Civil war's mass graves set to open

Investigators digging into the brutal repression unleashed by General Francisco Franco will this week complete a list of 130,000 names of those killed during and after Spain's civil war as the country prepares to face the full horror of what has often been treated as a shameful national secret.

The list will be handed over to the controversial magistrate, Baltasar Garzn, whose preliminary investigations have already provoked a fierce row over whether a mass grave thought to contain the remains of the poet and playwright Federico Garca Lorca should be exhumed.

Portuguese Nobel laureate Jos Saramago has become the latest intellectual heavyweight to join the clamor for graves across the country, including that of Lorca, to be opened up so that the victims can be properly identified and their remains handed to relatives. "The recovery of Lorca's remains, buried alongside thousands of others, should become a national imperative," said Saramago, who now lives in Spain.