London - Human rights group Amnesty International has called on the Spanish government to ensure that there is an effective judicial inquiry into crimes committed during the 1936-39 civil war and the ensuing dictatorship under General Francisco Franco. In a statement released in London and Madrid, Amnesty said Spain should comply with its international obligations regarding past crimes and investigate the "enforced disappearances" during the civil war period.
Last month, the Spanish public prosecutor's office appealed against an unprecedented judicial investigation - ordered by National Court judge Baltasar Garzon - into the fate of Franco opponents.
Amnesty urged the Spanish government to set up an independent commission to establish the "historic truth" about human rights violations and violations of humanitarian international law committed during the civil war and Franco's regime.
Amnesty International said that Spain, currently the country with the largest number of cases of enforced disappearance brought to its courts, had "prolonged a situation of injustice for too long."
It warned that Spain could find itself among the "few countries in the world turning its back on its obligation to investigate crimes of enforced disappearance and other crimes under international law."
