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...

continue reading

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...

continue reading

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...

continue reading

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...

continue reading

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,...

continue reading

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...

continue reading

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...

continue reading