Fredy Peccerelli: A forensic anthropologist who brings closure for the “disappeared"

Prevoditelj: Ivan Stamenković Recezent: Mislav Ante Omazić - EFZG

Guatemala is recovering from a 36-year armed conflict.

Guatemala se oporavlja od 36-godišnjeg oružanog sukoba.

A conflict that was fought during the Cold War.

Sukoba koji se vodio za vrijeme hladnog rata.

It was really just a small leftist insurgency

To je zapravo mali ustanak ljevice

and a devastating response by the state.

i razarajući odgovor države.

What we have as a result is 200,000 civilian victims,

Ono što imamo kao rezultat je 200.000 civilnih žrtava,

160,000 of those killed in the communities:

160.000 njih ubijeno u zajednicama:

small children, men, women, the elderly even.

mala djeca, muškarci, žene, čak i starci.

And then we have about 40,000 others, the missing,

I onda imamo otprilike 40.000 drugih, nestale,

the ones we're still looking for today.

one koje i danas tražimo.

We call them the Desaparecidos.

Zovemo ih Desaparecidos.

Now, 83 percent of the victims are Mayan victims,

Sad, 83 posto žrtava su Maje,

victims that are the descendants

žrtve koji su potomci

of the original inhabitants of Central America.

originalnih stanovnika centralne Amerike.

And only about 17 percent are of European descent.

I samo 17 posto su europskog porijekla.

But the most important thing here is that

Ali najvažnija stvar ovdje je da

the very people who are supposed to defend us, the police, the military,

oni ljudi koji nas trebaju braniti, policija, vojska

are the ones that committed most of the crimes.

su ti koji su počinili većinu zločina.

Now the families, they want information.

Sada obitelji, one žele informacije.

They want to know what happened.

Žele znati što se dogodilo.

They want the bodies of their loved ones.

Žele tijela svojih voljenih.

But most of all, what they want is they want you,

Ali najviše od svega, oni žele da vi,

they want everyone to know that their loved ones did nothing wrong.

da svi znaju kako njihovi voljeni nisu učinili ništa krivo.

Now, my case was that my father received death threats in 1980.

Moj slučaj je bio da da je moj otac dobio prijetnje smrću 1980.

And we left.

I mi smo otišli.

We left Guatemala and we came here.

Napustili smo Guatemalu i došli ovdje.

So I grew up in New York,

Odrastao sam u New Yorku,

I grew up in Brooklyn as a matter of fact, and I went to New Utrecht High School

odrastao sam u Brooklynu zapravo, i išao sam u New Utrecht srednju školu

and I graduated from Brooklyn College.

i diplomirao sam na Brooklyn College.

The only thing was that

Jedina stvar je bila ta

I really didn't know what was happening in Guatemala.

što nisam znao što se zapravo događa u Guatemali.

I didn't care for it; it was too painful.

Nije me bilo briga za to, bilo je prebolno.

But it wasn't till 1995 that I decided to do something about it.

No do 1995. nisam odlučio nešto poduzeti.

So I went back.

Vratio sam se.

I went back to Guatemala, to look for the bodies,

Vratio sam se u Guatemalu kako bih tražio tijela,

to understand what happened and to look for part of myself as well.

kako bih shvatio što se dogodilo i kako bi potražio dio sebe.

The way we work is that we give people information.

Radimo tako da dajemo ljudima informacije.

We talk to the family members and we let them choose.

Pričamo s članovima obitelji i dajemo im da biraju.

We let them decide to tell us the stories,

Puštamo ih da odluče ispričati nam priču,

to tell us what they saw,

da nam kažu što su vidjeli,

to tell us about their loved ones.

da nam kažu o svojim voljenima.

And even more important,

I još važnije,

we let them choose to give us a piece of themselves.

dopuštamo im da odaberu dati nam dio sebe.

A piece, an essence, of who they are.

Dio, bit, onoga što jesu.

And that DNA is what we're going to compare

I tu DNK usporedit ćemo

to the DNA that comes from the skeletons.

s DNK koja dolazi iz kostura.

While we're doing that, though, we're looking for the bodies.

Dok to činimo, tražimo tijela.

And these are skeletons by now,

I to su sada već kosturi,

most of these crimes happened 32 years ago.

jer većina ovih zločina dogodila se prije 32 godine.

Kada pronađemo grob,

When we find the grave,

we take out the dirt and eventually clean the body, document it, and exhume it.

izvadimo zemlju i očistimo tijelo, dokumentiramo ga i ekshumiramo.

We literally bring the skeleton out of the ground.

Doslovno vadimo kostur iz zemlje.

Once we have those bodies, though, we take them back to the city, to our lab,

Kada imamo ta tijela, nosimo ih natrag u grad, u naš laboratorij,

and we begin a process of trying to understand mainly two things:

i započinjemo proces pokušaja razumijevanja dvije stvari:

One is how people died.

Jedno je kako su ljudi umrli.

