Missing Lives

A walk along the South bank of the river led to a very different atmosphere  a quiet corner in the midst of a almost carnival style atmosphere.. A display caught my eye and being interested in photography I wondered over.. To find the last thing I'd expected.. A Large display that seemed out of place yet so much in place at the same time

London (ICRC) – Fifteen years on from the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and 10 years after the end of the conflict in Kosovo, almost 15,000 people remain unaccounted for, and the families left behind are still suffering. The Missing Lives photo exhibition and book, documenting the plight of 15 such families, has been launched today by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in partnership with the British Red Cross.

Earlier I posted about masks and how we use them, one of the most haunting stories as I read was that of a mask used in terror..  someone who had been a teacher came to the door of a home in a balaclava and forced a boy and his father into a van they were never seen again. this happened in the or on the last days of conflict. The teacher lived in the flat above his victims...

A friend told me a few years ago how he had survived the atrocities in Rwanda just short time after he was put on the school bus the village where he lived was destroyed. Another tells of how they left with their family their home in what was Yugoslavia  in the early days of the war.

The story's may no longer be top of the news but for thousands of people the struggle to find what happened to a father, brother, sister wife husband,mother, friend still goes on..

against one photo a mother said.. after dna tests on a bones found in a wood, she lost her husband and two boys. how can I bury a bone, mourn when I don't know which of my boys the bone belongs too...

ouch.....

If your in london then take a few moments for a detour and go

Riverside Walkway, South Bank, adjacent to the Oxo Tower. After the run in London closes, on 25 July , the exhibition will travel to 10 cities in the Balkans, Western Europe and North America

Or maybe think about supporting the work by getting hold of a copy of the book Missing Lives......

 For the first time in war DNA has been used to match blood and bone, reuniting families divided by death, enabling survivors to find closure and to begin to live again. These fifteen, heartbreaking Balkan stories - told by Rory MacLean and Nick Danziger, two of Europe's most sensitive chroniclers - represent a tiny proportion of an immense tragedy. 'Missing Lives' gives a voice to the unacknowledged suffering of these families, to all who went missing by force, and reminds us that in war - whatever the technological advances - there is no greater loss than the disappearance of those we love.