Guatemalans Demand
Penalty for Genocide
Guatemalan indigenous
people demanded
punishment of the
military responsible for
massacres committed
during the internal
armed conflict in the
area known as Ixil
Triangle, in
north-western Guatemala.
About 800 residents of
the area covering Nebaj,
Cotzal and Chapul
municipalities, staged a
march Wednesday,
carrying very large
blankets with the
embroidered names and
dates of death or
disappearance of
thousands of families
and friends.
The demonstrators
marched from the Nebaj
Cemetery to the Attorney
General's Office, where
they called on the
attorney general and the
justice of the peace to
speed-up sanctions
against perpetrators or
masterminds of the
"devastated land"
policy.
Later, they went to the
church, where a mass was
offered in memory of
those killed during the
war.
At least 90 massacres
took place in the Ixil
Triangle alone, mostly
during the governments
of Romeo Lucas Garcia
and Efrain Rios Montt,
1980-1983, Association
for Justice and
Reconciliation leader
Antonio Caba told Prensa
Latina.
No one has been
sanctioned for these
flagrant human rights
violations so far, said
Caba, and stressed that
there cannot be peace or
reconciliation without
justice for the culprits
and reparation for the
victims. |
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