He presided over the deaths of thousands of unarmed Maya, but ten years ago I wrote, "It is far from certain whether Rios Montt will ever face charges in court." U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan said the Guatemalan dictator got "a bum rap," honoring him as an ally. Gen. Efrain Rios Montt seemed untouchable.
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| Exhumation. Xococ. A massacre during the rule of Rios Montt. Photo: Mary Jo McConahay |
Rios Montt's predecessor Romeo Lucas Garcia, who also presided over massacres, died in 2006. Two weeks ago, when Rios left his seat in Congress, he lost immunity against prosecution.
This is how justice begins, with courage and patience. Ten years back:
Maya Indians bring charges against two former dictators
(06-14) 04:00 PST Guatemala City -- Guatemalan Indian peasants have broken new ground in the global movement to prosecute perpetrators of mass violence by charging two former dictators with genocide.
On Tuesday, a judge ordered investigations into criminal charges against ex- President Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia and his successor, Efrain Rios Montt, who today is the country's Bible-quoting, ironfisted political headman.
It is the first time Guatemalan courts have agreed to investigate former dictators for atrocities committed during 36 years of civil war. The war, which pitted leftist, largely Indian guerrilla groups against government forces, ended in peace accords in 1996. Some 200,000 Guatemalans died, more than 80 percent of them unarmed Maya, including women and children.
Maya Indians charge the former dictators of using their positions to wage a "calculated war" against them. And they are doing it not in an international tribunal, but at home, in a court system where judges are regularly threatened and lawyers are killed.
The legal action is the result of a three-year investigation into 1,200 killings committed by the military during Guatemala's bloody civil war. Some 600 villages were the scenes of massacres carried out as part of a scorched- earth policy by the army, which claimed that the villagers were providing support for leftist guerrillas. Lucas Garcia was president from 1978 to 1982, before being deposed in a military coup by Rios Montt.
Maya survivors say his regime made no distinction between combatants and civilians during the conflict. Rios Montt "saw the indigenous communities as subversive and sympathizing with communism. That is why he ordered our annihilation," says one of the charges filed last week.
The Guatemalan legal proceedings are a new turn in the process to bring human rights abusers to justice, which began with the 1998 arrest in London of former Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Legal cases based on the principle of universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity are proliferating: Chad's former dictator Hissene Habre was indicted last year in Senegal; El Salvadoran officers have been charged with the killings of four U.S. churchwomen in a Florida court; and four Rwandans were found guilty in Belgium last week, the first case in which a civilian jury convicted offenders for war crimes in another country.
By bringing human rights cases into their own nation's courts, the Maya are showing considerable courage, says Amy Ross, a professor of international justice at the University of Georgia.
The survivors are basing their criminal complaints on the 1948 Genocide Convention, which grew out of the desire to prevent atrocities such as the slaughter of millions of Jews during World War II but "has never really been used," said Ross.
A U.N.-sponsored Truth Commission held the Guatemalan army responsible for 85 percent of all human rights violations during the civil war.
By declaring state authorities responsible for "acts of genocide" -- for which there is no immunity from prosecution under a Guatemalan amnesty law passed in 1997 -- the commission opened the door for charges against high- ranking office-holders.
In the past, Rios Montt has claimed no knowledge of atrocities committed during his 18 months as chief of state, even though army publications have admitted that 440 villages were "eliminated" in the name of counterinsurgency.
In fact, military officials have long insisted that those killed were leftist guerrillas who died in battle.
"The Guatemalan army never fought against its own people," former Defense Minister Juan de Dios Estrada said recently. "How would it be possible to be genocide since most of the army was made up of indigenous?"
In the highlands -- home to most Maya, about 70 percent of Guatemala's 11 million inhabitants -- there is no doubt about the raging violence that forced at least 1 million people to flee their homes.
At Choatalum, a survivor still looks wide-eyed at the memory of being forced to stand "for days" in a waist-high pool of water at an army base as others undergoing similar torture finally slipped under and drowned.
The Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology team, which is currently exhuming mass graves at the rate of three or four per month, also has little doubt about the scale of the violence.
Stefan Schmitt, a founding member of the team, spoke of a massacre at Plan de Sanchez, also named in the Rios Montt case, where at least 82 died in 1982.
Investigators usually estimate the number of victims by counting the number of long bones, such as a right femur. But at Plan de Sanchez, about 30 miles north of Guatemala City, some 60 soldiers and paramilitary troops threw grenades and then burned down a house where they had gathered townspeople, so remains were fragmented.
"We had to make three piles for the upper, middle and lower sections of the long bones, and determine our count that way for most," said Schmitt, who works for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "On the outskirts, where girls had been raped, then killed one by one, remains were more intact."
It is far from certain whether Lucas Garcia or Rios Montt will ever face charges in court. If convicted, they could face 30 years in prison.
Gerardi, who headed the Roman Catholic human rights office, was bludgeoned to death two days after he released the church's "Never Again" report on wartime abuses, which blamed the military for 90 percent of human rights violations.
But the charge of genocide requires proving an intent to destroy a group, a much more complicated matter.
And there are two more weighty obstacles, say observers in Guatemala City. Lucas Garcia, who lives in Venezuela, is reportedly suffering from Alzheimer's disease and has not made any public statement for several years.
And Rios Montt is the founder of the ruling political party of President Alfonso Portillo, who is not considered to be a strong political figure. As a result, some observers believe the elected head of Guatemala's legislature may simply ignore the criminal complaint.
But simply bringing the case to trial is significant, human rights activists say.
Thursday, June 14, 2001
On Tuesday, a judge ordered investigations into criminal charges against ex- President Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia and his successor, Efrain Rios Montt, who today is the country's Bible-quoting, ironfisted political headman.
