Digging up the Truth

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2016

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the early 1980s Mercedes Doretti, a student of anthropology in Buenos Aires, began helping in the search for some of the victims of Argentina's military rule. She went on to form the prestigious Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, which has carried out exhumations in more than 30 countries. Her work gathering evidence of some of the worst atrocities of our times, has taken her to Bosnia, South Africa, El Salvador and Mexico. Mercedes spoke to Mike Lanchin about the challenges of her harrowing task and about a life-time dedicated to the cause of truth and justice.

Photo: Mercedes Doretti excavates a skull from what used to be the convent of the church at El Mozote, El Salvador, Oct. 1992. (AP Photo/Luis Romero)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the witness podcast with me Mike Lanchen.
0:04.3	As part of the BBC's 100 Women Series, we're hearing from some of the women who've been
0:09.8	overlooked by contemporary history.
0:13.0	Mercedes-Dorete is a forensic anthropologist from Argentina,
0:17.2	who's dedicated her life to searching for the remains of victims of war and state
0:22.1	violence. It's a journey that's taken her to the scene of some of the 20th
0:27.0	centuries most gruesome conflicts. One by one we were uncovering the remains of children that they were on average five or six years old.
0:49.9	And on this small room that was like four meters by five we found 141 people from which
0:58.8	a hundred and thirty four were children under the age of 10.
1:03.0	They were all full of bullets on their clothing, on their bones.
1:07.0	The scene of that room was so shocking.
1:12.0	We had to stop several times when we were digging.
1:17.0	It's 1992 and a team of forensic experts is digging through the rubble of houses in a remote village in northern El Salvador.
1:27.0	They're looking for the remains of victims of the country's worst civilian massacre.
1:32.0	I mean the kids were worst civilian massacre.
1:32.9	I mean, the kids were with their clothing,
1:35.6	with toys in their pockets,
1:38.0	you know, the things that little boys and girls carry.
1:41.1	There was a pregnant woman too, and we found the fetal bone on the pelvic area.
1:47.0	You know, there was not much room to say anything or, you know, expressing your feelings or anything like that.
1:54.0	like that, you know, from time to time,
1:55.0	one of us will just go for a walk
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.