Conclusion: Six Benefits of Truth Commissions in El Salvador and Guatemala
Societies that are trying to overcome the pain, division, and distrust of conflict understand
that reconciliation cannot be a short-term goal. Indeed, there is a “road to reconciliation.”
Reconciliation is a process, a long road along which to travel. Truth commissions are easily
criticized for a weakness in not being able to bring about reconciliation. However, one must
tame one’s expectations of any reconciliation initiative because “reconciliation” is broadly
defined and ambiguous as a concrete goal. Expecting or even hoping that a truth commission
will cause reconciliation is an expectation that is bound to be unmet. It is not realistic to hope
that a truth commission, or any one measure enacted for reconciliation, will necessarily bring
about reconciliation. While truth commissions are not necessarily the “road to reconciliation”
they are an important vehicle for making progress on this road. Truth commissions certainly
have positive effects towards reconciliation. Without a thorough, broadly-scoped investigation
and airing of the truth, a society that has kept painful secrets of abuse hidden inside the archives
92of the military and inside the heavy hearts of the victimized people will be burdened by its past
as it struggles to march forward.
Truth commissions are not perfect. Nor are the political, social, and situational contexts in
which they are established ideal. The cases of the Salvadoran and Guatemalan Truth
Commissions are by no means exceptions. Much of the political power of government
perpetrators remained intact in both countries, severely limiting the extent of the truth
commissions’ progress toward reconciliation. Nevertheless, the value of their truth-telling and
truth-revealing capacities and their recommending authority towards the goal of reconciliation is
real.
Truth and the Truth Commissions have had an impact on reconciliation in El Salvador and
Guatemala in many different ways. Firstly, they have broken the silence that before was
impenetrable. Stemming from the Peace Accords which negotiated for the future, they began a
dialogue about the past. Victims told personal accounts of violence and suffering aloud for the
first time, reclaiming their voices. They spoke of an inherent need to tell their story, a need that
was suppressed for so long. Destructive secrets, legacies of denial, and direct lies of the
“authorities” were finally disproved. The victimized were empowered while the perpetrators’
prestige was newly threatened. The truth upheld meant victims’ dignity resurrected. Truth
commissions begin the sharing and communication that, if it takes root, will continue in and
between communities, beyond the truth commissions’ time to empower people further. A
growing Guatemalan civil society comes from empowered people speaking up, organizing, and
mobilizing for justice at long last.
Secondly, the TC and CEH began the process of leveling government-to-people power
relationships that may make way for cooperation and trust. The truth commission work has
93revealed the strategies and criminalities of the past to such a degree that the institutions that
previously governed from above by fear are fully exposed and vulnerable in a way they never
have been before. Human Rights groups in El Salvador and the whole of Guatemalan civil
society are holding the government and guerilla Parties accountable to the TC and CEH
recommendations. Reconciliation requires the building up of trust across bitter or painful
divisions. Trust of the people is beginning to be a necessary element for legitimacy to govern in
both countries. Recently in the November of 2003 presidential election, the country of
Guatemala rejected FRG candidate Efrian Rios Montt, the dictator who directed the military to a
strategy of massacres and scorched earth campaigns during the bloodiest conflict years.
Thirdly, the Guatemalan CEH put pressure on the government to acknowledge the victims
and crimes through apology and compensation. Although Arzlis reaction to this demand was
cold, the following President already showed improvement on his predecessor. Although
questionably sincere at first, President Portillo made public apologies and an appeal for pardon.
Even if Portillo was not able to make much progress implementing the recommendations of the
CEH as he claimed he would do, he recognized the actions and reforms recommended in the
report as the right ones to follow to reach reconciliation. His official support of the CEH and its
recommendations showed his backing of the specific interpretation of “reconciliation” policy as
one that favored remembrance of the victims and seeking justice, rather than forgiving and
forgetting.
As a fourth area of impact toward reconciliation, in both El Salvador and Guatemala, the
Truth Commissions were responsible for initiating visible and tangible reconciliation measures
for the people. The Monument of Memory and Truth now stands erect in a central park in the
Salvadoran capital, displaying the names of 25,000 victims of the conflict for all to see.
