MADRID: President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday said Germany must not forget the “crime” of Guernica, days before becoming the first German head of state to visit the Spanish town devastated by Nazi bombers in 1937.
The Condor Legion killed hundreds when it bombed the northern Basque town on April 26, 1937 in support of General Francisco Franco’s rebels during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) alongside Fascist Italy.
Addressing a gala dinner hosted by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia at Madrid’s Royal Palace on day one of a three-day state visit, Steinmeier said Germans “brought a heavy burden of guilt upon themselves” in Guernica.
It was “very important to me” that Germans “do not forget what happened back then. This crime was committed by Germans,” he said.
“Guernica is a reminder — a reminder to stand up for peace, freedom, and the preservation of human rights.”
Steinmeier is due to travel to Guernica with Felipe on Friday and pay tribute to the victims of the raid.
The visit comes almost 30 years after former German president Roman Herzog recognized his country’s “involvement” and called for “reconciliation.”
Steinmeier had earlier viewed Pablo Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece “Guernica” at Madrid’s Reina Sofia art museum, a work famed for capturing the suffering of innocent civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the painting last week and has compared the massacre in Guernica to the suffering inflicted by Russia’s invasion of his country.
Steinmeier had addressed the Spanish parliament before viewing the painting, warning that “extremist and populist movements are gaining strength in our societies” and attacking “the pillars on which liberal democracies are based.”
Spain remembered its own authoritarian past on November 20, which marked the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death and the end of his 36-year dictatorship.
On Thursday, Steinmeier will hold talks with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, attend a German-Spanish economic forum and present an award to former Real Madrid and Germany star Toni Kroos at the Bernabeu stadium.
Germany mustn’t forget ‘crime’ of Nazi bombing of Spanish town: president
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Germany mustn’t forget ‘crime’ of Nazi bombing of Spanish town: president
- On Thursday, Steinmeier will hold talks with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, attend a German-Spanish economic forum
Bangladesh begins exhuming mass grave from 2024 uprising
- The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police began exhuming on Sunday a mass grave believed to contain around 114 unidentified victims of a mass uprising that toppled autocratic former prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year.
The UN-supported effort is being advised by Argentine forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider, who has led recovery and identification missions at mass graves worldwide for decades.
The bodies were buried at the Rayerbazar Graveyard in Dhaka by the volunteer group Anjuman Mufidul Islam, which said it handled 80 unclaimed bodies in July and another 34 in August 2024 — all people reported to have been killed during weeks of deadly protests.
The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Md Sibgat Ullah said investigators believed the mass grave held roughly 114 bodies, but the exact number would only be known once exhumations were complete.
“We can only confirm once we dig the graves and exhume the bodies,” Ullah told reporters.
- ‘Searched for him’ -
Among those hoping for answers is Mohammed Nabil, who is searching for the remains of his brother Sohel Rana, 28, who vanished in July 2024.
“We searched for him everywhere,” Nabil told AFP.
He said his family first suspected Rana’s death after seeing a Facebook video, then recognized his clothing — a blue T-shirt and black trousers — in a photograph taken by burial volunteers.
Exhumed bodies will be given post-mortem examinations and DNA testing. The process is expected to take several weeks to complete.
“It’s been more than a year, so it won’t be possible to extract DNA from the soft tissues,” senior police officer Abu Taleb told AFP. “Working with bones would be more time-consuming.”
Forensic experts from four Dhaka medical colleges are part of the team, with Fondebrider brought in to offer support as part of an agreement with the UN rights body the OHCHR.
“The process is complex and unique,” Fondebrider told reporters. “We will guarantee that international standards will be followed.”
Fondebrider previously headed the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, founded in 1984 to investigate the tens of thousands who disappeared during Argentina’s former military dictatorship.
Authorities say the exhumed bodies will be reburied in accordance with religious rites and their families’ wishes.
Hasina, convicted in absentia last month and sentenced to death, remains in self-imposed exile in India.
