Forensics the key to missing and dead on old and new battlefields

A new identification programme initiated by the humanitarian organisation International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hopes to enable military institutions to identify combatants killed in conflict by using basic DNA profiling before they are deployed. 

Many soldiers are unaccounted for on battlefields and there is only a limited chance of identifying those who are found and returning their remains to their families. Science can provide a solution, according to Stephen Fonseca, manager of the ICRC’s new African Centre for Medicolegal Services (ACMS)

“Failure to develop military identifications programmes contributes significantly to dead combatants being misidentified or not identified at all,” said Fonseca.

Using medico-legal assessments and observations, he said the ACMS realised “there is no military programme or guidelines, especially in Africa, that explains how soldiers need to be searched for, recovered, examined, stored and ultimately identified, based on what was collected before going out on battle”. 

Simply put, there are no preliminary steps taken to identify soldiers before they are sent to conflict areas. 

Citing historic inventories of the missing, Fonseca said, in many cases, people were labelled as missing because there was no forensic structure in place to compare corpses with existing data. 

This is why the ACMS, a satellite hub of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ Missing Centre, proposed the Military Identification Programme forensic project. 

Under the Geneva Convention, of which South Africa is a signatory, countries are obligated to report the dead of both sides during wars or other conflicts.

But, Fonseca said, to make reporting the dead a standard practice, more than the law was needed. “You need people to understand why it is important to preserve the dead.”

From a general perspective on missing person situations — be that person missing because of migration, war or disaster — “if there isn’t a structured programme bringing back the bodies of loved ones, or at least informing them about their loved one … the whole social structure falls apart for that family”.

Still in its infancy, the programme aims to collaborate with non-state and state military groups to establish DNA profiling of combatants before they are sent to battle. 

Fonseca said forensic science had advanced to the extent that it was rare to come across a case where identification was impossible. 

“You give me something human — material or elements — and I’m going to find a way to develop a DNA profile.” But, he added, “It is useless if you don’t have something to compare it with.” 

That is why a structured DNA profiling programme that collects DNA samples of combatants is crucial.