94Guatemala now commemorates February 25 th , the anniversary of the presentation of the CEH
report, as a national holiday — the Day of Dignity for victims. Salvadorans celebrate an annual
`Festival of Truth’ each March in the capital on the anniversary of the Commission on the
Truth’s report public publication. In Guatemala, the government’s forensic anthropology team
has begun to work alongside three well-experienced forensic anthropology NGOs who steadily
continue to exhume the remains of conflict victims from clandestine graves. They work to
record concrete evidence of the crimes committed, hopefully for future trials, and provide a vital
sense of resolution and reconciling for the families of the victims exhumed.
Fifth, the TC and CEH have made important contributions to the need for justice in order to
completely reconcile. Despite the fact that reparations programs have not yet been implemented,
the commissions took the important step to identify that financial compensation and social
services were imperative components of restorative justice for the victims and their families.
Dismissal of the human rights offenders from military and governmental public service was,
although not through the courts, a concrete form of punishment. The naming of perpetrators in
the context of egregious, illustrative abuses in the Salvadoran Truth Commission constituted
significant moral punishment and rejection of impunity. The CEH commission determined that
genocide had been committed, paving the way for a possible indictment of Rios Montt or
General Lucas Garcia (in addition to significant military officers during their administrations) for
crimes against humanity in an international criminal court. Moreover, perpetrators of genocide
were exempt from the 1996 Law of National Reconciliation, meaning that upon reforms and
improved independence of the judiciary, trials could convict these abusers at home in Guatemala.
Finally, the evidence collected by the Salvadoran TC and the Guatemalan CEH can be utilized in
criminal court cases against perpetrators now and in the future.
Finally, the Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification and the Commission on the
Truth for El Salvador have clarified the history of these countries’ recent pasts. They have
consolidated and analyzed the causes, aspects, and outcomes of that painful history and obligated
the country to face these facts and real experiences, rather than forget about them. National
reconciliation is only as strong as the nation’s weakest link: the victims. The TC and CEH
demonstrate this emphasis on the victims through the value they placed on the victims’
testimonies in order to shape a deeper account of history. In response to this truth, the TC and
CEH recommendations, made by impartial, legitimate authorities, identified what the country
should work towards — reconciliation — and articulated specific measures to get there.
Purposefully, these are challenging, comprehensive, even idealistic goals. Considering that
reconciliation is a long process, these ambitious recommendations were not solely written for the
short term. Conscious of the longevity of the process, the TC and CEH recommendations each
give a framework to follow far into the future and by which to objectively assess the course of
progress towards the ultimate goal: national reconciliation.
1 Marc Forget. “Crime as Interpersonal Conflict,” in Dilemmas of Reconciliation: Cases and Concepts, eds. Carol A.
Prager and Trudy Govier (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2003), 125.
2 David A. Crocker, “Truth Commissions, Transitional Justice, and Civil Society,” in Truth vs. Justice, ed. Robert
Rothberg and Dennis Thompson (Princeton: Princeton University Publishers, 2000) 108.
3 Ibid, 108.
4 Ibid, 108.
5 Mark Osiel. Mass Atrocity, Collective Memory, and the Law. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction
Publishers), 1997.
6 Crocker, “Truth Commissions, Transitional Justice, and Civil Society,” 108.
Louis Kreisberg, “Changing Forms of Coexistence” in Reconciliation, Justice, and Coexistence: Theory and
Practice, ed. Mohammed Abu-Nimer (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2001), 48.
8
Forget, 132.
9 David A. Crocker, “Reckoning with Past Wrongs,” in Dilemmas of Reconciliation: Cases and Concepts, eds. Carol
A. Prager and Trudy Govier (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2003), 41.
1° Susan Dwyer, “Reconciliation for Realists,” in Dilemmas of Reconciliation: Cases and Concepts, eds. Carol A.
Prager and Trudy Govier (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2003), 93.
9611 Ibid, 93.
12 Ibid, 95.
13 Nigel Biggar, “Making Peace or Doing Justice: Must We Choose?” in Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing
Justice After Civil Conflict, ed. Nigel Biggar (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2003) 5.
14
Tuomas Forsberg, “The Philosophy and Practice of Dealing with the Past: Some Conceptual and Normative
Issues” in Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice After Civil Conflict, ed. Nigel Biggar (Washington,
D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2003), 73.
