's work is following the paper trail.

This involves trawling through cemetery, police and military records and conducting interviews with survivors, former military officials and family members.

"It's part historian, part science, part detective work," Fondebrider said.

Without an identified body, the suspected killers cannot be put on trial for murder.

Earlier this month, Fondebrider testified in the trial of two former top army officials charged with five murders based on identifications he made.

The five identified were among eight bodies found in cement-filled drums in October 1976.

For families, it is finally knowing what happened that provides the most relief. When remains are identified, relatives are invited to the anthropologists' offices in Buenos Aires for a viewing.

"Many ask, 'How do you know this is my loved one?'" Fondebrider said. "Because they are not looking at flesh and blood ... they need to know for sure."









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