GUATEMALA: REPORT DOCUMENTING HUNDREDS OF MASSACRES PUBLISHED

Описание: (6 Sep 1998) Spanish/Nat

A human rights report documenting 524 massacres during Guatemala's civil war accuses the army of being responsible for many of the killings.

The report has been made public by the Church-backed Recuperation of Historical Memory project.

During an emotional ceremony this weekend, the first copies of the report were handed out to the men and women who volunteered witness accounts - often in spite of fear for their own safety.

The Cathedral of Santa Cruz del Quiche stands in the heart of breathtaking countryside - but an area torn apart by Guatemala's recently ended civil war.

Hundreds gathered here at the weekend to witness a ceremony about peace.

Many from indigenous communities had travelled for up to two days to be there to mark a significant step in the slow and painful process of reconcilation.

This was once the diocese of Guatemala's human rights spokesman, Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi - forced to flee in 1980 at the peak of violence during the civil war that lasted 36 years.

Gerardi's unsolved murder earlier this year triggered outrage among those who survived the war - and whose own personal tragedies have been documented in an extensive report entitled "Guatemala Nunca Mas" (Guatemala Never Again).

The Church-backed report lists the names of more than 55-thousand men and women and children killed in the conflict.

It lists 524 massacres and makes clear who it blames.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Of those 263 massacres documented, the army is responsible for 144."
SUPER CAPTION: Rigoberto Perez Garrido, priest

The report required the courage of those who witnessed the atrocities to step speak out.

Many of them gathered at the cathedral and received in return copies of the report to take back to their local parishes as permanent records of the horrors endured.

For those like Juan - who comes from a village decimated by rape, torture, kidnapping and death - such a war cannot just disappear.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"I had a brother who was a leader in the parish and he worked with the church and they kidnapped him. I asked myself why did that happen to us. In 1980 my father was killed by the army. They were cruel, they hung him from a tree."
SUPER CAPTION: Juan, resident of Nebaj

Edgar Gutierrez, who compiled the report, has been further thrust into the role of leading human rights spokesman in Guatemala.

There have been no trials against the perpetrators of the war so far reported.

According to Gutierrez, Guatemala suffers from a cancer of impunity.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"The judicial processes here are very slow and very difficult. One has to confront the corruption of the judicial organisation, the fear that the operations of the judicial system feel, and face the absence of evidence and proof that has been rubbed out, precisely by this impunity."
SUPER CAPTION: Edgar Gutierrez, Director of the Recuperation of Historical Memory Project

Those who gathered in El Quiche now have a full record of their own tragic past for posterity.

Their dignity and courage in speaking out will undoubtedly play a significant part in Guatemala's healing process.

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