So here you see a gunshot wound to the back of the head

Ovdje vidite ranu od metka na potiljku

or a machete wound, for example.

ili ranu od mačete, na primjer.

The other thing we want to understand is who they are.

Druga stvar koju želimo razumjeti je tko su oni:

Whether it's a baby,

Je li do dijete,

or an adult.

ili odrasla osoba.

Whether it's a woman or a man.

Je li to muškarac ili žena.

But when we're done with that analysis

Ali kada smo gotovi s tom analizom,

what we'll do is we'll take a small fragment of the bone

ono što učinimo je uzmemo mali komad kosti

and we'll extract DNA from it.

i ekstraktiramo DNK iz nje.

We'll take that DNA

Uzet ćemo tu DNK

and then we'll compare it with the DNA of the families, of course.

i usporedit ćemo je s DNK obitelji, naravno.

The best way to explain this to you is by showing you two cases.

Najbolji način da vam ovo objasnim je da pokažem dva slučaja.

The first is the case of the military diary.

Prvi je slučaj vojnog dnevnika.

Now this is a document that was smuggled out of somewhere in 1999.

Ovo je dokument koji je prokrijumčaren od nekud 1999.

And what you see there is the state following individuals,

I ono što ovdje vidite, jest država koja slijedi pojedince,

people that, like you, wanted to change their country,

ljude koji su, poput vas, željeli promijeniti svoju zemlju,

and they jotted everything down.

i sve su zapisali.

And one of the things that they wrote down is when they executed them.

I jedna od stvari koje su zapisivali je kada su ih pogubili.

Inside that yellow rectangle, you see a code,

U tom žutom četverokutu, vidite šifru,

it's a secret code: 300.

to je tajna šifra: 300.

And then you see a date.

A potom vidite datum.

The 300 means "executed" and the date means when they were executed.

300 znači "pogubljen" i datum označava kada su pogubljeni.

Now that's going to come into play in a second.

To će postati važno za trenutak.

What we did is we conducted an exhumation in 2003,

Ono što smo činili jest da smo napravili ekshumaciju 2003.,

where we exhumed 220 bodies from 53 graves in a military base.

gdje smo ekshumirali 220 tijela iz 53 groba u vojnoj bazi.

Grave 9, though, matched the family of Sergio Saul Linares.

Grob 9 odgovarao je obitelji Sergia Saula Linaresa.

Now Sergio was a professor at the university.

Sergio je bio profesor na sveučilištu.

He graduted from Iowa State University

Diplomirao je na državnom sveučilištu u Iowi

and went back to Guatemala to change his country.

i vratio se u Guatemalu kako bi promijenio svoju zemlju.

And he was captured on February 23, 1984.

I uhvatili su ga 23. veljače 1984.

And if you can see there, he was executed on March 29, 1984,

I ako možete vidjeti ondje, pogubljen je 29. ožujka 1984.,

which was incredible.

što je bilo nevjerojatno.

We had the body, we had the family's information and their DNA,

Imali smo tijelo, informaciju o obitelji i njihov DNK,

and now we have documents that told us exactly what happened.

i sada imamo dokumente koji nam točno govore što se dogodilo.

But most important is about two weeks later,

Ali najvažnije je da smo dva tjedna kasnije

we go another hit, another match

imali još jedan pogodak, još jedno poklapanje,

from the same grave to Amancio Villatoro.

iz istog groba za Amancia Villatora.

The DNA of that body also matched the DNA of that family.

DNK tog tijela poklapao se s DNK te obitelji.

And then we noticed that he was also in the diary.

I potom smo primjetili da je on također u dnevniku.

But it was amazing to see that he was also executed on March 29, 1984.

No bilo je nevjerojatno vidjeti da je također pogubljen 29. ožujka 1984.

So that led us to think, hmm, how many bodies were in the grave?

To nas je dovelo do razmišljanja koliko tijela ima u grobu.

Six.

Šest.

So then we said, how many people were executed on March 29, 1984?

Onda smo rekli, koliko je ljudi pogubljeno 29. ožujka 1984.?

That's right, six as well.

Također šest.

So we have Juan de Dios, Hugo, Moises and Zoilo.

Imamo Juana de Diosa, Huga, Moisesa i Zoila.

All of them executed on the same date, all captured at different locations

Svi oni pogubljeni istog dana, ali uhvaćeni na različitim lokacijama

and at different moments.

i u različitim trenutcima.

All put in that grave.

Svi stavljeni u taj grob.

The only thing we needed now was the DNA of those four families

Sve što smo trebali sada je DNK te četiri obitelji.

So we went and we looked for them and we found them.

Tako da smo otišli i potražili ih i našli ih.

And we identified those six bodies and gave them back to the families.

I identificirali smo tih šest tijela i vratili ih obiteljima.

The other case I want to tell you about

Drugi slučaj o kojem vam želim pričati

is that of a military base called CREOMPAZ.

je vojna baza imena CREOMPAZ.

