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International

Spanish Mark Civil War Milestone; Unease Lingers

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War. In Spain, there are no official commemoration ceremonies. That's in keeping with the silence with which Spaniards have generally treated the war - and the Franco dictatorship that followed.

But many, including the now-elderly children of victims, are increasingly seeking some kind of closure. In the village of Parillas, residents will finally be able to give a proper burial to parents and grandparents executed during the conflict. A team of archeologists will exhume their remains from four mass graves outside the town.

The government of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose own grandfather was executed during the war, has drawn up a new law to honor those who suffered during the war or under the Franco dictatorship.

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But seven decades after the Spanish civil war, it is, in many ways, still being fought.

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