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].