Applications - fingerprint-based forensics identify argentina's desaparecidos - Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 7 In March of 1976, in a battle against left-wing terrorism, a military junta took control of the government in Argentina and began a campaign of horror now known as the “Guerra Sucia,” or Dirty War. Between 1976 and 1983 this military government was responsible for the disappearances of an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people—most of them dissidents or innocent civilians not connected with terrorism—in the name of national security. These desaparecidos (the vanished or disappeared) included people from all walks of life: trade unionists, students, young children, nuns and priests, journalists, and many others. Those few who survived the horror and military personnel who participated said that the victims invariably suffered agonizing torture, unclean living conditions, and selective forms of solitary confinement before their deaths. Most victims have never been seen nor heard from again. When Argentina restored democracy in 1983, the National Commission on the Disappeared (CONADEP) was formed to investigate the fate of the thousands of people who vanished during military rule. The story of approximately 9,000 cases is chronicled in the book Nunca Mas (Never Again), published by Farrar Straus Giroux (New York). It brings to light the horrors suffered by the victims of the military government during the Dirty War. Unfortunately, most of the victims remain unidentified, and their families are left to wonder about the fate of their missing loved ones.