They are still finding mass graves 30 years later.BERBERA, SOMALILAND
March 10, 2017 5:31 AM
Using metal hand tools, a team of forensic investigators scrapes away soil covering a mass grave in the town of Berbera, Somaliland. Nearly two meters below are the bodies of 17 men who are believed to have been rounded up, shot and dumped here nearly 30 years ago.
The men were from the Isaaq clan. They allegedly were killed by troops, loyal to Somali dictator Siad Barre, who were battling rebels from Somaliland at the time.
The campaign killed about 50,000 people, mostly from the Isaaq clan. The commission says this was a genocide, although the use of the term is disputed.
More than 25 years after that civil war ended and Somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia, researchers continue to find mass graves around the country.
For the past five years, Somaliland's War Crimes Investigation Commission has teamed up with a group of international forensic investigators to exhume the bodies.
They hope to gather enough evidence to bring the alleged perpetrators of war crimes to justice.
Commission chair Khadar Ahmed Like says the exhumation process is a matter of dignity for the dead, who often were dumped in pits without ceremony.
Many more mass graves dot Somaliland's landscape, including six other known sites in Berbera alone. New graves often are discovered after rains wash away topsoil to reveal human remains.
In the past five years, the commission has exhumed 11 mass graves, including the one opened this year in Berbera, according to Like, and it has reburied more than 100 bodies.
After removing the bones, the team reassembles the skeletons and analyzes the remains in hopes of identifying the victims and establishing a probable cause of death.
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Lest we forget.