15 Carol A. Prager, Dilemmas of Reconciliation: Cases and Concepts, (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfred Laurier
University Press, 2003), 15.
16 Crocker, “Reckoning with Past Wrongs,” 44.
17 Ibid, 45; Audrey R. Chapman and Patrick Ball, “The Truth of Truth Commissions: Comparative Lessons from
Haiti, South Africa, and Guatemala,” Human Rights Quarterly, 23 (2001) 11.
18 Chapman and Ball, 4.
19 Christian Tomuschat. “Clarification Commission in Guatemala,” Human Rights Quarterly, 23 (2001) 237.
20 Genevieve Jacques. Beyond Impunity: An Ecumenical Approach to Truth, Justice and Reconciliation. (Geneva:
World Council of Churches, 2000), 29.
21 Michelle Parlevliet. “Telling the Truth in the Wake of Mass Violence.”
http://www.x4all.nl/-conflic1/pbp/part1/3 tellin.htm, 2/13/2004, para 7.
22 Ibid, 19.
23 Ibid, 19.
24 As cited in Jacques, 20.
25 Forsberg, 74. This was the motto for the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995-2000.
26
Ibid, 74.
27 Govier, Trudy. “What is acknowledgement and why is it important?” Dilemmas of Reconciliation: Cases and
Concepts. (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2003), 71.
28
Jeremy Sarkin. “The Necessity and Challenges of Establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in
Rwanda” Human Rights Quarterly, 21 (1999), 799.
29 Ibid, 17.
30 Crocker, “Truth Commissions, Transitional Justice, and Civil Society,” 102.
31 Biggar, 7.
32 Martha Minow. Between Vengeance and Forgiveness. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998), 92.
33 Avruch, Kevin and Beatriz Vejarano, “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: A Review Essay and Annotated
Bibliography,” OJPCR: The Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution 4.2 (2002), 37.
34
Jennifer Schirmer. “Whose Testimony? Whose truth? Where are the Armed Actors in the Stoll-Menchil
Controversy?” Human Rights Quarterly, 25 (2003), 62.
35 Chapman, and Ball, 3.
36 Crocker, “Truth Commissions, Transitional Justice, and Civil Society,” 101.
37 Chapman and Ball, 4.
38 Sarkin, 803.
39 Hayner, 24-31.
4° Ibid, 16.
41 Ibid, 18.
42 Biggar, 9.
43 Ibid, 16.
44 Jacques, 16.
45 Thomas Buergenthal, “The United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador.” Neil Kritz, ed. Transitional
Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of
Peace Press, 1995), vol. I “General Considerations,” 321.
46 Jacques, 28.
47 Ibid, 28.
48 John Paul Lederach, “Civil Society and Reconciliation,” in Turbulent Peace, ed. Chester Crocker, Fen Osler
Hampson, and Pamela Aall (Washington DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2001), 842.
49 Kimberley A. Maynard, “Rebuilding Community: psychosocial Healing, Reintegration, and Reconciliation at the
Grassroots Level,” in Rebuilding Societies After Civil War, ed. Krishna Kumar (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner
Publishers, 1997) 210.
9750 Jonathan D. Tepperman, “Truth and Consequences.” Foreign Affairs 81 (March/April 2002), 133.
51 Crocker, “Truth Commissions, Transitional Justice, and Civil Society,” 103.
52 As cited in Hayner, 128.
53 Crocker, “Truth Commissions, Transitional Justice, and Civil Society,”, 103.
54 Sarkin, 801.
55 Ibid, 803.
56 Tomuschat, 236.
” Jacques, 22.
58 Patricia Hayner. Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocities. (New York: Routledge, 2001), 36.
59 Ibid, 33.
60 “El Salvador: Mexico Peace Agreements - Provisions Creating the Commission on Truth.” U.N. Doc. S/25500
(April 1, 1993) reprinted in Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes vol. III,
Ed., Neil J. Kritz. Washington, D.C.: United States Peace Institute Press, 1995. 174-6.
61 Ibid.
62 Ibid.
63 Mike Kaye. “The Role of Truth Commission in the Search for Justice, Reconciliation, and Democratisation: The
Salvadoran and Honduran Cases.” Journal of Latin American Studies, 29.3 (Oct. 1997), 699.
