FILE - In this Oct. 21, 1992 file photo, Argentine forensic anthropologist Claudia Bernardi cleans a skull at a site of at least 58 human remains, including at least 50 children and a pregnant woman, in the abandoned town of El Mozote, El Salvador. The Central American nation's Supreme Court has authorized handing over six sets of skeletal remains from the 1981 El Mozote massacre to a group representing victims’ relatives after forensic experts said they were too decomposed to be individually identified by DNA testing. (AP Photo/Michael Stravato, File)
Republished December 06, 2017 - 2:55 PM
Original Publication Date December 06, 2017 - 1:41 PM
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - El Salvador's Supreme Court on Wednesday authorized handing over six sets of skeletal remains from the 1981 El Mozote massacre to a group representing victims' relatives after forensic experts said they were too decomposed to be individually identified by DNA testing.
The non-profit group Tutela Legal said the fact that most victims were children disproves the army's original assertion there was a confrontation with rebels in the village of El Mozote.
The government has now confirmed that of the 978 residents killed by the army, 477 were younger than 12.
Soldiers entered the area looking for guerrillas but killed civilians instead, producing one of the bloodiest massacres of the country's 1980-1992 civil war.
The case was re-opened after the Supreme Court overturned a 1993 amnesty for civil war crimes.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017