• Can they supply biodata for individual leaders? - Place and date of birth - Height; weight; hair, eye and skin colour, or other physical characteristics - Places and dates of education - Marital and family status • Was there knowledge of, or training in, human rights or international humanitarian law standards? • Was the motivation or ideology underlying the violations revealed in orders or pronouncements by other officials? • Do they know of fellow insiders/defectors who are willing to speak? Interviewing allegedly responsible individuals I. Those implicated in crimes and violations should be interviewed whenever possible: • as a source of first-hand information • for reasons of impartiality • to obtain the official version of events • to afford the “right of reply” II. The security of the interviewee and others (e.g., family members), as well as that of the investigator, should be paramount when deciding whether to undertake the interview. III. When interviewing someone who may be implicated in crimes or violations confidentiality should not be guaranteed. A typical scenario is when interviewing alleged perpetrators in order to obtain the official version of events. The investigation should retain the ability to share the information with an appropriate authority. Nor should the investigation protect a perpetrator at the expense of the truth about human rights violations. IV. It may also happen that a person implicated in violations or crimes offers information on the condition of confidentiality. The investigation must exercise caution here, in that it must assess the value of obtaining the information in light of factors such as the likelihood that future violations can be prevented – or more serious violations exposed – if confidentiality is assured. These are policy decisions that should involve the investigation’s leadership. COLLECTING AND ANALYSING THE INFORMATION 63