Guatemala to Probe Missing
Military Files
Guatemala - A commission of the Ministry of Defense of
Guatemala will investigate the whereabouts of the files on military
plans called Sofía and Operation Ixil, demanded by judges as tests
of humanitarian violations perpetrated during the war.
The documents should be given to a court last Wednesday next to the
ones called Firmeza 83 and Victoria 82, but the Minister of Defense,
General Abraham Valenzuela, alleged he had ignored its location.
The Guatemalan military official did not disregard the possibility
that they have been destroyed during the previous government's
administration, although that will be established by the
investigating commission.
In accordance with the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR),
those files are a key to determine the responsibility of the high
control of the army in several collective slaughters perpetrated
during the armed conflict (1960-1996).
AJR presented a quarrel before the Guatemalan courts for genocide
and lese humanity crimes committed in the 80´s last century in
several departments of the country.
As part of the tests in the judicial process, the informers claim
the analysis of these programs to demonstrate that the murder of
thousands of indigenous civilians was a planned act.
According to separate studies by the Catholic Church and the
Organization of the United Nations, during the confrontation,
250,000 people disappeared in this country and hundred of villages
were razed.
The army and the forces of security are responsible for more than 90
percent of these cases, but so far no official has been judged or
convicted as intellectual or material author of them.
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