Spain resists taking action against Franco-era crimes

MADRID: Spain is resisting probing the forced disappearance of thousands of people during its 1936-39 Civil War and the Franco dictatorship that followed despite a UN call for it to act.

During the past 13 years about 6,300 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves of which 2,500 have been identified, according to Emilio Silva, who heads the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory which spearheads efforts to help people find the remains of relatives who went missing during the Spanish civil war.