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disappearance and use of paramilitary forces to carry out repressive activities.Large-scale forced disappearances began in Guatemala in the late 1960s; to date nearly 40,000 people have been "disappeared" for political reasons in that country.'But world attention focused on the problem only after it came to light that thousands of people in Chile and Argentina had disappeared during the 1970s. 6 In addition to its prevalence in Guatemala, Chile and Argentina, the technique has been widely used in Uruguay, El Salvador, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Sri Lanka, Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia), and Uganda. 7Among the countries notorious for death squad killings by groups directly or indirectly linked to the governments are Guatemala, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the Philippines. 8 There are two main elements of a forced disappearance: first, "abduction or detention.., by an agent of a State or by a person acting with the consent or acquiescence of a State," and second, official refusal to acknowledge the abduction or to disclose or make available information that would reveal the detainee's fate or whereabouts. 9Those abducted are detained, tortured, and, typically, killed. 10A death squad killing similarly involves state involvement or complicity and a denial of responsibility, but differs in that the body-almost always showing signs 5.
Naomi Roht‐Arriaza (Thu,) studied this question.