Hammerl’s body ‘possibly found’

Published Apr 7, 2012

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The widow of Anton Hammerl has urged the South African and Libyan governments to access and analyse remains found in a mass grave in eastern Libya that could be those of the slain photojournalist.

“News of remains that could be a possible match for Anton came to us a month ago,” said Penny Sukhraj-Hammerl, who marked the one year anniversary of his death this week.

“The family did everything it could to alert the relevant authorities to this.”

The remains were apparently found with a camera lens when they were excavated in Bin Jawwad.

“The SA government, which obtained DNA samples from Anton’s parents in mid-2011, assured the family it would treat the matter with high priority,” explained Sukhraj-Hammerl. “We have also sent a set of dental records to Libya in the hope of expediting the identification process.

“We need the South African and Libyan governments to access the remains and carry out the analysis required to verify whether this is Anton. It’s a year since Anton’s death and it is devastating that we still have not managed to find him.”

Hammerl, a father of three and the former chief photographer of the Saturday Star, was shot on April 5 last year in the desert outside Brega in the east of the country when he and fellow journalists Clare Morgana Gillis of USA Today, GlobalPost correspondent James Foley and Manu Brabo, a Spanish photographer, were attacked by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. The others were captured, and later released, by the Gaddafi loyalists.

Gillis told the Saturday Star yesterday: “Manu, James and I have spent several weeks over the past six months looking for Anton’s remains in Libya. Libyan authorities notified us that they had found a possible match from the mass grave discovered and excavated in Bin Jawwad.

“That was nearly a month ago, and while the Libyans have said that a DNA test should be performed, they do not have the capacity to do it themselves and they have neglected a less bureaucratically complex way to determine identity – dental records. Anton’s dental records were made available to Libyan authorities in mid-March and the comparison still has not been done.”

The anniversary of Hammerl’s death was painful, said Gillis. “April 5 was a sad day, and doubly so for the fact that we have yet to find Anton so that his family can lay him to rest properly.”

Clayson Monyela, spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, would only confirm that work was continuing.

“No developments to report at the moment regarding Anton’s remains but efforts continue,” he told the Saturday Star.

Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch’s emergencies director, who has followed Hammerl’s case, told AP this week that hospital records linked to the body of the white male found in the grave indicate he died around the time Hammerl was killed.

“It’s been several weeks now and we can certainly hope that things be speeded up,” he told the news agency.

The family did not learn of Hammerl’s death until late May.

In December International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said the government was doing its utmost to find Hammerl’s remains and was making contact with the Libyan government to uncover them.

Foley told the Saturday Star last year that in the two weeks he had spent with Hammerl in Libya, he had been the most experienced, insightful and wise photojournalist among them.

“He had such a generous soul, an open sprit.

“You know, when journalists get together we all tend to size each other up a bit. But there was none of that with Anton,” he recalled.

Sukhraj-Hammerl has made several impassioned appeals to both the Libyan government and President Jacob Zuma. In October she pleaded with the people of Libya to be the family’s “eyes and ears” in the search for her husband’s body.

“We cannot rest until Anton is given a proper burial at a site that will become a place where his children can come to pay tribute to their brave father.”

Saturday Star

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