Paterna cemetery, with the remains of more than 2000 victims of Francoism after the Civil War.The Regional Minister of Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality, Rosa Pérez Garijo, has presided over the act of delivering the remains of 17 victims of Franco’s repression exhumed from graves 21, 22 and 112 of the Paterna cemetery. Among other people, the president of Pit 112, Carmen Gómez; that of Pit 21, PilarTaberner, and the secretary of Pit 22, Sonia Martínez.
The project for the investigation and improvement of the identification rate of the victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship is part of the collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality, Fisabio and the University of Valencia. With a validity of four years, its objective is to promote the development of interdisciplinary projects that contribute to improving the identification rates of victims, as well as to implement new techniques and methodology in applied genetics in the field of victim found in graves identification, as well as their transfer and scientific and social dissemination.
The works focus on three lines of research: historical, forensic and genetic; and from each of these areas of knowledge they provide solutions to the interdisciplinary obstacles that make identification difficult. The line of historical and forensic research is carried out by the University of Valencia, while Fisabio is in charge of genetics.
The University of Valencia, and specifically the Faculty of Medicine, has been in charge of selecting the best preserved bone parts of the remains exhumed from the graves to extract the DNA in the best possible conditions. Also, from the Department of Modern and Contemporary History, the relatives who have provided their DNA samples have been interviewed, in order to obtain more information about the victims.
