Independent investigation contradicts govt's account

Mexico's official version of events surrounding the fate of 43 missing students is contradicted by the available evidence, an investigation by independent experts said.

Findings from the six-month investigation by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts designated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the government's "historical version" of events lacked substance.

The report, which was published on Sunday, stated it was scientifically impossible for the students from the community of Ayotzinapa to have been incinerated at a rubbish dump in the state of Guerrero in southern Mexico.

"We have come to the conclusion that the young people were not incinerated at the Cocula rubbish dump as the country's prosecutors have always maintained," said one of the report's authors, Francisco Cox, during a news conference.

Attorney General Arely Gomez, who was not in office during the initial investigation, said she would seek a new forensic review of the municipal garbage dump where the initial probe concluded the 43 were burned beyond identification.

Parents of the students demanded a meeting with President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose reputation and popularity has been undermined by the case.

"We will not accept another lie from the government," said Blanca Nava Velez, mother of missing student Jorge Alvarez Nava.

Although the 550-page report does not give further insight into who is to blame for the disappearance, it does highlight elements that could help determine the students' final fate.

It also mentions channels of investigation that were not fully developed, evidence that was destroyed and errors that were committed.

A group of police from the municipality of Iguala, Guerrero, are accused of using guns to attack the students from a teacher training college on Sept 26 last year. The students then were supposedly handed over to a criminal gang that operates in the region.

Xinhua - AP

(China Daily 09/08/2015 page12)