64 Beurgenthal, 296.
65 “El Salvador: Mexico Peace Agreements - Provisions Creating the Commission on Truth,” 1993.
66 Handy, Jim. Gift of the Devil. South End Press (U.S.A., 1984), 149.
67 “Agreement on the establishment of the Commission to clarify past human rights violations and acts of violence
that have caused the Guatemalan population to suffer.” http://www.usip.org/library/pa/guatemala/guat 940623.html,
3/28/2004.
68 Ibid, 3/28/2004.
69 Ibid, 3/28/2004.
70 Ibid, 3/28/2004.
71 Ibid, 3/28/2004.
72 Chapman and Ball, 33.
73 Sarkin, 808.
74 Beurgenthal, 303.
75 Ibid, 301.
76 Ibid, 302.
77 Ibid, 303-4.
78 Ibid, 304.
79 Ibid, 301.
80 Ibid, 304.
81 Tomuschat, 238.
82 “Agreement on the establishment of the Commission to clarify past human rights violations and acts of violence
that have caused the Guatemalan population to suffer.” http://www.usip.org/library/pa/guatemala/guat 940623.html,
3/28/2004.
83 Tomuschat, 241.
84 Chapman and Ball, 17.
85 Ibid, 20.
86 Ibid, 17.
87 Ibid, 28.
88 Greg Grandin. “Chronicles of a Guatemalan Genocide Foretold: Violence, trauma, and the Limits of Historical
Inquiry.” Nepantla: Views from the South 1.2 (2000) 392.
89 Ibid, 397.
90 Ibid, 392.
91
Mark Ensalaco. “Truth Commissions for Chile and El Salvador: a Report and Assessment.” Human Rights
Quarterly, v16 n4 (Nov 1994) 657. from From Madness to Hope, supra note 7, at 19.
92 Ibid, 657.
93
From Madness to Hope: the 12-year war in El Salvador: Report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador,
1993. http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/el salvador/tc es 03151993 casesD1 2.html#D2, 4/11/04.
9894 “El Salvador: Mexico Peace Agreements - Provisions Creating the Commission on Truth,” 1993.
95 Tomuschat, 239.
96 Ibid, 239.
97 Ibid, 240.
98 Chapman and Ball, 24.
99
Seils, 36.
100 /bid, 36.
101 Tomuschat, 242.
102 Seils, 37.
103 “Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions: Design Factors: Proceedings,”
http://www.truthcommission.org/factor.php?fid=5&mode=m&lang=en , 2/15/04.
104
Chapman and Ball, 24.
105 Beurgenthal, 298.
106 “Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions: Design Factors: Dissemination of Findings,”
http://www.truthcommission.org/factor.php?fid=7&mode=m&lang=en , 2/15/04.
107 Beurgenthal, 294.
108 Ibid, 294.
109 Ibid, 294.
110 Document annexed to the Mexico Accords, April 27, 1991. Quoted in ComisiOn de la Verdad para El Salvador,
De la locura a la esperanza: La guerra de 12 alios en El Salvador (San Salvador, 1993), 261.
“Agreement on the establishment of the Commission to clarify past human rights violations and acts of violence
that have caused the Guatemalan population to suffer.” Peace Agreements Digital Collection: Guatemala, United
States Institute for Peace Library, http://www.usip.org/library/pa/guatemala/guat 940623.html, 3/28/2004.
112 Tomuschat, 246.
113 “Agreement on the establishment of the Commission to clarify past human rights violations and acts of violence
that have caused the Guatemalan population to suffer.” Peace Agreements Digital Collection: Guatemala, United
States Institute for Peace Library, http://www.usip.org/library/pa/guatemala/guat 940623.html, 3/28/2004.
114
Tomuschat, 249.
115 Ibid, 249.
116 Ibid, 250.
117 Beurgenthal, 303.
118 Ibid, 298.
119 Chapman and Ball, 30; and “Agreement on the establishment of the Commission to clarify past human rights
violations and acts of violence that have caused the Guatemalan population to suffer.” Peace Agreements Digital
Collection: Guatemala, United States Institute for Peace Library,
http://www.usip.org/library/pa/guatemala/guat 940623.html, 3/28/2004; and Neil J. Kritz, ed. Transitional Justice:
How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace
Press, 1995), vol. III, Laws, Rulings, and Reports, 175.
