Wednesday 25 January 2012

Spanish families unearth their civil war dead

GERENA, Spain, Jan 24 (BSS/AFP) - The old people of the village still remember hearing the screams and gunshots through the olive trees of the cemetery one evening in 1937, at the height of Spain's civil war.

Seventeen women, relatives of people on the Republican side, were shot by the forces of Francisco Franco and tipped straight into a mass grave.

Now, 74 years on, their bodies are being exhumed so that their descendants can bury them properly.

In a dark coincidence, the exhumation began on Monday, on the eve of the start of the trial of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon who is accused of breaking an amnesty by investigating just such atrocities in the Franco era.

"It's paradoxical to say the least. It's also incomprehensible," said Lucia Socam, 25, whose great-aunt Granada Hidalgo was among the women buried in the mass grave.

"They're going to try Judge Garzon for precisely this, for wanting to shed light on these crimes, which were crimes of humanity, so that justice could be done for the victims."

Maria Jose Dominguez, 45, holds a photograph of her grandmother, Manuela Mendez Jimenez, a young blonde woman in a beret, from the neighbouring village of Guillena.

She was a 25-year-old mother of two working in an olive- processing factory when local pro-Franco leaders arrested her, sheared off her hair and locked her in the village prison.

Later they trucked her to Gerena with 16 other women, aged up to 70, all accused of links to members of the Republican cause fighting against the revolt launched by Franco a year earlier.

In the cemetery there they were gunned down and cast into the grave.

Villagers heard "screams and lots of shots", says Manuela's grandson, Manolo Dominguez, 47.

Then for decades there was silence.

As Spain moved to democracy following nearly 40 years under Franco, an amnesty was agreed in 1977, two years after his death, which ruled out airing the bloody events of the war and dictatorship in the courts.

In Gerena, Manolo and his sister were the first to break the code of silence over the events of the war. They launched a search more than a decade ago for the bodies of their grandmother and those killed with her.

"We just want to give them a dignified burial," said Maria Jose.

Other families joined their search in 2005. Their efforts received a boost from a law on "historical memory" passed in 2007 by the then Socialist government, aimed at recognising the victims of the Franco era.

But public funding for the search was still not forthcoming, so volunteer archaeologists from the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, a campaign group, helped with the excavations.

"It is we, the families, who have to go with pick and shovel to search for our dead," said Socam.

The families questioned survivors from the time of the killings to locate the grave and lobbied to gain authorisation to dig for it, defying complaints from fellow villagers who accused them of opening past wounds.

"It has been a hard road," said Maria Jose.

The former Socialist government published a map last year showing the site of 2,000 suspected graves of people killed during the civil war and dictatorship.

The association says there are many more graves and that 5,000 bodies have been dug up from such sites over the past decade.

Garzon stands accused of breaching the amnesty agreement by ordering investigations between 2006 and 2008 into the disappearances of 114,000 people.

He argues they were victims of crimes against humanity, not subject to the amnesty.

"He is the only person who has dared to take on the crimes of fascism" in Spain, said Marie Jose Dominguez. "It is unjust. They
should try those who deserve to be tried."

http://www1.bssnews.net/newsDetails.php?cat=3&id=222814&date=2012-01-24

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Nigeria terror victims given mass burial

Abuja: Bodies of victims who lost their lives in the coordinated terror attacks in northern Nigeria were given mass burial on Wednesday at the village of Kalebawa on the outskirts of Kano city.

Identified bodies were given to the bereaved families while those unidentified were conveyed from Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital mortuary to the burial site.

Sources at Murtala Mohammed Hospital informed that over 50 bodies were carried in two vehicles for burial after the traditional ruler of Kano Emir Ado Bayero had led other emirs on a sympathy visit to the hospital.

Earlier, the police gave a breakdown of death toll saying 150 civilians, 29 officers of the police, three members of the country's secret State Security Service, two officers of the immigrations' service and a customs officer were killed.

The toll now stands at 185 though medical and humanitarian workers say the number may increase as more bodies are brought into hospital mortuaries.

Meanwhile, at least 15 explosions were heard on Wednesday from an area where there is police station, residents said, adding that the explosions were followed by gunshots.

A night time curfew remains in place even as the police launched a massive search operation for members of Boko Haram Islamic sect that claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks on Friday.

Nigerian police on Tuesday impounded eight vehicles loaded with improvised explosives in the city where 185 people, including an Indian, were killed in coordinated attacks.
Indian Kevalkumar Kalidas Rajput and his two Nepalese colleagues Hari Prasad Bhusal and Raj Singh were among the people killed by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Agencies)

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A human body dug up from a mass grave in Ivory Coast


A male body was exhumed in one of the mass graves found in Yopougon district of Abidjan. It is still not known how many bodies there are in the graves. Locals residents claim the bodies are from a shooting spree.

Local residents say the victims were killed when gunmen loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo attacked supporters of the country's new president, Alassane Ouattara.

Ivory Coast's state prosecutor, Koffi Kouadio who was present confirmed that there are many mass graves in Yopougon district with bodies waiting to be exhumed but he would not give more details.

More than 3000 people were killed during the four months of political arrest in Ivory Coast. Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

25th January 2012

http://www.demotix.com/news/1018726/human-body-dug-mass-grave-ivory-coast

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Remains of 23 people found in Turkey mass grave

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Turkish authorities found the remains of 23 people in a mass grave in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey on the former site of military police headquarters, Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.

The first remains were discovered earlier this month, during an archeological dig in Ickale, in central Diyarbakir, where ruins of an ancient palace dating back to the 13th century were being excavated.

