The city of Donosita-San Sebastian and the Diputacion (provincial government) of Guipuzkoa want to exhume the bodies of around 100 gudaris, or Basque fighters, who were killed in the Spanish province of Asturias in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.
The plan, presented by the mayor of Donostia-San Sebastian Karlos Izagirre and Guipuzkoa provincial deputy Martin Garitano, both from the pro-independence coalition Bildu, is part of a 50,000 euro project to remember Basque victims of the Spanish Civil war 1936-1939.
Historians says tens of thousands of victims of the Civil War and the repression under General Francisco Franco that followed still lie unidentified in mass graves around Spain. The matter of exhumations is still controversial in Spain more 70 years after the Civil War.
The project unveiled by Izagirre and Garitano includes the exhumation of fighters of a Basque brigade killed by Franco´s troops while they fought under the orders of Candido Saseta, whose remains were found in the village of Areces in Asturias.
The remains of Saseta, commander in chief of the Basque militias, were exhumed in 2008 and reburied with honours in his hometown of Hondarribia.
Izagirre said more than 100 fighters are believed buried in mass graves in Areces, most of them from Guipuzkoa. About 20 are from Donostia-San Sebastian, he said.
Most of them belonged to the Eusko Indarra battalion and were members of the ANV party who "dreamt with the freedom of Euskal Herria," he said.
Marina Bidasoro, director of Gipuzkoa´s Historic Memory and Human Rights department, said they have been in touch with local authorities in Asturias, and said the exhumations could start in February.
Thursday 27 December 2012
http://www.eitb.com/en/news/politics/detail/1210722/spanish-civil-war--gipuzkoa-wants-exhume-basque-fighters/
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