It actually means, "to believe in peace," but the acronym really means

Doslovno znači "Vjerovati u mir", ali akronim zapravo znači

Regional Command Center for Peacekeeping Operations.

Regionalni upravljački centar za mirovne operacije.

And this is where the Guatemalan military trains peacekeepers from other countries,

I ovdje vojska Guatemale trenira mirotvorce drugih zemalja

the ones that serve with the U.N.

koji služe s UN-om

and go to countries like Haiti and the Congo.

i idu u zemlje kao što su Haiti i Kongo.

Well, we have testimony that said that within this military base,

Imali smo svjedočanstva da

there were bodies, there were graves.

postoje tijela, postoje grobovi.

So we went in there with a search warrant and about two hours after we went in,

Otišli smo ondje s nalogom za pretragu, i dva sata nakon što smo došli

we found the first of 84 graves, a total of 533 bodies.

pronašli smo prvi od 84 groba, ukupno 533 tijela.

Now, if you think about that,

Sad, kad razmislite o tome,

peacekeepers being trained on top of bodies.

mirotvorci koji treniraju iznad tijela.

Poprilično je ironično.

It's very ironic.

But the bodies -- face down, most of them, hands tied behind their backs,

No tijela -- licem prema dolje, većina, ruke vezane iza leđa,

blindfolded, all types of trauma --

povezi za oči, svakakve traume --

these were people who were defenseless who were being executed.

to su bili bespomoćni ljudi koji su pogubljeni.

People that 533 families are looking for.

Ljudi koje traže 553 obitelji.

So we're going to focus on Grave 15.

Usredotočit ćemo se na Grob 15.

Grob 15, što so primjetili, bio je grob pun žena i djece,

Grave 15, what we noticed, was a grave full of women and children,

63 of them.

63 njih.

And that immediately made us think,

I zbog toga smo odmah pomislili,

bože, gdje postoji takav slučaj.

my goodness, where is there a case like this?

When I got to Guatemala in 1995,

Kada sam došao u Guatemalu 1995.,

I heard of a case of a massacre that happened on May 14, 1982,

čuo sam za slučaj masakra koji se dogodio 14. svibnja 1982.

where the army came in, killed the men,

kada je vojska došla, pobila muškarce,

and took the women and children in helicopters to an unknown location.

i odvela žene i djecu helikopterima na nepoznatu lokaciju.

Well, guess what?

The clothing from this grave matched the clothing from the region

Pa, znate što?

Odjeća iz ovog groba odgovarala je odjeći iz regije

where these people were taken from,

iz koje su ovi ljudi odvedeni,

where these women and children were taken from.

odakle su odvedene žene i djeca.

So we conducted some DNA analysis, and guess what?

Pa smo napravili malo DNK analize, i znate što?

We identified Martina Rojas and Manuel Chen.

Identificirali smo Martinu Rojas i Manuela Chena.

Both of them disappeared in that case, and now we could prove it.

Oboje su nestali u tom slučaju, i sada smo imali dokaze.

We have physical evidence that proves that this happened

Imali smo dokaze koji potvrđuju da se ovo dogodilo

i da su ovi ljudi odvedeni u tu bazu.

and that those people were taken to this base.

Now, Manuel Chen was three years old.

Sad, Manuel Chen imao je 3 godine.

His mother went to the river to wash clothes, and she left him with a neighbor.

Njegova majka otišla je do rijeke oprati odjeću i ostavila ga kod susjede.

That's when the army came

Tada je došla vojska

and that's when he was taken away in a helicopter and never seen again

i odvela ga u helikopteru i nikad nije ponovno viđen

dok ga nismo pronašli u Grobu 15.

until we found him in Grave 15.

So now with science, with archaeology, with anthropology, with genetics,

Sada sa znanošću, arheologijom, antropologijom i genetikom,

what we're doing is, we're giving a voice to the voiceless.

ono što činimo je da dajemo glas onima bez glasa.

But we're doing more than that.

Ali činimo više od toga.

We're actually providing evidence for trials,

Zapravo dajemo dokaze za suđenja,

like the genocide trial that happened last year in Guatemala

kao suđenje za genocid koje se dogodilo prošle godine u Guatemali

where General Ríos Montt was found guilty of genocide and sentenced to 80 years.

gdje je general Rios Montt proglašen krivim za genocid i osuđen na 80 godina.

So I came here to tell you today that this is happening everywhere --

Došao sam vam danas reći da se ovo događa posvuda --

it's happening in Mexico right in front of us today --

događa se u Meksiku točno ispred nas danas --

and we can't let it go on anymore.

i ne možemo dozvoliti da se više događa.

We have to now come together and decide

Moramo stati zajedno i odlučiti

that we're not going to have any more missing.

da nećemo imati više nestalih.

So no more missing, guys.

Nema više nestalih, ljudi.

Okay? No more missing.

U redu? Nema više nestalih.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)