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UN to probe Mexico over missing students
The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances will probe Mexico for the first time, as the country grapples with a crisis over 43 students missing and feared dead
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he UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances will probe Mexico for thefirst time, as the country grapples with a crisis over 43 students missing andfeared dead.
The panel will hold talks with Mexico Feb. 2-3 in Geneva, a UN statement said.
The commission monitors compliance with an international convention to protect people against forced disappearance, which Mexico and 43 other countries ratified, the statement said.
In September, 43 students at a teachers college went missing in Iguala in southern Guerrero state after being attacked by gang-linked police. The government now says they were murdered.
"I am going to make an accusation of enforced disappearance against the police who took part in the case, the mayor of Iguala, the police chiefs and all officials who may have had something to do" with the case, Mexican attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam told the Mexican TV station Milenio.
Nearly 100 suspects have been arrested in the case, including police and the mayor of Iguala.
Amnesty International said one thing that remains to be cleared up in the attack against the students is the role of the army, either its possible complicity or failure to act.
Parents of the students, who have led huge marches denouncing what they say is the role of the government, said Tuesday they will send a delegation to meet with the UN panel on forced disappearances.
The Mexican government said Tuesday it was certain the students were killed by hitmen working for drug traffickers, even though the remains of only one of them had been identified by DNA tests. (+++++)
