LIBYAN C.S.I.: Forensic experts dig up earth near Tripoli at the site of a mass grave, which contained more than 200 bodies believed to be those of victims killed during the Gaddafi regime.© MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
For most of 2011, Libya was in the midst of a bloody civil war. The conflict ended that October after the murder of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi. Now, as many as tens of thousands of citizens are missing. Mass graves containing dozens or even hundreds of bodies have already been unearthed, and many missing people are yet to be found.
“Exhuming the mass graves and collecting the samples from the unknown bodies will depend on the reports [that] inform us [about] the place of these graves, because the previous regime tried to hide the crimes,” says forensic geneticist Esam Zreg, director of the Technical Department of Missing Persons in Libya’s Ministry for the Affairs of the Families of the Martyrs & Missing (MAFMM). “Sometimes [Gaddafi ...
