HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------[Where is a Del Ponte and an International Criminal Tribunal for the Americas when you actually need one?]
Secret Graves Uncovered in El Salvador
.c The Associated Press
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - Scientists digging beneath the police department's national headquarters Wednesday discovered bones that human rights activists said belonged to people killed by state authorities during this country's 12-year civil war.
Skulls and dozens of other bones believed to be human were unearthed in two secret graves buried 6 feet below San Salvador's police plaza by a team of excavators hired by this country's independent Human Rights Commission.
The headquarters once housed the military-dominated national police force, which played a key role in the state's battle against leftist guerrillas during a war that killed 75,000 Salvadorans.
As part of the 1992 peace accords that ended the fighting, the existing police force was disbanded and replaced by the autonomous National Civil Police, which now occupies the headquarters.
``We have to determine, first of all, if these bones are human, then determine how long they have been here,'' said police spokesman Howard Coto.
But Human Rights Commission director Miguel Montenegro said he had no doubt that testing would confirm that the remains were human.
The graves prove that Salvadoran authorities tortured and killed dozens of ``political prisoners'' who were hauled into custody for interrogation at the height of the civil war and haven't been heard from since, Montenegro said.
``We have on record a series of cases where, in these headquarters, many people were tortured and disappeared,'' he said.
According to Montenegro's commission, at least 2,700 Salvadorans vanished after being arrested during the civil war.
AP-NY-12-27-01 0343EST
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