The area had been the site of a military police headquarters until the early 2000s. The eventual aim of the excavation is to carry out restoration work and turn the place into a museum and culture spot.

Human rights activists claim the remains belong to civilian Kurds killed by security forces during 1990s.

"Skulls and other bones belonging to humans were found here... According to what we saw they were piled up in a narrow place... They were apparently thrown there casually, without any religious ceremony," Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker told reporters earlier this week, after visiting the site.

The Diyarbakir branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and 36 families whose relatives went missing during 1990s filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday against state officials of the time and asked for DNA tests for identification.

Around 45,000 people have died since the mid-1980s when the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) took up arms for a self-ruled homeland in southeast Turkey.

Remains of 190 bodies have been found in 29 different mass graves in more than 10 provinces in southeast Turkey, according to IHD's Diyarbakir branch.

The association estimates that more than 3,000 people are buried in 224 different mass graves in the region.

25 January 2012

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i1VFVkasTH1aUCDeMXFXh1XqZcaA?docId=CNG.3248d6bb9b1f306d64ddfceb443a1871.4f1

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Remains of child tsunami victim identified and returned to family

The remains of a five-year-old boy who died in the March 11 tsunami have been identified and were returned to surviving relatives on Jan. 24.

The boy was the only known pre-grade school victim of either Miyagi or Fukushima prefectures who was still unidentified.

According to Miyagi Prefectural Police, the boy's body was found off the coast of Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, in late April. Since June, the boy's ashes were being kept at Myokoin temple in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, where the head temple priest and nearby residents left toys and picture books as gifts.

Miyagi Prefectural Police say that there were 12 requests from parents and other relatives for DNA comparisons against the boy's remains, and the 12th test came out a match, based on DNA test records of the mother, who also died in the disaster. The boy's ashes were returned to his grandparents and will be buried by his mother's ashes.

Ryushin Miyabe, 29, a priest at Myokoin, said, "It's good that the ashes were returned to where they were meant to be. From now on, his ashes can be prayed for by name."

The grandparents released a comment saying, "Our grandchild, whose identification we had been waiting anxiously for, has returned to us. We would like to express our thanks." The child's name has been withheld by will of the grandparents.

Myokoin still holds the ashes of another unidentified disaster victim. Miyabe says, "There are still many victims who are unidentified, and I hope they can be returned like the boy was."

According to Miyagi Prefectural Police, of the around 1,800 residents still unaccounted for from the disaster, 423 are unidentified remains. Police are continuing to try to identify the remains with DNA tests and other methods.

(Mainichi Japan) January 25, 2012

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120125p2a00m0na018000c.html

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Trio of Hungarian fraudsters arrested after they 'tried to use Costa Concordia disaster to fake death of woman'

Three alleged fraudsters have been caught after using the Costa Concordia disaster to try and fake the death of a woman.

Police in Hungary arrested the trio after New York lawyer Peter Ronai detected the scam as he represented the six Hungarian survivors from the disaster.
The attempted fraud was spotted when Ronai, who was in Budapest, was asked to take on a seventh case from the disaster.

He reportedly received an email from a woman that said her daughter, named as Eva Fiedlerne Puspoki, 38, and five-year-old granddaughter were missing aboard the ship.

Ronai was told by the woman that she had no idea why the pair were on board and that he should speak to her daughter's boyfriend.

The lawyer then questioned the boyfriend and he corroborated the story, but he also asked how much they could receive in compensation.

However the following day the man changed his story, saying the child was not missing, and from there it began to unravel.
'The story kept changing and changing,' Ronai told ABC News, confirming that he suspicious grew as it did so.

He told the man that if he did not see the child he would report her missing to authorities, so later that evening he, and a police team, met the man, alongside the child.
She was asked: ‘When was the last time you saw Mummy?’ Her reply was: ‘today’ and that she had been to park to play on the swings.
Ronai repeated the question for confirmation and the girl replied:'I saw her today. I saw Mummy today.'

The 'missing' woman then appeared but continued to say she had been on the ship - but was injured as she jumped off the boat.
The lawyer added to the news channel: 'They confessed to everything after questioning. They confessed to pulling this scam to make money.
'The police arrested them. They didn't take them away to jail, but they'll face criminal procedures.'

Ronai added that he believed that this could be first case of many of people trying to make money from the disaster

24th January 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091298/Costa-Concordia-disaster-Trio-Hungarian-fraudsters-tried-fake-death-woman.html#ixzz1kQkgrcID

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Argentina helps search for missing in Viet Nam

Buenos Aires – The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) has helped Viet Nam confirm identification of people missing after wartime battles, said EAAF President Louis Fondebrider.
The cooperative plan was established in October, 2010 following the Vietnamese Government's request for technical assistance on the issue, Argentinean press cited the EAAF president as saying.

Last year, two EAAF experts came to Vietnam to provide training in forensic anthropology and identification of remains in Ha Noi and HCM City .
The group also welcomed two officials from the Vietnam National Institute of Forensic Anthropology to gain experience at its headquarters in Cordoba province last December.
According to Fondebrider, the two sides will cooperate in the search for the remains of missing soldiers and also confirm identification of natural disaster victims.

Maria Mercedes Salado , who came to Vietnam to provide training , said Argentinean experts will return to Viet Nam in the coming months for further specific assistance. The EAAF will invite Vietnamese officials, including those from the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of National Defence, to Argentina for training.

More than one million people were reported missing during the war that ended almost four decades ago.

The EAAF is a non-governmental scientific organisation with experience in forensic anthropology and genetics. - VNA

Updated January, 24 2012

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Miscellany/220042/argentina-helps-search-for-missing-in-viet-nam.html

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