Guatemala leader apologizes to civil war victims

[xinhui]

Guatemala leader apologizes to civil war victims

1 day ago

GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) — President Alvaro Colom Wednesday formally apologized to the victims of the country's 1960-1996 civil war, 10 years after a UN-sponsored report came out on the atrocities largely committed by the military.

"As president of the republic, head of government and commander in chief of the army I ask for your forgiveness, because the system was at fault," Colom said at a ceremony on National Dignification Day commemorating the estimated 200,000 civil war victims.

"How did (the system) go so far, I don't know. How could we as a society go that far, I don't know. But we went a long way," he said of the period the US-backed government and military of Guatemala waged war against leftist insurgents.

"If by 'genocide' is meant the intention of destroying fully or in part a national, ethnic, racial, religious or political group, in Guatemala there was genocide; there was ethnocide and also the systematic destruction of religious, political, social, university and indigenous leaders," the president said.

Colom's apology came on the 10th anniversary of a report by the Commission to Clarify History that blamed the Guatemalan military for 93 percent of the murders and disappearances during the 36-year civil war, and three percent to the guerrillas while four percent remained unknown.

"This report calls for (war) reparations, which is the first step on the road to truth and justice," Colom said.

Exactly a year ago, Colom ordered the release of military archives that could shed light on violations of human rights during the country's civil war.

On Wednesday, the armed forces released documents related to its 1978-1983 anti-insurgent plans that human rights groups had demanded in court.

Defense Minister Abraham Valenzuela presented the documents to judges for ongoing trials of military officers charged with genocide and torture during the civil war.

Before thousands of marchers clamoring for justice, Colom called for healing.

"Let's hope that on this day ... we can launch an organizing effort in the country, for the unity of Guatemala, so that forgiveness can be the result of true love and not merely an act of compromise."

[Bernie Mac]

So thirteen years after the end of the genocide Guatemala finally has a leader that acknoledges Pol Pot's gimp brother ruled there for 36 years? Makes you wonder if Guatemala didn't have any democraticly elected leaders in those 12ish years inbetween..



Do you have a link?

[xinhui]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090226...20090226012029

It is just a first step toward a long healing process.

Of course, there is still much inequality around but the racial tensions has been reduced a greatly in recently years. Over all, I think Colom is a capable leader willing to think outside the box and face reality.

[xinhui]

Bernie Mac

I am not going to defend the army, however, there are a lot of civilian that get caught in the middle, there are alot of gray areas.

My grandfather's younger brother joined the police after my home town was bombed twice. For him, he was defending his home. He also loves to showoff his bullet wounds and how he lost his fingers.

[Bernie Mac]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090226...20090226012029

It is just a first step toward a long healing process.

Of course, there is still much inequality around but the racial tensions has been reduced a greatly in recently years. Over all, I think Colom is a capable leader willing to think outside the box and face reality.

Definately it's going to take time, but finally you've departed on it!

The little I know of Colom seems like he's a good politician, and when you say things like that he's thinking out of the box and faces reality that makes him quite special (for a politician).

Bernie Mac

I am not going to defend the army, however, there are a lot of civilian that get caught in the middle, there are alot of gray areas.

My grandfather's younger brother joined the police after my home town was bombed twice. For him, he was defending his home. He also loves to showoff his bullet wounds and how he lost his fingers.

Sure, but 200.000 is a huuuuuuge number... and in a sence of tactic it goes totally against you if you're (as a government) responsible to the greater amount of those.


Looking forward to more posts from area as I want to learn more of how you progress.

[xinhui]

ref Colom

There are folks who are still not buying it yet, after years of broke promises. But, I am not one of them, the fact they he pays a visit to Cube is a welcome move. Hack, second half of Highway 1 is getting an extra two lines, hack it will cut the commute from Coatepeque to Guatemala city by two hours.

I am not defending the government and this apology has been generated a great deal of debate in the street, but, the way I look at it, people is now able to discuss and debate this emotional and other social issues so openly is sign of great improvements.

