62 Corpses, Many Tortured, Found in Algerian Mass Grave

The corpses of 62 men, women and children, many of whom showed signs of torture, have been found in a mass grave in eastern Algeria, the Algerian news agency APS reported.

The agency, in a dispatch late Monday, said the victims were believed to have been involved in a collective punishment inflicted by the French army during the eight-year war of Algerian independence from France.

Medical experts said the corpses were largely those of women, children and old people and that the hands of some of the victims were cut off. They died between 1958 and 1960, the experts said.

The grave was uncovered earlier this month by a resident at a remote spot in the Atlas Mountains, near the city of Constantine, 180 miles east of Algiers. Excavations are still proceeding at the site.

The news agency said Algerian authorities believe that the victims were rounded up by French authorities and massacred in retaliation for guerrilla activities of the Algerian National Liberation Army, which was active in that mountainous part of the country.