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takyon writes:

Catalonia's regional government will collect DNA samples in order to identify people who died in during Spain's 1936-1939 civil war and the subsequent dictatorship of Francisco Franco:

Spain's Catalonia region has launched the country's first public DNA profiling project in a bid to identify some of the 114,000 people who disappeared during the nation's civil war and subsequent dictatorship. The issue is hugely sensitive in Spain, where rights abuses during the 1936-1939 conflict and the ensuing 36-year rule of dictator Francisco Franco remain uninvestigated for fear of reviving divisions.

Raul Romeva, who handles transparency matters in Catalonia's regional government, described the initiative as "a decisive step towards restoring" historical memory. "It is a democratic duty that was long pending," he told AFP news agency on Wednesday. "This should have started 40 years ago," added Romeva, referring to Franco's death in 1975 and the subsequent transition to democracy.

Under the programme, scientists will create a database for the DNA profiles of those related to people who disappeared. For this, they will collect samples from remains found in mass graves, and try and find matches with the help of the Barcelona-based Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. A similar project has already been set up in Barcelona on a smaller-scale, but it is privately-funded by two descendants of people who disappeared. In the space of five years, they have collected 125 genetic samples from relatives, but have not been able to cross-check the data with any remains as they do not have access to mass graves.

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