Exhumation work at a grave in Bunyola started on Monday. The remains of fifteen Republicans are known to be in the communal grave at the cemetery.
A specialist company, Atics, is in charge of the work, which is scheduled to last until Thursday next week. There are two zones. In one of these, five technicians began manual excavation on Monday. In the other, a start was made on lifting slabs that cover the burial places of victims, as indicated by court records.
The plan for the exhumation was drawn up by a researcher, Xavier Margais, working from a map of mass graves in Majorca. A feasibility study was carried out by the Aranzadi Science Society based in Gipuzkoa (the Basque Country), with additional documentation having been provided by the Majorca Memory Association.
The regional government's public administration ministry explains that the research carried out by Xavier Margais indicates that the bodies of fifteen men who were shot between August and December 1936 were taken to the Bunyola cemetery. The names of nine of these victims are known. The other six could include three men from Minorca - two brothers, Bartomeu and Sebastià Carretero Gornés, and José Filomeno Pons Sintes.
The work in Bunyola is part of the government's second plan for Civil War graves. It is the third action, the previous two having been at the Sencelles and Son Coletes (Manacor) cemeteries.
Present for the start of the work on Monday were, among others, the minister for public administration, Isabel Castro; the president of the Council of Majorca, Catalina Cladera; and the mayor of Bunyola, Andreu Bujosa.