A
new kind of genocide trial
Posted
By Joshua Keating Monday, February 4,
2013
A judge in Guatemala has greenlighted a trial for former
dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who stands accused of genocide:
Prosecutors
allege that after leading a March 1982 coup and seizing control of the
government, Ríos Montt oversaw torture, rape, forced disappearances and forced
relocations and killings of thousands of Ixil people by soldiers,
paramilitaries and other government officials.
The
trial could be historic, not only because he is the first former president to
be tried for genocide by a Latin American court, but also because its still
extremely unusual for genocide trials to take place in the normal court systems
of the countries where the alleged crimes took place. Writing on Al Jazeera,
University of Georgia Human Rights Scholar Amy Ross notes that Montt's prosecution marks
"the first time a national court, anywhere, prosecutes its own former head of state
for the crime of genocide."
Though
around 80 countries, including the United
States, have laws against genocide on the books, trials for the
ultimate crime have generally taken place in international courts or specially
set up tribunals under foreign supervision. Former Serbian leader Slobodan
Milosevic was tried at the Hague, as presumably, would Sudanese President Omar
al-Bashir if he were ever arrested.
National-level
prosecutions of lower-ranking officials have often been problematic,
such as Iraq's rushed trial and execution of
"Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majeed, or the seemingly politically motivated charges
against associates of former President Laurent Gbagbo in the Ivory Coast.
Guatemala now has a chance to set a more positive precedent, though given that
Montt is likely to remain under house arrest no matter the
verdict, victims may be unsatisfied.
The
trial will shine a not-so-flattering
light on U.S. cold war foreign policy. Montt received training at the U.S. Army's
controversial School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia during the 1950s.
During the 18 months he was in power, a period during which he stands accused
of at least 1,771 deaths, the Reagan administration lifted an arms embargo on the
country despite reports of atrocities. Montt was also praised and supported financially by televangelist
Pat Robertson, who saw him as a "Christian soldier" battling
communism and urged his supporters to pray for the Guatemalan leader.
(however)
Bill
Clinton expressed regret for Washignton's role in the repression in 1999, but
Harvard historian Kirsten Weld suggests in the International
Herald Tribune that the Obama administration should do more to support
Guatemala's efforts to bring Montt to justice.
The
administration has also controversially denied an extradition request from
Bolivia's government for former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who may
also face genocide charges.
