Guatemala: Skeletons of 99 civil war victims found at military outpost
Two skeletons found in a common grave in Sept. 2010 near Patzalan, Huehuetenango, during the first exhumation of civil war victims –murdered carried out by the Guatemalan state
Anthropologists in Guatemala have unearthed the skeletons of at least 99 indigenous Indians massacred during the 1960 to 1996 civil war.
The remains were found at a former military outpost in the city of Coban in the northern Alta Verapaz region, AFP quotes Edgar Telon del Cid, an expert from the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG), as saying.
He said that 15 mass graves containing 99 complete skeletons and nine other body parts were found at the site, which is now used by the United Nations' Regional Command for Peacekeeping Training.
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The ABC says that Telon del Cid told the Prensa Libre newspaper that most of the remains belonged to male victims, and there were signs that their hands and necks were bound.
Fox News says that Telon del Cid's forensic team is looking for the remains of between 200 and 300 people who disappeared in the area during the civil war.
He adds that the skeletons were found during the first of seven exhumations requested by prosecutors and the Association of Families of the Detained and Disappeared (FAMDEGUA), which represents relatives of the missing.
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Wikipedia explains that between 40,000 to 50,000 people, mostly Mayan Indians, disappeared during the 36 year war and approximately 200,000 were killed.
Earlier this month the Plaza Publica reported that the exhumations began in Feb. 27, and 50 graves were discovered in the first month alone.
It said that family members had been allowed to enter the base to identify the remains, but the media and international observers were denied access.
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