Forensic specialists in South Africa have exhumed two bodies believed to be those of anti-apartheid fighters killed by security forces 17 years ago and buried in unmarked graves. Investigators hope to positively identify the remains and possibly find clues to who killed them. These are the first of more than 20 exhumations expected over the next several weeks, as authorities try to close some of the cases that were left open by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The first bone uncovered is a skull. It is partly caved-in on the right side. A forensic anthropologist gently uses a paintbrush to sweep dirt away, revealing more and more of the dead man's remains. She uncovers his jaw, his collarbone, a few ribs. Slowly, his right arm emerges from the earth, apparently broken in several places.
The anthropologist is kneeling at the bottom of a two-meter-deep hole in the ground, in a cemetery on the side of a lush green hill about 40 kilometers outside Pietermaritzburg. Another woman kneels in an identical hole next to her. They focus intently on their work, occasionally hauling buckets of earth up to waiting helpers.
A third forensic specialist, Anahi Ginate, explains that the bones will be removed one by one and then transported to a lab in Durban for analysis. There they will use dental and medical records as well as DNA tests to determine who was buried in these two unmarked graves 17 years ago, and how they died.
"What we are doing is just to dig, dig up these remains," he explained. "We already talked to the family that this is very slow work, that they must not expect to have the result right now, so they should wait till we have the analysis done."
The forensic anthropologists are from Argentina, a country whose own painful history has led to a grim expertise in this kind of work, identifying the remains of victims of political violence.
A team of South African investigators from the national prosecutor's office has determined that these unmarked graves on a hillside in rural KwaZulu-Natal probably hold the remains of Oscar "Shakes" Maleka and Jabulani Ndaba, two anti-apartheid fighters from the African National Congress who were killed by security forces in 1988.
If the remains are confirmed to be theirs, Margaret Joe Ndaba feels it will finally close a painful chapter in her family history.
"I am sad because it's my brother, but I'm happy because I know he's here, rather than not knowing where is he," she said.
Both men went into exile after the student uprisings of 1976 and joined uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. They were based in Lusaka before being sent back into South Africa in 1988. It was their last mission. Investigators say one man was killed by a grenade blast, and the other was shot.
Margaret Joe Ndaba says the family knew almost nothing about her brother's life in the struggle after he left home.
"We knew that Jabulani is out of the country," she said. "He used to just come, pop up any time. Just come, 'I'm not staying, I'm going.' You see?... And after '88, he never came back. And everyone was back. Everyone that we know was back. Somebody said Jabulani died. That's why I went to the Truth Commission. If he died, where are we going to see him? We must know where he is."
But the Truth and Reconciliation Commission could give her very few answers.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Makhosini Nkosi explains what happened to many of the anti-apartheid fighters who disappeared in those days.
"You see, at that time the security police would not really care who these people were, they would just bury them as unidentified paupers," he said. "You then get information filtering through to the ANC leadership in exile that so-and-so was murdered in an operation where, and you take it from there."
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission left 477 cases unresolved. That means they did not have enough information at the time to locate the bodies of the missing or determine exactly what had happened to them.
A special prosecutors unit reopened those cases last year on the orders of the president, and they believe they have located the remains of 22 of those victims, most of them buried in unmarked graves around the country. The remains believed to be those of Mr. Ndaba and Mr. Maleka are the first to be exhumed, but others are expected to follow over the next few weeks.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial governor S'bu Ndebele says the people of the region will only be able to move forward when they have been able to finally close the door on the past.