Patterns of Peri-Mortem Trauma in Skeletons Recovered From Mass Graves from the Spanish Civil War (1936–9)

Abstract

During the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of people have been victims of extrajudicial executions worldwide, in episodes of violence associated with armed conflicts, political repression and ethnic cleansing (Shelton 2005). From the crimes committed during the Second World War, to the political repression in dictatorial regimes in Latin America (e.g. Chile, Argentina, Guatemala) and east Asia (e.g. Cambodia), to the recent conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, central Africa and the Middle East, in most of these cases the victims of the killings have been illegally buried in clandestine mass graves. In this context, we define a mass grave after the definition provided by the United Nations special rapporteur to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as a location where three or more bodies are buried, victims of extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, not having died in combat or armed confrontations (ICTY 1996). In many cases, forensic projects have been organized in order to exhume and identify theremains of the victims from these mass graves. The main immediate objectives of these forensic projects have been the return of the remains to the families and/or the collection of evidence to establish accountability and bring those responsible to justice (although in all cases there should be an ethical and practical commitment for personal identification of the remains). More generally, the information obtained from these projects, toge…