CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) --Police found the bodies of eight more young women
this week in this tough border town, renewing fears that a 1990s string of rape-murders
had resumed.

In March 1999, five bus drivers were charged in 20 of the 57 previous murders, and
police thought they had solved brutal killings.

But this week's shocking discoveries showed they were wrong, said women's rights
activists who have insisted the killings never stopped.

Authorities in Ciudad Juarez found the skeletal remains of five women Wednesday
near a field where they had uncovered the decayed bodies of three other young
women the previous day.

"My God, I'm so angry," said Victoria Caraveo of Mujeres por Juarez, one of a
dozen women's groups that has pressured police to do more. The activists marched
to the prosecutor's office Thursday to demand action.

"Tell me, in what part of the world do you find a cemetery with bodies of girls who
didn't do anything wrong -- they just worked -- and for that they have been raped,
tortured and murdered, their bodies thrown in the desert like dogs," she said.

Between 1993 and 1999, police found at least 57 bodies in the desert around Ciudad
Juarez, a sprawling city of 1.3 million people across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Most were young teen-age women who had come from small, poor towns in the
Mexican countryside to work in the city and support their families. Some aspired to
earn enough money to eventually go to school and begin new careers.

Women's groups have insisted that the number of women who disappeared had risen
to more than 200, and they accused police of failing to investigate. More than a
dozen Juarez women disappeared this year alone, they say.

"We want straight answers," Caraveo said. "The police don't do anything and they
don't care to do anything. Yet they always have a perfect excuse for their
incompetence."

On Thursday, Chihuahua state authorities announced that a special police task force
will investigate the killings and they set a $21,500 reward for the capture of the killer
or killers.

"This is no halfhearted effort, the state government has an absolute resolve to clear
up this case," Chihuahua state Interior Secretary Sergio Martinez Garcia, told local
media. Also Thursday, Mexico's Congress voted to create a special commission to
follow the investigation.

At the time, police identified as the main suspect Abdel Latif Sharif, an Egyptian
citizen formerly employed as an engineer at a Ciudad Juarez factory.

Sharif allegedly paid as many as 10 other men, including the bus drivers, to commit
copycat murders to draw suspicion away from him. Sharif denied any involvement
in the killings, and his 30-year sentence was overturned on appeal last April. He
remains in custody pending appeal by the prosecution.

Following the arrests, the killings appeared to have ended for a while, and police said
the disappearances of other women were unrelated to the serial killings.

But at least one of the victims found this week had her hands tied behind her back
and was stripped down to her socks in a murder chillingly similar to the dozens of
killings that occurred here in the 1990s. She had been killed about 10 days ago, and
was between 15 and 17 years old.

The bodies were found about 300 yards from the offices of the Association of
Maquiladoras, the group representing the mostly U.S.-owned export assembly plants
that dominate the city. Most of the victims in the 1990s killings were young, slender
maquila employees.

It was not immediately known whether the victims found Tuesday had been raped,
and a source close to the investigation said it may be difficult to make that
determination from the remains.

"The authorities lack investigative skill, and they lack interest," said Esther Chavez, a
women's rights activist who led the battle to investigate the killings, which began in
1993. "Imagine: after all these deaths, they are only now deciding whether to bring
DNA identification equipment here."

Juarez's problems go beyond the rape-murders. A disproportionate number of
women are killed here in more "common" crimes.

The city recorded the murders of 192 women between 1987 and 1997, compared to
138 in Tijuana, another violent border city of almost the same size.

Police found the bodies of eight more young women this week in this tough border
town, renewing fears that a 1990s string of rape-murders had resumed.

In March 1999, five bus drivers were charged in 20 of the 57 previous murders, and
police thought they had solved brutal killings.

But this week's shocking discoveries showed they were wrong, said women's rights
activists who have insisted the killings never stopped.

Authorities in Ciudad Juarez found the skeletal remains of five women Wednesday
near a field where they had uncovered the decayed bodies of three other young
women the previous day.

"My God, I'm so angry," said Victoria Caraveo of Mujeres por Juarez, one of a
dozen women's groups that has pressured police to do more. The activists marched
to the prosecutor's office Thursday to demand action.

"Tell me, in what part of the world do you find a cemetery with bodies of girls who
didn't do anything wrong -- they just worked -- and for that they have been raped,
tortured and murdered, their bodies thrown in the desert like dogs," she said.

Between 1993 and 1999, police found at least 57 bodies in the desert around Ciudad
Juarez, a sprawling city of 1.3 million people across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Most were young teen-age women who had come from small, poor towns in the
Mexican countryside to work in the city and support their families. Some aspired to
earn enough money to eventually go to school and begin new careers.

Women's groups have insisted that the number of women who disappeared had risen
to more than 200, and they accused police of failing to investigate. More than a
dozen Juarez women disappeared this year alone, they say.

"We want straight answers," Caraveo said. "The police don't do anything and they
don't care to do anything. Yet they always have a perfect excuse for their
incompetence."

On Thursday, Chihuahua state authorities announced that a special police task force
will investigate the killings and they set a $21,500 reward for the capture of the killer
or killers.

"This is no halfhearted effort, the state government has an absolute resolve to clear
up this case," Chihuahua state Interior Secretary Sergio Martinez Garcia, told local
media. Also Thursday, Mexico's Congress voted to create a special commission to
follow the investigation.

At the time, police identified as the main suspect Abdel Latif Sharif, an Egyptian
citizen formerly employed as an engineer at a Ciudad Juarez factory.

Sharif allegedly paid as many as 10 other men, including the bus drivers, to commit
copycat murders to draw suspicion away from him. Sharif denied any involvement
in the killings, and his 30-year sentence was overturned on appeal last April. He
remains in custody pending appeal by the prosecution.

Following the arrests, the killings appeared to have ended for a while, and police said
the disappearances of other women were unrelated to the serial killings.

But at least one of the victims found this week had her hands tied behind her back
and was stripped down to her socks in a murder chillingly similar to the dozens of
killings that occurred here in the 1990s. She had been killed about 10 days ago, and
was between 15 and 17 years old.

The bodies were found about 300 yards from the offices of the Association of
Maquiladoras, the group representing the mostly U.S.-owned export assembly plants
that dominate the city. Most of the victims in the 1990s killings were young, slender
maquila employees.

It was not immediately known whether the victims found Tuesday had been raped,
and a source close to the investigation said it may be difficult to make that
determination from the remains.

"The authorities lack investigative skill, and they lack interest," said Esther Chavez, a
women's rights activist who led the battle to investigate the killings, which began in
1993. "Imagine: after all these deaths, they are only now deciding whether to bring
DNA identification equipment here."

Juarez's problems go beyond the rape-murders. A disproportionate number of
women are killed here in more "common" crimes.

The city recorded the murders of 192 women between 1987 and 1997, compared to
138 in Tijuana, another violent border city of almost the same size.

 Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.