AP News, December 14th, 2006
Parliament on Thursday began debating a law that seeks reparations for victims of Spain's 1936-39 Civil war and the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.
The bill, proposed by the Socialist government in July, would also ban symbols and references to the Franco regime in public buildings and asks local and regional governments to rename streets or plazas that are named after Franco or refer to his regime.
It also prohibits any political event at the Valley of the Fallen, a large monument near Madrid that includes Franco's tomb and is the most potent symbol of his regime.
"Along with increasing the rights of victims, the bill aims to pay off a debt, a debt of injustice," said Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega at the start of the debate.
The law says all victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship will have a year to request reparations from an ad hoc commission that was created to draw up the bill. A total of $26.4 million will be made available for payments.
Several political parties have proposed major amendments to the bill, saying it does not go far enough to restore the rights of victims and in condemning Franco and his regime. One amendment proposed by three parties calls for the annulment of verdicts reached at trials carried out during Franco's 1939-75 dictatorship.
Meanwhile, the leading conservative opposition Popular Party has called for the bill to be thrown out altogether, arguing that it reopens old wounds.
The bill, known as the Historic Memory Law, is expected to get past an initial vote allowing it to be processed by Parliament but it is likely to take several months before it is finally approved.
The measure follows a growing movement in recent years by families seeking a proper burial for thousands of relatives executed by Franco's forces and supporters during and after the Civil War and who were buried in unmarked graves.
Both sides in the war committed atrocities, including the execution of civilians. The conflict pitted soldiers loyal to an elected Socialist-led government known as Republicans against rebel Nationalist troops who backed Franco in his military uprising that ultimately toppled the government. Franco died in 1975.
