Simulations are extensively used in Learning and Development (L&D) programs around the world for a range of purposes, including crisis response training and peacebuilding. ICMP provides simulation-based training to experts and non-experts who require a full understanding of complex missing persons processes.
An effective simulation of a missing persons investigation following conflict or disaster is an invaluable and dynamic L&D tool. Simulation significantly increases the capacity of trainers to raise awareness, familiarize stakeholders with the missing persons processes, transfer skills, and promote rule-of-law and rights-based strategies in the field of missing persons. It also enables real-time, remote training – on local networks or through ICMP central servers – which is of particular benefit to first responders in locations that are not accessible to ICMP.
The simulator is being developed as a stand-alone CEL application, but it will also be made available to global development and peace-building virtual simulation projects, including the Carana simulation. The Carana simulation was created under the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) and has been further developed by other international organizations, including the World Bank and the European Union European External Action Service.
ICMP’s scenario-based learning project will help non-technical stakeholders and other partners to learn about the different institutions and actors involved in the missing persons process and identify internal and external challenges.
Internal challenges that are inherent in each step of the process can be explained and discussed.
External challenges stemming from interactions among actors in the process can also be identified and examined through the simulation.
FICTITIOUS COUNTRY
Carana is a fictitious country, located on a fictitious island, Kisiwa, off the eastern coast of Africa. Kisiwa consists of independent states next to Carana: they are Katasi, Mosana, Namuna, Rimosa and Sumora.
In 1996, a surge in communal violence in Rimosa sent Pleioni refugees across the border into Carana. The Rimosan government did not act swiftly and, in effect, allowed local militias to evict the Pleioni from Rimosa. Since then, a number of NGOs and UN agencies have established a group of camps in the border region between Rimosa and Carana to serve the Pleioni population.
There have been smaller movements of people since the violence of 1996. The vast majority of refugees are reluctant to return to Rimosa. Over time, different initiatives, both local and international, have sought to create a list of members of the Pleioni whose whereabouts are unknown. The events of 1996 forced some to relocate to neighboring countries on the island and also further north, first in Africa and then in Europe. The Pleioni diaspora is a loose grouping of individuals and organizations without formal support from any government and with different methods of recording members of the community who have disappeared.
The camps are taking on an air of permanence, as the Caranese government is unwilling to grant the refugees full residency or citizenship. The Rimosan government has expressed concern that the camps have become recruitment and training centers for rebel groups. NGOs and donor governments continue with their humanitarian work but are aware that the existing situation cannot continue indefinitely.
STARTING SCENARIO: A MASS GRAVE IS FOUND IN RIMOSA
In January, a mass grave was found in Rimosa in an area that was formerly populated by Pleioni. A reasonable supposition is that the mass grave dates back to the events of 1996 that forced the Pleioni to seek refuge over the border. Since the discovery of the mass grave, the international community has been pressuring the Rimosan government to secure the area and provide more information about the status of its investigation.
In the Carana media, interviews with eye witnesses of the events of 1996 reappear. They are first broadcast in local outlets but then gain larger attention via Twitter and Social Media. With every new development, pressure mounts to shed more light on the link between the events of the past and the mass grave.
NGOs working in the refugee camps launch an initiative to collect personal data from family members of the missing, suggesting that there is a possibility of kinship with victims buried in the newly discovered mass grave. Relatives of individuals who have been missing since 1996 gather and establish an organization with the single aim of finding the truth about what happened in 1996 and sharing this with family members and with the international community.
As a reaction to mounting international pressure, the Rimosan government has named a Special Prosecutor with a specific mandate to secure the mass grave site and take all necessary steps to investigate the events leading to its existence. The Special Prosecutor has assembled a forensic investigative team under the Interior Ministry. The government has given it a mandate to work closely with a DNA facility under the Ministry of Health that analyzes and processes samples in ordinary criminal cases.
