The 45 unarmed Mexican villagers who were slaughtered in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas were buried in bloodstained coffins during a solemn ceremony on Christmas Day. Earlier, villagers had attacked 15 men thought to be involved in the killings, which took place during five hours of automatic weapons fire in a refugee camp.
Deputy Attorney General Mr Everardo Moreno said 41 suspects had been detained for questioning. He confirmed reports that members of President Ernesto Zedillo's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) were among the suspects being held. The PRI leader, Mr Mariano Palacios Alcocer, denied any party involvement in Monday's massacre.
Masked paramilitaries on Monday attacked refugee Tzotzil Indians in the village of Acteal in the heart of the strife-torn southern state. Ten men, 21 women and 14 children died in five hours of automatic gunfire.
"In most cases the bullet entered from behind, which means they were shot from behind their backs," Mr Everardo Moreno said, adding that four of the women were pregnant.
The massacre was Mexico's worst loss of life in a single act of violence since at least 140 people died when Zapatista rebels rebelled against the government in January 1994.
Some 400 people attended the funeral service, many of them barefoot villagers who held flowers and candles. They wept as the coffins were lowered into the ground. Women keened over the tiny blood-soaked coffins of children, while state prosecutor's officials set up typewriters under a canopy of banana leaves to register the names of the dead.
Indigenous women tucked clothing and sheets into the coffins, a traditional ritual preparing the dead for their journey after death. They also placed white chrysanthemums and candles in the coffins.
Priests at the funeral Mass promised to build a church at the site of the attacks, now a deserted area strewn with bedding, plastic shoes and bloody clothes.
Much of the violence that has been simmering for months in Chiapas stems from a conflict that pits impoverished Indians against landowners and local party bosses who resent what they say is widespread indigenous support for the Zapatistas.
Some reports said the Acteal families sympathised with the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), led by the enigmatic Subcommandante Marcos.
Meanwhile, the Chiapas state governor, Mr Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro, has said he has no plans to quit over the massacre, despite reports that warnings went unheeded.
The Mexican press has been calling for Mr Ruiz's head, claiming he was negligent in failing to act on warnings conveyed to his office on two occasions by Father Gonzalo Ituarte.
Mr Ruiz told reporters his office alerted police in Chenalho after the first call and received assurances nothing was amiss. The slaughter went on for five hours.
Meanwhile, Pope John Paul II offered prayers for the murdered villagers yesterday in his country residence in Castelgandolfo.