From Argentina to Ukraine: Identifying the disappeared and reuniting stolen children
Technology and identification methods used in post-Dirty War Argentina may find another use in the Ukraine War
March 24th is an important day of remembrance in Argentina known as the Día Nacional de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia (Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice). It signifies the same day in 1976 that Argentina underwent a coup d’état that overthrew the Peróns and brought a military junta to power. The coup was conducted at the behest of the United States as part of a larger campaign known as Operation Condor whose goals were to hunt down political dissidents in the Southern Cone. Taking place during the peak of the Cold War, this operation entailed identifying alleged communist sympathizers, taking them into custody, and executing them. Needless to say, the following eight years that the junta ruled unchecked was characterized by mass human rights abuses and became known as La Guerra Sucia (The Dirty War).
Between the years of 1976-1983, nearly 30,000 persons disappeared under dubious circumstances and became known as the elusive desaparecidos, meaning the disappeared in Spanish. The majority of the desaparecidos were aged between 17-23 and many whom were university students or schoolkids. Truth commissions later revealed that these desaparecidos were dumped in mass graves or pushed out of moving planes atop the Atlantic Ocean in what were known as “death flights.”
In an added layer to these grave abuses, young children that were left behind by the desaparecidos would often be gifted to wealthy military families loyal to the junta to be raised under false pretenses and never to know their biological parents. Also, pregnant women who were arrested by the junta were permitted to carry their pregnancies to term and give birth before execution in order to fuel a supply of these children to junta families.
During these eight-years, hundreds of children were stolen from their original families and placed with people who would masquerade as their true parents for the majority of their lives. Justice for these atrocities was stunted by amnesty laws in the immediate restoration period of post-conflict Argentina and prevented the true acknowledgment and prosecution of crimes regarding mass executions and stolen children.
However, organizations such as Las Madres del Plaza de Mayo (The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) never stopped advocating for justice and the return of their missing children. (Children in this case dually apply to the young adults that went missing and the children shipped off to junta families). Las Madres first gathered outside of the Presidential Casa Rosada (Pink House) in 1977 where they led a peaceful protest to demand information on the locations and statuses of their loved ones who had been taken by the junta. Las Madres became internationally recognized for their peaceful protests that took place every Thursday and by their famous white scarfs used to symbolize the diapers of their lost children.
In the immediate aftermath of La Guerra Sucia in 1983, Las Madres teamed up with the original truth commission in Argentina (CONDEP) to address the need for forensic identification of the mass numbers of bodies uncovered from La Guerra Sucia. CONDEP and Las Madres took their concerns to the United States where the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Dr. Clyde Snow created the Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense (Argentine Forensic Anthropologic Team or EAAF) to work towards identifying victims of the junta and their stolen children.
One of this partnership’s biggest accomplishment has been the “grandparentage index” which allowed for the verification of genetic relation between grandparent and grandchild with 99.9% accuracy. As Las Madres have come to rename themselves Las Abuelas (The Grandmothers) in testament to their growing age, this index becomes especially useful in identification efforts of lost children, especially for stolen children whose parents were victims of the junta, and their only remaining relatives are their grandparents.
This effort was further supported by the distribution of DNA kits in 2021 to Argentina’s foreign consulates where children who were taken by fleeing junta members may be able to gain access to their hidden identity. It was not uncommon for announcements to be put out in newspapers encouraging those in their 40s with doubts about their parentage to seek out a DNA kit in their country’s Argentine consulate. This was also coupled with social media outreach such as the hashtag “ArgentinaTeBusca” which translates to “Argentina is looking for you.” All collected DNA is consolidated in a nation-wide DNA database to help with the comparison of DNA from all parts of the world.
As of 2021, the EAAF has been able to uncover the identity of approximately 1,000 recovered remains and with the help of Las Madres, as of 2023, 132 children have been reunited with their biological families.
Today, other countries suffer similar conflicts also characterised by disappeared persons and stolen children. One such country is Ukraine which is quickly approaching its 2-year anniversary on February 24th. There is an estimated 30,000-40,000 disappeared persons in Ukraine as of February 2024 and officials have estimated that there are as many as 700,000 Ukrainian children that have been deported illegally to Russia during this conflict.
As of April 2, 2023, only 361 Ukrainian children had been returned to their families and little is known about the methods used to achieve reunification. However, it is unsurprising that during active conflict these methods have been kept concealed. Some are said to have been conducted by immediate family members crossing borders and taking extreme risks to achieve reunification.
Today, the EAAF now works diligently to identify the corpses of Ukrainians found in mass graves the same way they did in Argentina years ago. With the conflict still ongoing, it has been challenging to successfully locate and extract corpses for examination and DNA testing. Dr. Salado Puerto with the EAAF confirmed that, “Some of the military and parts of the search groups have faced injuries, some people have died trying to recover bodies.”
Moreover, consolidating all the information in a DNA data bank system has yet to be institutionalised like it has been in Argentina, making it harder to keep set records of any identification that does happen. Yet, there is hope that with the new edition of the EAAF, Ukrainian disappeared persons will be able to be identified at a greater rate and stolen children can be reunited with their biological families.
Image courtesy of Beatrice Murch via Flickr, ©2009. Some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