120 Beurgenthal, 298, 303.
121
Ibid, 299.
122
Ibid, 299.
123 Tomuschat, 252.
124 r •
Dia 252.
125 Ibid, 252.
126 Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions: Background Cases: El Salvador,”
http://www.truthcommission.org/commission.php?lang=en&cid=2&case.x=38&case.y=6 . 2/15/04.
127 Beurgenthal, 302.
128
Ibid, 317.
129 Chapman and Ball, 24.
130 Class presentation by Marco Tulio and Juan RamOn Donado from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology
Foundation, April 8, 2004. Latin American and Iberian Studies Class, Haverford College. Haverford, Pennsylvania.
131 Chapman and Ball, 24.
132 Ibid, 24.
99133 Guatemala: Never Again! Recovery of Historical Memory Project, The Official Report of the Human Rights
Office, Archdiocese of Guatemala. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1999.
134 Chapman and Ball, 25.
135 Tomuschat, 248.
136 Ibid, 248.
137 Ibid, 248.
138 Ibid, 248.
139 Ibid, 248.
14° Ibid, 246.
141
Ibid, 246.
142 Ibid,
246.
143 Chapman and Ball, 37.
144 Ibid, 37.
145 Ibid, 38.
146 Ibid, 38.
147 Ibid, 38.
148
Kaye, 812.
149 Beurgenthal, 301 quoting From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador: Report of the Commission
on the Truth for El Salvador, S/25500, 1993, supra note 1, at 43.
15° Sarkin, 812.
151 Beurgenthal, 296.
152 Kaye, 700, and Sarkin, 812.
153 Kaye701.
154 Ibid, 701.
155 Hayner, 39.
156 Ensalaco, 659.
157 Ibid, 658 from From Madness to Hope, supra note 7, at 192.
158 Beurgenthal, 301 quoting From Madness to Hope, supra note 1, at 25.
159 Report of the Chilean National Commission of truth and Reconciliation, page xxxii. Quoted in Kaye, 701
16° Kaye, 701.
161 Beurgenthal, 301.
162 r •
ma 301.
163 Ibid, 301.
164 Ibid, 300.
165 Ibid, 300.
166
Ibid, 325.
167 Chapman and Ball, 25.
168 Tomuschat, 253.
169 Chapman and Ball, 14.
17° Ibid, 33.
171 Guatemala: Memory of Silence: Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification: Conclusions and
Recommendations, “Conclusions.” United Nations Office of Project Services, 1999.
http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/report/english/recs3.html , 1/28/04.
172 Chapman and Ball, 33.
173 Chapman and Ball, 33.
174 Chapman and Ball, 33.
175 Chapman and Ball, 13.
176 Guatemala: Memory of Silence: Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification: Conclusions and
Recommendations, “Conclusions.” United Nations Office of Project Services, 1999.
http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/report/english/recs3.html , 1/28/04, 80.
177 Ensalaco, 658 from From Madness to Hope, supra note 7, at 191.
178 UN Security Council Annex, From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador: Report of the
Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, S/25500, 1993, 172-187 posted on USIP Library,
http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/el sal vador/tc es 03151993 V.html , 1/28/04.
179 Ibid, 1/28/04.
100180 Ibid, 1/28/04.
181 Ibid, 1/28/04.
182 Ensalaco, 659.
183 Guatemala: Memory of Silence: Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification: Conclusions and
Recommendations, “Recommendations.” United Nations Office of Project Services, 1999.
http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/report/english/recs3.html , 1/28/04.
184 Tomuschat, 253.
185 Guatemala: Memory of Silence: Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification: Conclusions and
Recommendations, “Recommendations.” United Nations Office of Project Services, 1999.
http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/report/english/recs3.html , 1/28/04.
186 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 42.
187 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 42.
188 Popkin, Margaret. Peace Without Justice: Obstacles to Building the Rule of Law in El Salvador. University Park,
PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press (2000), 160 citing Address to the nation, March 18, 1993; quoted in
IACHR, El Salvador Report (1994), 70.
