Spain begins work to open Lorca mass grave

Madrid - Spanish experts are preparing to open a civil war mass grave believed to contain the bones of Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), press reports said Wednesday. Spain's most beloved modern poet was shot dead by the right-wing supporters of dictator-to-be Francisco Franco at the start of Spain's 1936-39 civil war.

Technicians from Granada University were measuring and analysing the terrain, located between Alfacar and Viznar near Granada.

The opening of the grave, which is thought to contain the remains of several people, was due to begin in three weeks.

The Lorca family has asked for more time to determine its stance on the exhumation which it initially opposed, arguing that it would set the poet apart from anonymous civil war victims.

Many admirers of the author of Gipsy Ballads, however, feel shocked over the likelihood that his remains lie in an unmarked mass grave.

Most relatives of the others buried in the grave back the exhumation.

Officials earlier said DNA tests would be carried out only on the bones of those whose families requested it.

Francoists are believed to have targeted Lorca for being a leftist and a homosexual.

Associations representing Franco's victims have dug up the remains of thousands of people killed during the war and the dictatorship.