PROSECUTING PAST CRIMES PROVIDES HOPE TO SURVIVORS IN GUATEMALA - UN ENVOY

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 13 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400
Subject: PROSECUTING PAST CRIMES PROVIDES HOPE TO SURVIVORS IN
GUATEMALA - UN ENVOY
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

PROSECUTING PAST CRIMES PROVIDES HOPE TO SURVIVORS IN GUATEMALA - UN ENVOY
New York, Apr 13 2013 12:00AM
A senior United Nations official today welcomed the efforts of
Guatemalan authorities to investigate crimes of sexual violence that
occurred during the country's 36-year internal conflict, and urged
authorities to ensure a fair trail and protections for the witnesses
and others involved.

"Today Guatemala is demonstrating its commitment to the rule of law
and a peaceful future by continuing to confront its violent past. I
urge the authorities to guarantee a fair trial and ensure the
protection of victims, witnesses, human rights defenders, and law
officials," the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual
Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, said in a statement.

"Justice in Guatemala has been delayed for so many, but it must not be
denied," she added about the potential crimes which ocurred during the
conflict between 1960 and 1996.

The investigations stem from ongoing judicial proceedings against
former president Efraín Ríos Montt and former intelligence chief José
Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez, who stand accused of committing genocide
and crimes against humanity for their roles in Guatemala's conflict. A
reported 200,000 people were killed or had disappeared during the
conflict.

These judicial proceedings "give hope to the thousands of victims who
suffered," Ms. Bangura said. "Sexual violence must never be treated as
an inevitable part of armed conflict, but as the internationally
recognized crime it is."

Other senior officials have also praised the legal proceedings,
including High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who called
the trial "historic."

During the conflict, Guatemala became the theatre for numerous
displays of brutality which were ultimately catalogued and revealed by
the UN-backed Historical Clarification Commission of Guatemala in its
report on the war.

At a press conference announcing the release of the report at UN
Headquarters in 1999, two members of the Commission, Christian
Tomuschat of Germany and Otilia Lux de Cotí of Guatemala, described
the "atrocious nature" of some of the massacres committed by
Government forces against ethnic enclaves during the conflict.

In particular, they noted the Government's "scorched earth" policy
which led to the destruction of entire villages and the murders of all
their inhabitants, including women, children, babies and elderly
people. The two experts also stated that pregnant women and babies had
been victimized with "particular brutality."
In her statement today, Ms. Bangura also praised the survivors of
sexual violence for "their bravery in coming forward to explain what
they have suffered" and whose testimonies will help ensure that
"sexual violence crimes do not remain hidden in silence and impunity."

Apr 13 2013 12:00AM
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