{"id":239403,"date":"2017-06-06T14:41:45","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T17:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=239403\/"},"modified":"2017-06-06T14:41:45","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T17:41:45","slug":"battle-against-the-disappearances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/battle-against-the-disappearances\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle against the disappearances"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leo Ramos <\/span><\/a> A skeleton being studied against the background of photos of 42 men and women who are being sought from among the remains exhumed in 1990Leo Ramos <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Where are our \u201cdisappeared?\u201d Reading this question, affixed to a wall and surrounded by photos of 42 men and women who disappeared during Brazil\u2019s military dictatorship, a team of archeologists, medical examiners, dentists, geneticists, and bio-anthropologists are organizing, analyzing and recording human remains in a process that involves everything from science and technology to consideration of the principles of human rights. \u201cThe big difference in the work now is that it is the focus of a multidisciplinary team, declares medical examiner Samuel Ferreira, from the National Department of Public Safety (Senasp) of the Ministry of Justice and Citizenship (MJC), scientific coordinator of the Perus Working Group (GTP). The house in the S\u00e3o Paulo city district of Vila Mariana, maintained by the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (Unifesp), serves as headquarters for the GTP, which hopes to identify people whose faces are seen in that tragic mural from the contents of 1,047 boxes that contain bones removed in 1990 from a clandestine grave in the Dom Bosco cemetery, in Perus, a district in the northern part of the city of S\u00e3o Paulo. It is also hoped that the project will help lay the foundation for forensic anthropology in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1971, the Dom Bosco cemetery was the site of a series of exhumations in 1975. \u201cThose are usually done when there is a need to create additional space, but at the time a substantial part of the cemetery was still empty,\u201d notes archaeologist M\u00e1rcia Hattori, coordinator of the ante mortem <\/em>part of the work, emphasizing the suspicious nature of the exhumations. The clandestine grave created at the time was reopened in 1990, largely because of pressure from the families of the \u201cdisappeared,\u201d who knew that people whose identity was unknown had been buried there. The bones were then transferred to the University of Campinas (Unicamp) under the responsibility of coroner Badan Palhares. There, during the early years of the investigation, two bodies were identified by a method that superimposed a photograph on a skull, using some standard measurements. However, disputes about funding resulted in suspension of the work and the abandonment ended up burying any analyses that had already been done.<\/p>\n

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L\u00e9o Ramos<\/span><\/a> Stored in 1,047 boxes in climate-controlled rooms…L\u00e9o Ramos<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe approach this time is scientific, different from what came before\u201d emphasizes Carla Borges, coordinator of the Right to Memory and Truth, an office in the Municipal Department of Human Rights and Citizenship (SMDHC). According to Borges, sporadic initiatives were begun under different administrations, the only constant being the insistence by the families of the disappeared that their questions be answered. She stresses that the State (not individual officials, such as whoever is the mayor or president then in office) has a responsibility to locate any person who disappeared during those days. \u201cWe have never been so close to turning that page,\u201d says Borges, arguing that the effort must continue.<\/p>\n

Focus<\/strong>
\nThe universe to be searched is broad, but the results for some of the candidates are more likely to be successful. \u201cWe have indications that the bodies of Dimas Ant\u00f4nio Casemiro, Francisco Jos\u00e9 de Oliveira and Grenaldo Jesus da Silva were taken to Perus,\u201d Hattori says.<\/p>\n

But the records don\u2019t help. \u201cThe names of the streets in the cemetery were changed in the 1970s, the map of the graves is a hand-drawn checkerboard, and when a record was made of an exhumation, it doesn\u2019t indicate where the remains were taken.\u201d Hattori and her team gathered information from a series of sources in order to prepare the list of the people they are looking for. \u201cWe looked systematically at the cases of \u2018unknown bodies\u2019 for the entire decade of the 1970s in order to map the route of the deceased in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo during the period and understand the policy behind the disappearances.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stored in 1,047 boxes in climate-controlled rooms <\/span><\/a> …the bones are washed under the supervision of Ana TauhylStored in 1,047 boxes in climate-controlled rooms <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

During its research, the team found photographs that had been supplied by the families when the grave at Perus was opened in an attempt to assist identification: these were precious documents, pictures taken long before the digital photography era. \u201cThe evidence gathered during investigation of the crimes of concealment made people feel worse about the disappearances,\u201d says Hattori, sadly. She returned copies of the images to the families. The GTP began an effort that is not only forensic but involves consideration of the pain suffered by those who never learned what happened to their loved ones. Performing the work outside the confines of the Office of the S\u00e3o Paulo Medical Examiner (IML), a location formerly associated with the dictatorship, is part of this. That is also why the project has obtained cooperation from the Argentine and Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Teams (the EAAF and Epaf), formed shortly after the end of the dictatorships in those countries. The data that the ante mortem<\/em> team gathered constitute a catalog of what to look for in analyzing the skeletons: physical characteristics or events that become engraved on the bones, such as fractures or bullet holes. \u201cWe are trying to materialize the deceased who disappeared,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

