New law may bury truth of Spanish Civil War-Amnesty

MADRID, Nov 17 (Reuters) Relatives of victims in Spain's Civil War may never know the truth about their deaths under a new law designed to heal wounds from the conflict, Amnesty International said.

The human rights group called for the government to modify or scrap the law it is about to send to parliament which would officially recognise victims of the 1936-39 Civil War and of the Franco dictatorship which followed it.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the Civil War which began with an army uprising against the left-wing Republican government. Its legacy bitterly divides Spanish society to this day.

Under the law, relatives of victims would be able to ask for a declaration from a parliamentary commission that family members were unjustly killed or imprisoned.

But their killers or torturers would not be named and the names of these people would also be removed from archives.

''Victims won't be able to mention the names of people who illegally executed or tortured their own family members. That's legalising impunity,'' said the head of Amnesty International in Spain, Esteban Beltran yesterday.

Unlike Chile and Argentina, Spain never established a truth commission after its dictatorship ended following the death of Gen.

Francisco Franco in 1975.

Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose grandfather was killed fighting Franco's men, hopes the law will comfort victims' families.

The conservative opposition Popular Party, which has roots in Franco's movement, has accused him of reopening wounds.

One relative of an army captain who was shot in 1936 for suspected leftist sympathies told a news conference organised by Amnesty the law would dash his hopes of finding out the truth.

''This law would leave the families worse off,'' said Jesus Lagunilla.

The Civil War has resurfaced as an issue in Spanish politics since Zapatero won elections in 2004. The subject seems to divide people as much as ever, with Left and Right accusing each other of trying to rewrite history.

Right-wing newspaper El Mundo has taken to printing obituaries of people killed by Republican fighters while pro-government El Pais has published obituaries from the anti-Franco side.

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