XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: ericb@liton.com   
      
   AUTHORITIES in Mexico have unearthed unmarked graves containing   
   a number of bodies on the outskirts of a town where 43 students   
   disappeared after a deadly police shooting last week.   
      
   Inaky Blanco, chief prosecutor for the violence-plagued state of   
   Guerrero, said it was too early to say how many bodies were   
   buried in the pits outside Iguala, 200 kilometres south of   
   Mexico City.   
      
   The 43 students disappeared last weekend after Iguala municipal   
   officers shot at buses that the group had seized to return to   
   return home after holding fundraising activities. Three students   
   were killed.   
      
   Another three people died when police and suspected gang members   
   shot at another bus carrying football players on the outskirts   
   of town.   
      
   A survivor said officers took away 30 to 40 students in patrol   
   cars.   
      
   “We still can’t talk about an exact number of bodies. We are   
   still working at the site,” Mr Blanco told a news conference in   
   the state capital, Chilpancingo.   
      
   The bodies were taken to forensic experts for genetic tests to   
   check whether they are related to the families of the missing,   
   Mr Blanco said.   
      
   Governor Angel Aguirre appealed for calm in his state, which is   
   mired in poverty, gang violence and social unrest.   
      
   “I call on all (Guerrero state residents) to maintain harmony,   
   non-confrontation, and avoid violence,” he said.   
      
   “To the families and friends of those who were savagely   
   massacred, I offer my solidarity and support as well as the   
   willingness ... for them to hear directly the progress of these   
   investigations,” he said.   
      
   The missing students are from a teacher training college near   
   Chilpancingo known as a hotbed of protests.   
      
   Thousands of students and teachers blocked the highway between   
   Chilpancingo and Acapulco for hours last Thursday, demanding   
   help from federal authorities to find the missing.   
      
   The pits are in a hillside community known as Pueblo Viejo,   
   which is part of the Iguala municipality. Police kept reporters   
   far from the gravesite.   
      
   Mr Blanco said investigators had confirmed suspicions that a   
   criminal organisation, the Guerreros Unidos, was involved in   
   last week’s crimes and that local police officers belong to the   
   gang.   
      
   The police’s links to organised crime has raised fears about the   
   fate of the students in a country where drug cartels regularly   
   hide bodies in mass graves.   
      
   Around 30 bodies were found in mass graves in Iguala alone this   
   year.   
      
   “We are very worried. The families are very anxious,” said   
   Vidulfo Rosales, a human rights lawyer representing relatives of   
   the missing.   
      
   Authorities have detained 22 Iguala officers over the shootings   
   and issued arrest warrants for the town’s mayor and security   
   chief, both of whom have disappeared.   
      
   But Mr Blanco said more than 30 people have now been detained   
   and that more people could be arrested.   
      
   Dozens of police officers, soldiers and investigators were   
   deployed to the area after the graves were found.   
      
   The United Nations has urged Mexican authorities to conduct an   
   “effective and diligent” search for the missing, calling the   
   case “one of the most terrible events of recent times.”   
      
   Parents want to hold out hope, but fearing for the worst is not   
   a great stretch in a country where 80,000 people have been   
   killed in drug-related violence since 2006. Another 22,000   
   people are unaccounted for.   
      
   AFP   
      
   http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/officers-held-as-mass-   
   graves-found-after-mexico-student-shooting/story-e6frg6so-   
   1227080550379?nk=c5c7bcc912d39d5e7fbde0379fa0f6c6   
      
       
      
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