The project involves an institutional triumvirate: the Special Human Rights Secretariat (SEDH) of the MJC, part of which is the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances (CEMDP), the SMDHC, and Unifesp. At present its continuity is uncertain because of changes in both the administration of the city of S\u00e3o Paulo and the federal government. At Unifesp, chancellor Soraya Smaili was reconfirmed in her post in November 2016 and has already made statements in favor of having the activities proceed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At a public hearing on November 28, 2016, Fl\u00e1via Piovesan, the federal government\u2019s special secretary for human rights, said that the SEDH is committed to ensuring continuity of the work. \u201cI was very impressed by the dedication to an effort that is so necessary,\u201d she declared, after having learned of the GTP\u2019s operations. Permanent contracts for the professionals on the team remains a problem, since they are being paid with SEDH funds under an international cooperation arrangement. The contracts are for one year and it is uncertain what will happen after most of them expire in January 2017. The secretary said she is looking for alternatives that would guarantee the formation of a permanent team, which is essential in order to maintain the standards adopted for the work, as well as funding the official experts who are likely to continue their service on a rotation basis, and the members of Epaf. Some financing has been guaranteed for 2017, but not enough to cover what needs to be done, according to the Unifesp chancellor.<\/p>\n

Since 2014, when boxes containing the remains were transferred to the house that has been designated as the Center for Forensic Anthropology and Archaeology (CAAF), the group has resumed the work done initially and already examined 580 of the boxes. \u201cWe need at least another year if we are to analyze all of it,\u201d says archaeologist Ana Tauhyl, responsible for opening the boxes and cleaning the bones.<\/p>\n

Recent archaeology<\/strong>
\nThe current work involves a much greater adherence to standards than when the bones were removed from the grave by grave diggers who were not concerned about keeping each skeleton separate. Still damp from the ground where they had lain, the bones were put into plastic bags and immediately began to be degraded by mildew. But that wasn\u2019t the worst of it: the bags, with chairs piled on top of them, went through a flood at Unicamp when someone left a faucet running.<\/p>\n

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L\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/a> The bones are arranged for drying and then examined by Aline Oliveira and Marina Grat\u00e3oL\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The procedure being followed now adheres to a protocol developed by the Epaf and validated by the International Red Cross and the project\u2019s Scientific Committee, according to Brazilian and international parameters. Each box is opened by a team member who arranges the bones so that they can be photographed and described by Tauhyl, using a standard reporting form. In addition to the bones, the boxes also hold traces from earlier phases. Blue plastic bags bearing the name of the S\u00e3o Paulo Municipal Funeral Service sometimes look as though they had been crushed, an indication that they were already in the grave. Other times they are in good shape, because they were of a later date. Other bags, of plastic, cloth, or non-woven fabric \u2013 date back to the work done at Unicamp, during which metal disks bearing an engraved identification number had been attached to the skulls whenever possible. Many of the bones are still covered with earth. Despite being factual, the photographic record reflects an almost artistic care taken in arranging the bones and packages. All this is being done in the midst of dust and the smell of fresh paint, since the renovation of the GTP house is still incomplete.<\/p>\n

After being washed and dried, the skeletons are arranged on tables in what is known as an anatomic position, the bones being lined up as they would be in the body. Measurements taken this way enable development of an estimated biological profile that includes stature, age bracket, sex, and other characteristics that, when compared with ante mortem <\/em>data on potential candidates, can help identify the remains.<\/p>\n

The ideal situation would be for this process to permit narrowing the scope of the search, but the group of politically \u201cdisappeared\u201d persons being sought resembles a good part of those buried in the grave that have been analyzed so far: men between the ages of 20 and 40. That is why about 70% of the bones cannot be discarded. In light of the volume of work ahead, a compromise must be made between strict standards and prompt results. \u201cIt\u2019s an effort that in itself was seriously delayed, since people have already been waiting for 40 years,\u201d says archaeologist Patricia Fischer, responsible for the laboratory and coordinator of the post mortem <\/em>work. She also believes that 25% of the boxes contain the remains of more than one person. When extra bones are found, a decision must be made as to which ones don\u2019t fit with the skeleton being examined\u2014based on color, size, or other morphological characteristics. When it is possible to estimate the biological profile, the data are recorded on a card identified as \u201cindividual B\u201d and the bones are kept in separate bags. This means that as many as 701 people may be represented in the 580 boxes already opened.<\/p>\n