Ghosts from a violent past

1936-1939 Troops led by General Franco, among others, rebel against the republican government and start the Spanish civil war. Tens of thousands of summary executions on both sides

1939-1949 Executions go on, according to campaigners. Franco uses defeated prisoners to build his huge Valley of the Fallen mausoleum and monument to 'all the dead' of the war

1975 Franco dies. Monarchy restored, democratic transition starts

2000 First grave opened in Priaranza del Bierzo, near Leon, north-western Spain

2002 Parliament, controlled by the right-wing People's party of Jose Maria Aznar, condemns the military uprising of 1936

2002-3 So far, 24 graves opened in Extremadura, Avila, Leon and the Basque country. Total of 76 bodies recovered. 'Historical memory' groups being formed across Spain. Flood of books and exhibitions on the war

March 2003 Spanish government is told to answer questions from UN committee of the disappeared about those who went missing after 1945

Summer 2003 International volunteers sought for more than a dozen new excavations