Spain launches bid to identify victims of civil war, Gen. Franco
Credit to Author: kadraneda| Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2019 11:52:10 +0000
MADRID — Spanish authorities are inviting people to send by email any details they have about officially unrecorded victims of the country’s 1936-39 Civil War and the four decades of dictatorship that followed under Gen. Francisco Franco.
The Justice Ministry announced Wednesday that the move aims to help create a reliable census of anonymous burials in unmarked ditches across the country.
The socialist government, which faces a general election next month, wants to unearth and identify the estimated 114,000 victims of the civil war and the rule of Franco, who died in 1975.
Three United Nations-sponsored missions to Spain since 2013 have criticized authorities for lacking a plan to search for missing people.
A recent expert report said that, realistically, only around a quarter of the estimated victims could be identified and recovered. /kga