War criminals and tyrants are being brought to justice around the world - with the help of academics in Bradford.

A team of forensic scientists who investigate mass genocide jetted into the city last week to learn more about the study of bones.

Bradford University is a world leader in biological anthropology and held a course to help scientists and archaeologists to identify illnesses and causes of death from ancient skeletal remains.

But although some of the bones date back over 2,000 years, the university's expertise is now being used by scientists investigating modern day murders.

The Argentinian Forensic Anthropology team was set up 21 years ago when democracy was restored to the South American country.

It works to find and identify the thousands of Argentinians believed to have been killed by the Government between 1976 and 1983, who are known as 'los desparecidos' or the disappeared.

Over the past two decades the team has also become involved in the investigation of atrocities around the world.

It has worked in 33 countries since 1984, including Iraq, Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Zimbabwe. And they have been involved in tracing the victims of some of the most infamous massacres in modern times, including Srebinica in 1995 where 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men were killed by Serb forces, and in Darfur in Sudan where more than 10,000 people are feared to have been killed and more than one million displaced because of the civil war.

The chief officer Louis Fondebrider said the knowledge being learned by the team in Bradford would prove invaluable in its work across the world.

Louis, who has worked for the team since it was created in 1984 said: "In my country 10,000 people disappeared during the dictatorship. Our job is to return the bodies of these people to their relatives and to restore justice.

"We work in the mass graves and use the techniques of archaeology and anthropology. Now we work around the world particularly in cases where the state has killed the citizen.

"We have been in Rwanda, in Dalfour in Sudan and in places like Bosnia, Indonesia and Colombia."

He said the course would help to identify victims by learning more about the medical history of those who have disappeared.

Mr Fondebrider said: "Now I can say to the relative did they suffer with arthritis and I can look for signs of these on the bodies we find."

Mr Fondebrider and his team have helped to return the bodies of around 200 people to their loved ones.

And they have been involved in bringing to justice people responsible for carrying out the genocide during the dictatorship of General Leopoldo Galtieri in Argentina.

Bradford University's Dr Christopher Knusel, the senior lecturer in biological anthropology, ran the course.