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IRIN Webspecial: A Decent Burial
Part Six: Disappearing evidence
As the debate continues, vital evidence is being destroyed. In Somaliland, remains exposed by heavy rains have been washed away, or carried off by dogs and wild animals. Some of the alleged mass graves sites seen by IRIN are near schools, where children play among pieces of bones and military uniforms - some have fallen into holes and shallow burial mounds. Exposed pieces of skeletons, rope and shreds of clothing have disappeared from the banks of dry river beds that appeared in the aftermath of the floods in 1997.
Photo: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
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In the Special Rapporteur's report, 1999, Rishmawi said that although a local committee had been established by the Somaliland administration to preserve evidence of mass graves, it was not an easy task as "the land is increasingly being claimed by the internally displaced for resettlement". Preservation was "crucial", she warned, in the context of "possible action by the international community to bring the perpetrators of the killings to justice".
But what does remain - and cannot be washed away - is the trauma of relatives, who still wait to know what happened to their loved ones. In a joint report in 1992, PHR and Africa Watch documented the long-term psychological consequences of the conflict in Somalia [No Mercy in Mogadishu: The human cost of the conflict and the struggle for relief]. It said there were "numerous psychiatric disturbances among the survivors" who had witnessed atrocities.
"Somali tradition dictates great respect for the dead... the bereaved [of those not properly buried] feel a burden of guilt towards the dead for failing to fulfil their customary obligations." It said many survivors had been bereft of not just one close friend and relative, but many, which was "likely to lead to widespread pathological grief". One witness that IRIN talked to in Somaliland, Amina Isma'il Ade, said she had never tried to reclaim or rebury the body of her executed husband, even though she knew the site of the mass grave. "I think all those bodies should be buried properly." She said she needed to know who had executed her husband and why. "I would like to see the people responsible brought to justice."
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IRIN gratefully acknowledges the support of Africa Online in developing this WebSpecial.
? 2001, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. All rights reserved.
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