Speaker 1:

The last time that [Estair] saw her son, Petro, was 17 years ago when she followed him to the military base. Since then, she has been looking for him but now, it is only for his bones.

Survivors say at least 24 people were killed in an army attack in [Kumate Mango]. She has come here with a friend to see if she recognises the clothes of her son or at least can find any sign of his disappearance. For the people of Guatemala, it is one of thousands of common graves after 36 years of civil war that killed more than a 180,000 people.

Forensic experts say that more than 90% of the bodies haven't been found. 24 people are alleged to have been buried down the well and the process of finding the remains could take months and maybe years to realise how many people were killed. It's almost turning into a macabre archaeological dig.

Speaker 2:

I've been looking for my son since the 15th of May 1993 and that's why I come wherever they're exhuming in the hope that one day I'll find the remains of my son. I think that maybe they didn't bother to take him to a place like this.

Speaker 1:

Pedro was not the only one. Here at this laboratory where they're studying the remains of Guatemala's missing people, it's thought nearly every countryside community has at least one common grave and often the victims were women and children. But for those searching into the past, the government call for immunity hasn't helped.

Speaker 3:

The last elections are the best example of impunity in Guatemala where even though someone is being accused of having been responsible for so many deaths, they can reach Congress so easily or when this ... Even the president who was accused of killing two people in Mexico.

Speaker 1:

Alfonso Portillo confessed to the killing but despite that won a landslide victory in Guatemala first presidential election since the end of the war. He was originally a left winger but Mr. Portillo has turned increasingly to the right from one political party to another finishing up in the Guatemalan Republican front. The party led by one of the most notorious dictators in Latin America, General Efraín Ríos Montt. This gives him a difficult task now in power.

Speaker 4:

We've had military impunity not only within the military, it's found in the whole of society. The best examples of impunity are not only the crimes that are not investigated and prosecuted but a huge number of arrest warrants that don't take place or the vast number of cases without sentences, or the jails that are full of poor people. It looks like the powerful people don't commit crimes because they're not jailed. That's the best example of the worst cancer in this country is impunity.

Speaker 1:

The countries civil war gave great power to the army. It developed links with paramilitary groups. Its intelligence was far-reaching. It controls civilian policing and even politicians were not immune from the military police. But Portillo had already started his war against the military. He appointed a colonel as head of the armed forces. He [inaudible] automatic exit of the 19 generals and one vice-admiral.

Here in Congress, the president aim was to take away the power from the military elite, specifically General Efraín Ríos Montt. Although he is not president of Congress and despite his period of rule in the country overseeing some of the wars worst brutalities, he is now barred from running for president but he has 64 of a 113 seats in the house.

Speaker 5:

I'm a senator that's been democratically elected with the largest number of votes in Guatemala and historically, I've been accused of murder. I'm here ready for whatever they want to do with me. I'm not looking for protection.

Speaker 1:

Ordinary Guatemalans say that General Montt is the real force behind the presidency. One recent poll found that three-quarters of Guatemalans think the General holds the strings of power. It will be a tough enough job for President Portillo to push the army reforms to Congress. It will be harder still to implement them. After so many years of conflict, it is evident that the people of Guatemala are going to take some convincing before they feel that justice is finally arrived in their country. Perhaps the most difficult task for president Portillo will be to bring members of the armed forces to answer for crimes committed during and since the war. The best-known case is the murder of Bishop [Pond Gerardi] who headed the Catholic Churches human rights office. He was beaten to death in April 1998, two days after publishing a 1,400 page report that blamed the army and its collaborators for 90% of the wars brutal crimes.

Since then, prosecutors have collected evidence of army involvement in the killing of the Bishop shown here shortly before his death. Many people looking into the case have received death threats after which one judge, one prosecutor, and at least three witnesses have fled the country. President Portillo has said he will ensure the murder is solved, no matter where the trail leads. The churches human right office has given him six months.

But Gerardi's position on the Catholic churches human right office has been replaced by General [Riasmonts] brother. Bishop Riasmont appears to have the support of the people but others worry about his role given his relationship with his brother. Even though his brother is still Guatemala's strong man, he's afraid of the consequences of his job.

Speaker 6:

To say that I'm not afraid will be a lie but they told me to come here so here I am. The fear that I have doesn't stop me from saying what I have to say. We haven't been created for that but to lead and we think that after this life, there's a better life.

Speaker 1:

Since the end of the civil war, Guatemalans have begun the costly task of rebuilding their country, the horror finally over. But thousands of people died or disappeared and about one million were left homeless. Health and education services are almost non-existent. Nearly half of adult Guatemalans cannot read. Eight out of 10 people in rural areas live in poverty. People come to the city looking for work that doesn't exist so they have to survive the best they can. So politicians now concentrate more on economic policies than on laying the blame for the past. The work of forensic experts and the perseverance of the thousands of parents whose children disappeared are getting hope for the countries' reconciliation. Perhaps for people like Estair, the new president will mean new hope.