War Crimes Investigation: The Role of Forensic Archaeology
-Stefan Schmitt
Since the 1980s the International Forensic Program of Physicians for Human Rights has been dedicated to providing independent forensic expertise for the documenting and collecting of evidence of human rights violations throughout the world. Exhumation projects have become increasingly more complex, from exhuming single individuals from cemeteries, to the work done on mass graves in Latin America and those in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda. Such forensic operations are faced with temporal, spatial and jurisdictional challenges which impact the way forensic scientists approach such projects. Archaeological techniques and methods are essential in addressing everything from search methods, establishing the “minimum number of individuals” present in sets of remains, to enabling identification of remains in forensic contexts. However, the legal mandate requires that disciplines such as archaeology adapt to the limits and protocols imposed by law enforcement and the judicial system. These impacts may affect search and collection strategies, as well as the analysis of remains and artifacts in the laboratory. International cases will be presented to illustrate how forensic work documenting human rights violations has influenced archaeologists in the field to expand their traditional methodological approaches to include the surviving victims as an aspect of their work. Stefan Schmitt is the director of the International Forensic Program of Physicians for Human Rights. He was born and raised in Germany, and received his undergraduate degree in Archaeology from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. In 1992 Schmitt helped set the foundation for an independent non-governmental forensic team documenting mass graves in Guatemala with the help of Dr. Clyde Snow and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. In 1995, based on the team’s forensic work, and prior to the Guatemalan truth commission, the team published the first in-depth analysis of the violence suffered by several communities in the Department of Baja Verapaz. Since 1996, Schmitt has been living with his family in Tallahassee where he received his Masters of Science degree in Criminology from Florida State University. Prior to joining Physicians for Human Rights, he worked for nine and a half years at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Crime Lab. As a Crime Lab Analyst, he led crime scene investigations and provided expert testimony in support of death investigations for the law enforcement community in thirteen north Florida counties. He has also developed and taught courses on Forensic Investigations and Human Rights for Florida State University’s School of Criminology.