-13- EXPERT WITNESS REPORTS a) Proposed by the Inter-American Commission and the representatives 1. Rosa América Laínez Villaherrera, psychologist The expert witness is 42 years old and is a Salvadoran psychologist. She referred to the psychological care provided by Pro-Búsqueda from 1995 to 1999 to young people who had disappeared during the war and were later found, and to their next of kin. The expert witness referred to the psychological impact and the posttraumatic situation of families with disappeared children. The principal psychological effects are the alteration of mourning patterns, guilt feelings, uncertainty regarding the fate of the children, impotence, sadness and anguish. María Victoria Cruz Franco took part in the Pro-Búsqueda “attention” process. The feeling of guilt is more deeply rooted in women, owing to the way in which they conceive the maternal role. The next of kin of disappeared persons pass on the mandate to find them to the new generations. Now that María Victoria is deceased, her family must continue the search for Ernestina and Erlinda. She referred to the fate of children separated from their biological families during the armed conflict, and also to the traumas and identity conflicts suffered by those who were found. The children were forced to adapt to having little stability in their lives, and to the uncertainty of not knowing their true identity or who would be responsible for them. Following the investigations carried out by Pro-Búsqueda more than 153 young people have been able to find their families, after 15 years or more of separation. She referred to the different feelings experienced by the young people who were reunited with their families. The young people’s identities were also affected legally, because, in many case, instead of going through an adoption process, the substitute families merely registered the children as their own; this resulted in an individual having two birth certificates with two different identifies. In other cases, the lawyers working on adoptions for families abroad changed the legal identity deliberately. She referred to psycho-social reparation, which implies knowing the truth, official acknowledgement of the facts, justice being done, reunification and the reconstruction of relationships, experiences and affective ties with other people. 2. Douglass Cassel, legal adviser to the Truth Commission for El Salvador The expert witness is a professor and Director of the International Human Rights Center of the Law Faculty of Northwestern University, Chicago. During 1992 and 1993, he worked as legal adviser to the Truth Commission for El Salvador, sponsored by the United Nations.