News and press interest – 3rd May 2008

For over a year, the Cranfield Forensic Institute (CFI), the Inforce Foundation and the Colombian organisation AFFIC have worked on the ‘Diplomado Internacional en Arqueologia y Antropologia Forense’. The aim of this project was to establish a long term forum for theoretical and practical education in forensic archaeology, anthropology and other forensic sciences to internationally acknowledged standards in Colombia. The first installation of the programme happened in April 2008, when Roland Wessling (Inforce/Cranfield Forensic Institute) and Ambika Flavel (Inforce) went to Bogota for four weeks where they prepared and delivered a series of lectures, seminars and workshops.

The diploma consisted of a two-day seminar in forensic archaeology and related sciences, a simulated mass grave excavation, a one-day seminar in human identification and finally a mass fatality incident mortuary workshop. In between, the CFI staff gave numerous add hoc lectures on many issues around the forensic investigation of atrocity crimes, especially the use of archaeology and anthropology in such operations. Before any theoretical or practical teaching could take place, Ambika and Roland had to create the mass graves. Both used all their experience from real forensic investigations in Bosnia, Iraq, Cyprus, Guatemala, etc., to incorporate many international crime scene aspects into a locally significant Colombian context. They arranged 14 adult and 5 juvenile plastic skeletons in two separate mass graves, one of which contained two layers of ‘bodies’ (see picture above and left).

11 students and professionals from Colombia, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Argentina took the entire diploma and many more who did individual aspects of it. The lectures and seminars were facilitated through simultaneous or consecutive translation, where speakers were not able to deliver the context in Spanish.

The site for the mass graves was carefully chosen, balancing practical and educational needs. While the site had to be easily accessible and close to amenities, it also had to have ‘the right feel’ to it. Exercises such as this need a high degree of realism to achieve their full educational effectiveness. Some aspects have to be compromised for ethical and also practical and educational reasons, for example the use of plastic skeletons rather than real human remains. That makes it all the more important that the rest of the scenario is believable. The site was ideal and to ensure that the unpredictable weather in Bogota would not grind work to a hold through extremely heavy downpours, the site was covered by a simple but very effective tent (see picture on the right).

Before the excavation of the grave began, the group received a comprehensive demonstration about the dangers of various types of munitions and unexploded ordnance (UXO) (see picture on the left). Mass graves can either be intentionally booby trapped or simple contaminated with unexploded grenades or mines. Detailed and frequent security briefings, including UXO awareness are an essential part of a real mass grave excavation.

The group then began to empty the grave fill, carefully searching for any evidence, such as bullets or shell cases. Any item of evidence found had to be logged, surveyed, photographed, documented and bagged. The ‘victims’ were carefully excavated, drawn, photographed, documented and then lifted (see picture on the right). Any significant detail, including ligatures and blindfolds, were recorded in situ to guarantee their evidential value in later court proceedings.

The final chapter in the programme was the mortuary exercise. The group had to ‘build’ their own mortuary. For that, they were presented with a large, empty room and some very basic equipment (see pictureon the left), such as tables, osteometric tools and tape. It is surprising how few resources are needed to setup and run a temporary mortuary to high standards.  Many aspects of a real incident mortuary operation were simulated, including a difficult case of comingled remains. The group completed all tasks and therefore their diploma very successfully. Many of the participants will be able to use their newly acquired knowledge and experience in their daily work and many have expressed the desire to one day work with CFI and Inforce staff on real atrocity crime investigations in Colombia and other countries of the region; a prospect that due to increasing awareness of the crime committed and improving security situation could soon become a reality.