Digging up crimes: Forensic perspectives on perpetrator-led exhumations

Abstract

Why do violent actors engage in strategic exhumations and relocate victims’ remains after a conflict, even when those remains no longer pose any security threat? We argue that analyzing the strategic management of victims’ remains by perpetrators can reveal a lot about the logic motivating actors to deploy clandestine repertoires of violence. We drew on a new global repository of countries with strategic exhumations supporting a comparative analysis of Cyprus and Chile. Despite differing conditions, both cases showed systematic disinterment processes. We argue international accountability coupled with organizational capacity drove these actions, with motives and capabilities varying between conflict and authoritarian settings.