As detailed elsewhere on this website, the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) has divulged few details about the DNA procures it used to complete a claimed 18,000 body identifications. We know that they claim to have invented a simple and cheap procure for recovering DNA from human bones with the aid of a simple and inexpensive kit, but that’s about it.
Very few bodies were recovered by the ICMP before the early 2000s, some six years after the alleged massacre of up to 8,000 people when Srebrenica fell to the Bosnian Serbs in July 1995. This was because early mass grave excavations found far fewer bodies than expected. It was only when the ICTY devised a new theory of the events that had taken place based on the assumption that the Bosnian Serbs had undertaken a massive cover-up exercise to exhume, move and rebury some 500 tons of human remains that new mass graves were identified and large-scale body finds were claimed.
Even if there was any truth in this incredible theory, the human remains recovered would have been extensively comingled, with associated contamination, and would have spent upwards of 5 years in the ground decomposing. In addition, there are many photographs of ICMP excavations showing complete neglect for basic scene-of-crime procedures such as the wearing of masks and gloves.
All these considerations would be even more important if, as seems very likely, the ICMP used low copy number DNA to make some or all of their identifications. Contamination is a huge problem in all areas of DNA work, but a much greater issue when low copy number DNA is involved.
Tume ya Kimataifa ya Watu Waliopotea (ICMP) imetoa taarifa chache kuhusu DNA iliyotumiwa kukamilisha utambulisho wa maiti 18,000. Tunajua kwamba wanadai kuwa wamevumbua njia rahisi na ya bei nafuu ya kupata DNA kutoka kwa mifupa ya binadamu kwa msaada wa kit rahisi na cha bei nafuu, lakini hiyo ni kuhusu hilo. Mwili wa watu wengi uliokamatwa na wapiganaji wa kivita wa Bosnia ulipatikana katika mji wa Srebrenica, karibu miaka sita baada ya mauaji ya watu 8,000 wakati wa mapinduzi ya Serb ya Bosnia mnamo Julai 1995. Hilo lilitokana na kwamba machimbo ya mapema ya makaburi ya watu wengi yalipata miili michache zaidi ya ilivyotarajiwa. "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika taarifa ya mahakama hiyo, ""Kama ilivyoelezwa katika taarifa ya mahakama hiyo, ni wakati tu ambapo mahakama hiyo ilitengeneza nadharia mpya ya matukio yaliyotokea, kulingana na dhana kwamba Waserbia wa Bosnia walikuwa wamefanya mazoezi makubwa ya kuficha ili kuchimba, kuhamisha na kuzikia tena takriban tani 500 za mabaki ya binadamu, kwamba makaburi mapya ya watu wengi yalipatikana na kutajwa.""" Hata kama kuna ukweli wowote katika nadharia hii ya ajabu, mabaki ya binadamu yaliyopatikana yangekuwa yamechanganywa sana, na uchafuzi unaohusiana, na ingekuwa imetumia zaidi ya miaka mitano katika ardhi kuharibika. "Kwa kuongezea, kuna picha nyingi za uchimbaji wa ICMP zinazoonyesha ""upuuzi kamili"" kwa taratibu za msingi za eneo la uhalifu kama vile kuvaa vinyago na kinga." "Hii ni kwa sababu, kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ICMP ilitumia ""nambari ya chini ya nakala ya DNA"" kufanya baadhi au wote wa utambulisho wao." Uchafuzi ni tatizo kubwa katika maeneo yote ya kazi ya DNA, lakini suala kubwa zaidi wakati wa nakala ya chini ya DNA inahusika.