Spanish Civil War Veterans Pay Tribute to "Spain's Missing"
By Harold Heckel Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 25, 2004
RIVAS-VACIAMADRID, Spain (AP) - Pilar Ribas vividly recalls the moment her cellmate at a Spanish Civil War prison camp was taken away at dawn and shot by soldiers loyal to Gen. Francisco Franco.
"When I kissed her, she was as cold as marble. It felt as if she had no blood left in her body," the 80-year-old Ribas said Friday night at a rally honoring the thousands of civilians killed by Franco's forces during the 1936-1939 war.
Ribas, from the central Toledo province, was one of some 900 elderly Spaniards on hand who had either fought Franco's fascist forces, lost relatives to his execution squads or supported the republican government that Franco ultimately overthrew.
Organizers of the rally, the first of its kind, called on Spain's new Socialist government to take over the task of digging up hundreds of unmarked graves and identifying the remains.
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Brutal tyranny is where you find it. And Generalissimo Franco is still dead.