It is the first time Guatemalan courts have agreed to investigate former dictators for atrocities committed during 36 years of civil war. The war, which pitted leftist, largely Indian guerrilla groups against government forces, ended in peace accords in 1996. Some 200,000 Guatemalans died, more than 80 percent of them unarmed Maya, including women and children.
Maya Indians charge the former dictators of using their positions to wage a "calculated war" against them. And they are doing it not in an international tribunal, but at home, in a court system where judges are regularly threatened and lawyers are killed.
The legal action is the result of a three-year investigation into 1,200 killings committed by the military during Guatemala's bloody civil war. Some 600 villages were the scenes of massacres carried out as part of a scorched- earth policy by the army, which claimed that the villagers were providing support for leftist guerrillas. Lucas Garcia was president from 1978 to 1982, before being deposed in a military coup by Rios Montt.
'Wanted' posters
Last week, many Guatemalan newspapers displayed front-page photos of a "Wanted" poster of Rios Montt after he was charged with a more specific genocide complaint on behalf of massacre victims in 11 Maya villages.Maya survivors say his regime made no distinction between combatants and civilians during the conflict. Rios Montt "saw the indigenous communities as subversive and sympathizing with communism. That is why he ordered our annihilation," says one of the charges filed last week.
The Guatemalan legal proceedings are a new turn in the process to bring human rights abusers to justice, which began with the 1998 arrest in London of former Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Legal cases based on the principle of universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity are proliferating: Chad's former dictator Hissene Habre was indicted last year in Senegal; El Salvadoran officers have been charged with the killings of four U.S. churchwomen in a Florida court; and four Rwandans were found guilty in Belgium last week, the first case in which a civilian jury convicted offenders for war crimes in another country.
By bringing human rights cases into their own nation's courts, the Maya are showing considerable courage, says Amy Ross, a professor of international justice at the University of Georgia.
The survivors are basing their criminal complaints on the 1948 Genocide Convention, which grew out of the desire to prevent atrocities such as the slaughter of millions of Jews during World War II but "has never really been used," said Ross.
Not just a theory
The complaint against Rios Montt "pushes forward international law, using it to go to accountability for massive violence. For (the Maya) it is not just a theory," she added.A U.N.-sponsored Truth Commission held the Guatemalan army responsible for 85 percent of all human rights violations during the civil war.
By declaring state authorities responsible for "acts of genocide" -- for which there is no immunity from prosecution under a Guatemalan amnesty law passed in 1997 -- the commission opened the door for charges against high- ranking office-holders.
In the past, Rios Montt has claimed no knowledge of atrocities committed during his 18 months as chief of state, even though army publications have admitted that 440 villages were "eliminated" in the name of counterinsurgency.
In fact, military officials have long insisted that those killed were leftist guerrillas who died in battle.
"The Guatemalan army never fought against its own people," former Defense Minister Juan de Dios Estrada said recently. "How would it be possible to be genocide since most of the army was made up of indigenous?"
In the highlands -- home to most Maya, about 70 percent of Guatemala's 11 million inhabitants -- there is no doubt about the raging violence that forced at least 1 million people to flee their homes.
Witness to killings
In the mountain village of Santa Anita Las Canoas, Luis Curruchich, one of those named in the Rios Montt case, spoke of the day in 1982 when the army surrounded the town and began shooting as families fled. Curruchich's 25-year- old wife, Transita, was killed, his infant girl disappeared, and neighbors saw soldiers carry off his other two young daughters.At Choatalum, a survivor still looks wide-eyed at the memory of being forced to stand "for days" in a waist-high pool of water at an army base as others undergoing similar torture finally slipped under and drowned.
The Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology team, which is currently exhuming mass graves at the rate of three or four per month, also has little doubt about the scale of the violence.
Stefan Schmitt, a founding member of the team, spoke of a massacre at Plan de Sanchez, also named in the Rios Montt case, where at least 82 died in 1982.
Investigators usually estimate the number of victims by counting the number of long bones, such as a right femur. But at Plan de Sanchez, about 30 miles north of Guatemala City, some 60 soldiers and paramilitary troops threw grenades and then burned down a house where they had gathered townspeople, so remains were fragmented.
"We had to make three piles for the upper, middle and lower sections of the long bones, and determine our count that way for most," said Schmitt, who works for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "On the outskirts, where girls had been raped, then killed one by one, remains were more intact."
It is far from certain whether Lucas Garcia or Rios Montt will ever face charges in court. If convicted, they could face 30 years in prison.
Officers sentenced
Last week, a Guatemalan court did sentence two army officers to 30 years in prison for the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi in 1998, a first crack in the wall of impunity that has long surrounding officials. Just this week, Jose Eduardo Cojulun, the judge who recently convicted three soldiers of killing Gerardi, said he has been receiving death threats.Gerardi, who headed the Roman Catholic human rights office, was bludgeoned to death two days after he released the church's "Never Again" report on wartime abuses, which blamed the military for 90 percent of human rights violations.
But the charge of genocide requires proving an intent to destroy a group, a much more complicated matter.
And there are two more weighty obstacles, say observers in Guatemala City. Lucas Garcia, who lives in Venezuela, is reportedly suffering from Alzheimer's disease and has not made any public statement for several years.
And Rios Montt is the founder of the ruling political party of President Alfonso Portillo, who is not considered to be a strong political figure. As a result, some observers believe the elected head of Guatemala's legislature may simply ignore the criminal complaint.
But simply bringing the case to trial is significant, human rights activists say.
Mary Jo McConahay is an editor at Pacific News Service and has reported from Central America for more than 15 years.
*Two sites for streaming Rios Montt trial:
paraqueseconozca.blogspot.com