[xinhui]

Guatemala to open mass grave in search for war dead

* Rights groups to exhume victims of 36-year civil war

* Around 1,000 victims believed to be in mass grave

* Work could help prosecute former police, soldiers

By Sarah Grainger

GUATEMALA CITY, March 22 (Reuters) - Guatemala's biggest mass grave may give up its secrets this year when bodies from a massacre during the 1960-1996 civil war are exhumed after decades of mystery.

Following years of work in rural graves and battling for clues, official permits and funding, rights groups will start digging at a cemetery in Guatemala City, part of a healing process as Guatemala unearths victims of the long conflict.

Around 1,000 bodies in a mass grave at the La Verbena cemetery are thought to be the victims of extrajudicial killings by the army and police during some of the most violent years of the conflict.

"These are people who were taken to be questioned, interrogated, probably tortured," said Fredy Peccerelli, an activist leading efforts to exhume the bodies later this year with $1 million in aid from the United States and Europe.

"If they knew very little, (they were) killed quickly. If they knew a lot, they were held first for three to six months," added Peccerelli, who runs the non-governmental Forensic Anthropology Foundation and who worked in Bosnia after the 1992-95 Balkan conflict.

Almost a quarter of a million people were killed or disappeared during the conflict between leftist guerrillas and the government. Over 80 percent of the murders were committed by the army, according to a U.N.-backed truth commission.

Activists say many of the dead at La Verbena were between the ages of 16 and 40 and killed by gunshot wounds to the head. That raised the suspicion that they were executed by the army or police.

Bodies from the killings were believed to be thrown together with routine unidentified dead and those with bodies whose families could not afford to pay for their graves. The bodies were buried under concrete lids in a grave of four large pits thought to contain 40,000 bodies.

Workers plan to exhume and identify the bodies by lowering a platform with removable floorboards into each pit and excavating layers of bones until they find those with bullet holes in the skulls. These will then be cross checked against a DNA database of family members of the disappeared to finally identify the victims and give them a proper burial.

Peccerelli hopes the forensic evidence will also be used in the prosecution of former police and army officers.

Earlier this month, two former policemen became the first people to be arrested and charged over the forced disappearance of student leader Fernando Garcia, who went missing in 1984 and whose body has never been found.

Anthropologists, with help from local people, have already found the remains of thousands of people massacred and buried in the Guatemalan countryside, but the fate of those killed in towns and cities has until now barely been investigated. (Editing by Philip Barbara)

[Merlin]

Guatemalas' Police Archive

These police archive, discovered in 2005, are being scanned and released to the public.

Guatemala scans police archive for civil war clues

GUATEMALA CITY, March 24 (Reuters) - Information long hidden in police archives covered with mold and bat droppings could implicate hundreds of former officers accused of killing students and leftists during Guatemala's 36-year civil war, human rights activists said on Tuesday.

Sergio Morales, the Guatemalan government's human rights ombudsman, released the first report on Tuesday on the contents of 80 million documents unearthed four years ago that dated from the 1960-1996 conflict.

Activists hope information from the archives will lead authorities to arrest hundreds of former police officers who may be implicated in crimes committed during a civil war in which around 250,000 people were killed or disappeared.

"We have to know the truth, not because we want revenge, but so we don't repeat errors made by ourselves or others," Vice President Rafael Espada said during the release of the report as some among a crowd of hundreds shouted "we want justice".

Two former members of a police unit linked to death squads that operated during the civil war were detained this month based on evidence from the archive.

Human rights workers discovered the dusty floor-to-ceiling stacks of papers in 2005 ....

The government gave the human rights ombudsman permission to investigate the archives from a civil war-era police force so linked to repression and disappearances that it was dissolved in 1997 after leftist guerrillas and security forces signed a peace agreement.

Archivists have cleaned, scanned and filed some 11 million documents, scouring them for information from the conflict.

Scanned images of 7 million documents from the archive will be available to the public free of charge from Wednesday ....