Speaker
1: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
2: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Andres
was tortured for 15 days at this former military base in the Guatemalan
highlands. In that time, he saw a lot. |
Speaker
2: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
4: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
A
United Nation sponsored report estimates that over 200,000 people were
murdered or disappeared by the army and paramilitary groups during
Guatemala's 34 year civil war. Over 80% were Mayan Indians. |
Speaker
4: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
In
the early '80s, the violence reached genocidal proportions. |
Speaker
5: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
4: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
5: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
4: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
In
March 1982, General Efraín Ríos Montt organised a
coup and declared himself president of Guatemala. For the next 16 months, he
presided over the bloodiest period in Latin American history since the
Spanish invasion. Colonel Mauricio López Bonilla played a key role in the
coup that brought Ríos Montt to power. He now directs a public relations
firm. |
Mauricio
L. B.: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
5: |
Actually
saying as though it was like state policy for there to be like 626 massacres
and over 200,000 people dead. |
Mauricio
L. B.: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
To
this day, no one has been held responsible for the more than 600 unofficial
massacres that took place. In fact, if anything, Ríos Montt seems to have
been rewarded for his part in the genocide. Last year, Ríos Montt was elected
president of the Guatemalan Congress. He has a lot to celebrate. |
|
The
General, as he is still known, has so far evaded every attempt to bring him
to justice. These are the children of some of Guatemala's 40,000 disappeared.
They have gathered to call for Montt's prosecution in front of a monument of
Guatemala's best known human rights crusader, Bishop Juan Gerardi. |
|
Bishop
Gerardi coordinated the Catholic Church's Never
Again report which detailed the army's involvement in decades of murder,
association and rape. On the 26th of April, 1988 two days after presenting
the report, he was bludgeoned to death. This is Bishop Gerardi's
replacement, Bishop Ríos Montt. He is the brother of General Ríos Montt. |
Speaker
5: |
Why
do you think you chose such radically different career paths? |
Speaker
7: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Bishop
Montt believes that Guatemala's open wounds can only be healed if the truth
is faced and justice is seen to be done even if this means the prosecution of
his own brother. |
Speaker
7: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
5: |
[foreign
language]. |
Celso
Balán: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Celso
Balán is an investigator for the Centre for Legal
Action on Human Rights or CALDH. His job is to find victims brave enough to
testify against Ríos Montt in court. |
Francisca: |
[foreign
language]. |
Celso
Balán: |
[foreign
language]. |
Francisca: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Francisca's
husband disappeared on the 2nd of August, 1982 while General Ríos Montt was
president. |
Francisca: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
10: |
[foreign
language]. |
Francisca: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
10: |
[foreign
language]. |
Francisca: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
10: |
[foreign
language]. |
Francisca: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
10: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Francisca's
husband was taken away to be questioned during an army raid on the village
and never came back. |
Francisca: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
10: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Armed
with hundreds of testimonies like Francisca's, CALDH took the unprecedented
step last month of calling for the prosecution of Montt in Guatemala for
crimes against humanity. |
Frank
Larue: |
We
think we have slim chances, but we think we have no choice. Our only choice,
if we believe in peace in Guatemala, if we want to build a better country, is
to make the justice system work. It will be an absolute mistake to ignore
these crimes and to let them pass. Especially now that Ríos Montt is the
president of Congress. This is the time to making them accountable to all the
wrong things he did in the past. |
Speaker
3: |
This
is Ríos Montt's most prominent foe, Rigoberta Menchu, seen here shortly after being awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1992. For many years, Menchu has
been the public conscience of Guatemala reminding the world of the atrocities
which were committed here. |
Rigoberta M.: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
It's
the Day of the Dead in Mexico City. A time for millions of Latin Americans to
remember dead loved ones. Threats to her life have forced Rigoberta
Menchu to live here in exile. It is from here that Menchu has continued her assault on Ríos Montt. |
|
Fueled with optimism by the attempts to bring Augusto
Pinochet, the former Chilian dictator to justice, Rigoberta Menchu has asked the
Spanish National Court to hear her case. She has accused several military men
of genocide, terrorism of the state and torture. Ríos Montt heads the list. |
Rigoberta M.: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
13: |
They
gave me a pin. Here, I'm giving the pin to my father. |
Speaker
3: |
Zury Ríos is Ríos Montt's daughter and a member of Congress
herself. |
Speaker
5: |
He's
facing a few problems. [inaudible]. On particular, we're interested in the
recent case in Spain by Rigoberta Menchu. What is your opinion on that? |
Speaker
3: |
I
think she has the freedom to do whatever she wants. I think that's freedom
and democracy about. Everyone has their right of petition. Correct, the word?
[foreign language]. One can go to courts. The thing is to prove it. If they
think that she's talking about were truth, I don't understand the results in
the votes. I don't understand the support of the population of the people of
the country. |
Rigoberta M.: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
The
Civil Defence Patrols, essentially village militias, were Montt's most
insidious contribution to the conflict. |
Speaker
14: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Men
were press ganged into Montt's militias and forced to torture and kill friends
and relatives. A few did it willingly to settle petty squabbles. Most killed
rather than be killed. Brother kill brother. They became accomplices in their
own destruction. |
Ríos
Montt: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Ríos
Montt's peace with the second genocide for Guatemala's Mayan Indians. 500
years after the Spanish arrived, they still commemorate their slaughter at
the hands of the conquistadors. |
Speaker
16: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Last
year, Mayan organisations chose Columbus Day to demand compliance with the
four-year-old peace accords including redistribution of land and the
prosecution of war crimes. Several days later, one of the leaders was shot
dead. Threats and assaults against journalists and human rights workers have increased
in the last year. Only last month, an American nun working with Mayan groups
was gunned down in Guatemala City. |
Frank
Larue: |
We
thought that the human rights era had changed in Guatemala that we would be
really free and doing our work. With this government, the government of
Portillo and Ríos Montt, things have changed again. After their inauguration
in January 15th, there has been a series of intimidation and harassment. |
Speaker
3: |
In
fact, Frank Larue's colleague, Celso Balán was
recently kidnapped and beaten. Since then, he's been accompanied wherever he
goes by Nick Rose, a Melbourne lawyer who's volunteered as a foreign
observer. |
Celso
Balán: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Despite
the intimidation in Guatemala, the Spanish National Court decided not to
proceed with Rigoberta Menchu's
case against Ríos Montt. Incredibly, a special sitting of judges argued that
while the strength of her case would not be disputed, there was no reason why
it could not be heard in the Guatemalan courts. It's a ruling that has
mystified many Guatemalans. |
|
It
was a full three years before the people who murdered Bishop Gerardi were brought to trial. Crucial evidence had gone
missing and a total of eight prosecutors, judges and witnesses had fled the
country following attacks and threats. The night before the trial began, hand
grenades were thrown into the home of one of the judges. She emerged defiant. |
|
Against
the odds, these army officers were convicted last month. However, it is still
not known who gave the orders. It is unlikely that General Ríos Montt will
ever appear in Court. Guatemalan members of Congress are immune to
prosecution by law. |
Rigoberta M.: |
[foreign
language]. |
Speaker
3: |
Today,
Francisca's search for her husband is over. |
Francisca: |
[foreign
language]. |