Excavations began on Monday at the site of a mass grave in a former mother and child home in western Ireland, where the remains of hundreds of infants and young children are believed to be located, UNN reports with reference to AFP.
Details
The planned two-year investigation by Irish and foreign experts in Tuam comes more than a decade after an amateur historian first discovered evidence of a mass grave there.
Subsequent control excavations in 2016-2017 revealed a significant number of child remains in an abandoned underground septic tank at the site, which is now part of a residential complex.
Catholic nuns ran a so-called "mother and child" institution there between 1925 and 1961, housing women who became pregnant out of wedlock and were rejected by their families.
After birth, some children lived in mother and child homes, but many were given up for adoption within a system that often involved the joint work of the church and the state.
These repressive and misogynistic institutions, which operated throughout the country, some of which closed only in 1998, are a dark chapter in the history of once predominantly Catholic and socially conservative Ireland, the publication notes.
A six-year investigation, launched after the first findings in Tuam, showed that 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such shelters over 76 years.
It was also concluded that 9,000 children died in various state and Catholic shelters across the country.
Records found indicate that up to 796 infants and young children died at the Tuam shelter during its decades of existence.
The shelter area remained virtually untouched after the shelter was demolished in 1972 and a residential building was erected in its place.
The excavations will include exhumation, analysis, identification, if possible, and reburial of the found remains, its director Daniel McSweeney said at a recent press conference in Tuam.
Research by local historian Catherine Corless showed that the bodies were likely placed in an abandoned septic tank discovered in 1975, which prompted a state investigation that revealed the full extent of the scandal associated with the homes. The state death certificates she compiled indicated that the cause of death was various diseases - from tuberculosis and seizures to measles and whooping cough.
According to McSweeney, DNA samples have already been collected from approximately 30 relatives, and in the coming months, this process will be expanded to collect as much genetic evidence as possible.
A 2.4-meter high fence has been installed around the perimeter of the excavation area. The area is also under round-the-clock security surveillance.
"It was a brutal struggle. When I started, no one wanted to listen to me. Finally, we are righting the wrongs," 71-year-old Corless told AFP in May.
"I just begged: 'Get the babies out of that sewage and bury them with dignity, according to Christian laws, which they were denied,'" she said.
Addition
Earlier, the remains of children were found on the territory of a residential school for indigenous peoples in Canada. UN experts called for a "full investigation".