189 Kaye, 705-6.
190 Ibid, 705. Quoted from Americas Watch, El Salvador - Accountability and Human Rights: The Report of the
United Nations Commission on the Truth for El Salvador (New York, 1993), 9-10.
191 Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions: Design Factors: Dissemination of Findings,”
http://www.truthcommission.org/factor.php?fid=7&mode=m&lang=en . 2/15/04.
192 Ibid, 2/15/04.
193 Beurgenthal, 319.
194
Popkin, Margaret. Peace Without Justice: Obstacles to Building the Rule of Law in El Salvador. University Park,
PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press (2000), 159.
195 Beurgenthal, 319.
196 Chapman and Ball, 34.
197 Seils, 42.
198 Grandin, 408.
199 Ibid, 408 as referenced from radio broadcast, Noti-7, 25 February 1999.
200
Ibid, 408.
201
Ibid, 408.
202 Tomuschat, Christian. “Clarification Commission in Guatemala.” Human Rights Quarterly, v23 (2001) 253.
203 Ibid, 253.
204 Seils, 43.
205 Ibid, 43.
206 Grandin, 408 from Prensa Libre. 26 March, 1999.
207 Ibid, 408 from Siglo Veintiuno, 1 March 1999.
208 Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions: Background Cases: El Salvador,”
http://www.truthcommission.org/commission.phOlang=en&cid=2&case.x=38&case.y=6 . 2/15/04.
209
Popkin, 161.
210 Kaye, 706.
211
Popkin, 160.
212 “Amnesty International: El Salvador: 2003 Summary” http://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/print/s1v-summary-
eng, 4/7/2004.
213 “El Salvador: Monument to Memory adn Truth - dignifying the victims of armed conflict,” Amnesty
International Public Statement, December 12, 2003. http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR290112003,
4/7/2004.
214
Ibid, 4/7/2004.
215 Ibid, 4/7/2004.
216 Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions: Background Cases: El Salvador,”
http://www.truthcommission.org/commission.php?lana=en&cid=2&case.x=38&case.y=6 . 2/15/04.
217 Kaye, 704.
218 Kaye, 704.
219 Hertvick, Nicole. “El Salvador: Effecting Change from Within.” UN Chronicle, v39 i3 (Sept-Nov 2002), 75.
220 Kaye, 705.
101221 Kaye, 705.
222 Kaye, 705.
223
Kaye, 704.
224 Kaye, 705.
225 Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions: Background Cases: El Salvador,”
http://www.truthcommission.org/commission.php?lang=en&cid=2&case.x=38&case.y=6 . 2/15/04.
226 “Amnesty International: El Salvador: 2003 Summary” hap://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/print/sIv-summary-
eng, 4/7/2004.
227 Ibid, 4/7/2004.
228
Ibid, 4/7/2004.
229
Popkin, 161.
230 Tomuschat, 255.
231 Ibid, 255.
232 Seils„ 44.
233 Tomuschat, 255.
234 Seils, 44.
235 Ibid, 44.
236 Ibid, 44 citing interview with Alfredo Balsells Tojo in El Periodico (30 June 2001).
237 Ibid, 44.
238 Ibid, 44.
239 Ibid, 45.
240 Tomuschat, 254.
241
Ibid, 254.
242
Ibid, 254. reference to CEH, Tomo VI, supra note 1, at 397.
243 “Guatemala Massacre Compensation,” BBC News Online, Wednesday, December 12, 2001.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/1703601.stm , 4/7/2004.
244
Tomuschat, 254 referenceing Elder Interiano, Plantearan denuncia contra Lucas Garcia, Prensa Libre, 2 May
2000.
245 “Deep Cause for Concern. Amnesty International’s Assessment of the current human rights situation in
Guatemala,” Amnesty International. http:/web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR340222003 . 1/31/2004.
246
•
ID1C1 1/31/2004.
247 Seils, 45.
248
Ibid, 45.
249 Chapman and Ball, 36.
250 Ibid, 36.
251 Ibid, 36.
252 Ibid, 36.
253 Ibid, 36.
254 Ibid, 36.
255 Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions: Design Factors: Dissemination of Findings,”
http://www.truthcommission.org/factor.php?fid=7&mode=m&lang=en . 2/15/04.
256 Ibid, 2/15/04.
257 Ibid, 2/15/04.
258
Popkin, 159.