The Disappeared

Challenges Entered:

1. Google Maps/ Earth*Incidences of disappearances 2. EPAF Information Sources: * EPAF's database of ante-mortem data for missing persons. This has documented and verifiable information on people who went missing * EPAF's spreadsheet of information on the missing.* Records (hardcopy files) on government activities during the time frame specified. There is a need for EPAF staff members to still comb through mountains of files to get data that is then used to collaborate information on the missing people. * Information from accredited sources (e.g. the Peru Registry of Victims etc.) with information on locations of places of alleged atrocities and where specific people are thought to have been disappeared.3. Visitors to the Website: *Information on places/ locations providing support to the families of people who were disappeared.*An interactive forum where people could provide information and stories of the missing (if possible). 

What else have you done in this area of work?

EPAF applies forensic anthropology to the search for forcibly disappeared persons during the period of internal political conflict from 1982-2000. EPAF was founded in 1997, when a group of Peruvian professionals working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia decided to apply their expertise in their own country. It is their final goal to restore the identity of the thousands of missing Peruvians that rest in hidden burial sites across the country.

EPAF has created software that captures data on the people who went missing during the period of the insurgency.

The group has carried out interviews and gone through files and files of information to get as comprehensive a picture of the disappearances as possible â€“ a still ongoing task.

Project Details

Project url:

http://thedisappeared.org

Project video:

Supporting organization:

The Advocacy Project

Project Assessment

Financial support:

Project has financial support

Project goals:

In the 1980s and 1990s, over 69,000 people were killed in a brutal conflict between the Peru government and Maoist rebels. Of those killed, there are still many unresolved disappearances â€“ and the figures have been put at 8,558 by the Peruvian Truth Commission. The Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) puts this figure as closer to 14,000 and to date has been able to collect information on 13,721 people who are still missing. EPAF is seeking a way to develop an interactive map that would mesh the GIS capabilities of GoogleMaps with data on missing persons from their databases and spreadsheets with a feedback form where external audience would supply information to EPAF for verification and later inclusion on the map. This map/data tool as described above would used as:- 1. GIS Investigative Tool: This would help in establishing any spatial relationships and trends in the people who went missing. Currently, EPAF has information on where people went missing from, place(s) where they are thought to have been taken to and where they were last seen. The use of maps and GIS as an investigative tool has been well established, and we have no doubt that this would be just as useful in this case.2. National Record of the missing: Currently, there is no national record of those that went missing. While various records with data about the missing can be found â€“ usually this is combined with other information (e.g Peru's Unified Registry of Victims has data on all victim typologies e.g. sexual assaults, torture). This this would be the beginnings of a central database of information for this purpose. 3. Outreach/ Educational Tool: This would also be used on behalf of and for families whose family members still remain unaccounted for. Ultimately, this would evolve to a focal point with information related to the disappeared (e.g. links to support facilities on the ground, news stories related to disappearances etc). 4. Preventative Tool: It is hoped that the success of this tool encourages its use in countries with similar disappearances (e.g. the Philippines). This tool could be used to track enforced disappearances, analyze trends as they occur, solicit information from the public, and rally a public behind an unfolding situation.

Identified Obstacles:

Technical Assistance: * Help us consolidate the various types of information that we have into a visual record of enforced disappearances. * Use text ante-mortem data (from the EPAF database) to create dynamic records of the victims. * Map these visual records onto a map (GoogleMaps) that shows the locations of where the people were disappeared. * A feedback form where people would enter data on disappearances and missing persons. Financial Assistance: * Support to pay for data entry from the physical hard copies (files, newspaper clippings, handwritten notes etc) into usable forms. * Support for data management (cleaning up the data, standardization into the format needed for the map/database tool). * Small assistance in the development of the campaign on behalf of and for families of the disappeared.