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The former Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, Canada
Photo: Darryl Dyck / AP
UN human rights experts demand clarification after the discovery of a mass grave with the remains of 215 children on the premises of a former boarding school for indigenous people in Canada.
In a statement they called on the Canadian government and the Vatican to initiate extensive investigations into the circumstances of the death of the children and those responsible.
All suspicious deaths would need to be reviewed and remains would need to be forensically examined.
Similar investigations are needed at all such facilities in Canada to investigate allegations of torture and abuse and possibly bring evildoers to justice.
Boarding school in operation until 1978
The mass grave near the town of Kamloops in the western province of British Columbia was discovered in late May.
It was found on the grounds of the Kamloops Residential School, a kind of re-education camp for children of Aboriginal Canadians.
It had been in operation between 1890 and 1978.
When and from what the children died is not known.
Some of them were only three years old.
The facility at Kamloops was the largest of its kind in Canada, according to indigenous peoples.
From the 17th century through the 1990s, the state financed and administered such residential schools.
Most of the operators were churches and religious organizations.
Children torn from families
It is one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history: For decades, the government tore thousands of sons and daughters from their families and sent them to boarding schools.
There they should forget their culture and learn the traditions of European immigrants.
Violence and sexual abuse were commonplace.
The UN human rights experts spoke of "heinous crimes" and human rights violations in boarding schools.
The statement said it would be "simply inconceivable" if the Canadian state and the Vatican let those responsible get away scot-free and did not take care of comprehensive compensation.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made serious accusations against the Catholic Church.
She has never lived up to her responsibility and is still resisting an unreserved explanation.
He was "deeply disappointed" with the actions of the church, which must now finally release documents and compensate the victims of the crimes.
sms / dpa
