We build memorials to remember the dead. Those that died in wars, in natural disasters, on the front line or the victims of stubborn and vision-less politicians. We do so for a number of reasons, to not forgot, for some to realize the absurdity of war, for others as a symbol of pride for a cause they believe in.
But many have fallen without so much as a word. A lost love, buried in a mass grave, anonymous but never forgotten by their relatives or friends, will not help advance the cause for peace or reconciliation. At the very least, families deserve to know the basics: how, when, where and if possible…why.
For the past decade or so, as the technology improves and as communications networks reach the most remote areas of the world, organizations and individuals are bringing into the public domain the names of those who have died in conflict. The details of their deaths made explicit…so that behind the numbers emerges names, faces, and lives.
John Sloboda, executive director at the Oxford Research Group, is spearheading one such initiative. The Recording Casualties of Armed Conflict has an ambitious aim to record every person killed or injured in war. The program is in itself a memorial for humanity erected not in some elaborate square or designed by some famous architect or artist, but just simply a realization that exists in the public domain.
But how does one go about collecting this kind of information? Is it not conceivable that there might be massacres that go unreported?
According to the International Peace Research Group in Oslo, we are now in the longest period since World War II without interstate war – not withstanding Georgia and Russia. The nature of conflicts and how they unfold is in continual flux. But yet, individuals on the ground go to great lengths and considerable risks to establish some facts, when possible.
I suppose we can never truly know the real numbers. In part, the League of Nations was established after the First World War because of the horror behind the number of people killed between 1914-1918. Conservative estimates hover around 8 million. The League set the groundwork for the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. No one would argue that these institutions are perfect, but at the very least they reach across the divide, bridging humanity in the pursuit of freedom from fear and from want.