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Showing Original Post only (View all)Spain digs up Franco-era graves, 80 years after civil war that brought him to power. [View all]
Source: Buenos Aires Herald
Spanish activists dug up a mass grave yesterday in a search for victims of the countrys civil war and the fascist dictatorship it put in place, as an Argentine court presses Spain to confront its troubled past. The exhumation, expected to last several days, is the first agreed to by a Spanish court after a campaign by Argentine investigators working on a case being advanced by Argentine Federal Judge María Romilda Servini de Cubría.
Hundreds of Spaniards turned to the Argentine court system two years ago for help in uncovering crimes committed during the 1936-39 civil war and the subsequent 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, by using an international human rights law.
On the edge of a cemetery in Guadalajara, some 50 kilometres from Madrid, volunteers dug open a grave believed to hold 22 or 23 bodies after a campaign by 90-year-old Ascensión Mendieta, who is seeking her fathers remains. Im overwhelmed by all this, but I know were going to get there and get what we wanted, she said. After this I can die in peace. Her father Timoteo, who fought against Francos forces, is believed to have been shot amid reprisals after the war ended.
Hundreds of thousands of people died during the conflict, with atrocities committed on both sides. The victors under Franco went on to execute thousands of people after the war, according to British historian Paul Prestons book The Spanish Holocaust.
Forty years after Francos death, the Argentine-led investigation into possible crimes against humanity during his rule could revive a movement to confront Spains past, which gained prominence after the Socialists came to power in 2004. A historical memory association, which helped with the dig in Guadalajara, has carried out several exhumations in recent years at the request of families. But building legal cases in Spain has been impossible. The country passed an amnesty law in 1977 which pardoned the crimes of the Franco government.
Read more: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/207091/spain-digs-up-franco-graves-80-years-on