Spain Begins Exhumation of Military and Civilian Remains from Al Hoceima Rocks

The remains of the bodies of soldiers buried in the cemeteries of Al Hoceima and Vélez de la Gomera began to be transferred on Wednesday to the Immaculate Conception cemetery in Melilla, in accordance with the contract signed in September with the funeral company, which sets the start date of the exhumations on October 20.

The decision to exhume these bodies, announced last July, had sparked a lively controversy among Spanish soldiers who fear that the same causes will produce the same effects, especially since a similar operation had been carried out a few months before the withdrawal of Spain from the Sahara in 1975. The same instructions had been given to exhume some 1,800 remains of Spanish Christians from Spanish cemeteries and transfer them to the Canary Islands.

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The army granted the families of the deceased a deadline to claim the bodies in order to bury them in another more intimate place. But until the expiration of this deadline, no one claimed the bodies. After this step, the army formalized in September the signing of the contract with the company Servicios Funerarios Casa Calderón SL for the exhumation and transfer of the remains of bodies to Melilla. The operation, which started this Wednesday, must be completed by December 30 at the latest, reports Ok Diario.

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The Chief of the General Staff of the Army (JEME), Lieutenant General Amador Enseñat, has given firm instructions to the funeral home agents. "To avoid any error, the exhumations will be carried out individually, one by one. The remains will then be placed in approved biodegradable bags and will be identified by a document inserted in the bag, which will bear a label with the name of the deceased," he instructed, specifying that the remains will be transported in transport helicopters of the Melilla command.

The transfer of these remains aims to "preserve them in the best possible conditions, the cemeteries of Al Hoceima and Vélez having "undergone difficult environmental conditions" due to seismic activity in the region, he assured.