GROUNDBREAKING CONVICTION OF MILITARY OFFICIALS

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 001727

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM GT
SUBJECT: GROUNDBREAKING CONVICTION OF MILITARY OFFICIALS
FOR XAMAN MASSACRE



1. Summary. Fourteen soldiers were sentenced to 40 years in
prison on July 9 for the murder of 11 civilians during the
1995 Xaman massacre. The Xaman killings were the last of
approximately 626 massacres perpetrated by the army during
Guatemala's 36-year civil conflict, and occurred only
fourteen months before the signing of the 1996 Peace Accords.
Following a five year legal tug-of-war, the court found the
defendants, including one lieutenant and 13 enlisted troops,
responsible for the extra-judicial murders of eleven
individuals and the injury of 35 others. The July 9 Xaman
sentence is the harshest judgment ever made against military
officials for crimes committed during the civil war.


2. Background: On October 5, 1995, an army patrol of 24
soldiers, led by second lieutenant Camilo Lacan Chaclan,
entered the Xaman community in Chisec, Alta Verapaz. The
Xaman villagers were among the first group of refugees that
had returned from years of hiding in Mexico, after being
reassured by the GOG that the military would not enter the
community. Unlike earlier massacres, in which the Guatemalan
army deliberately targeted civilians while waging a
"scorched-earth" campaign, the Xaman killings resulted from
poor planning and training of the individual patrol
responsible. After a brief standoff with a tense crowd of
unarmed civilians, the patrol opened fire. Altogether, the
soldiers killed nine adults and two children and injured 35
others.


3. The Legal Battle: The Public Ministry in Coban, Alta
Verapaz, pressured by private plaintiff Rigoberta Menchu
Foundation, initiated proceedings in the Xaman massacre in

1998. After almost a year, a three-judge panel sentenced
twelve soldiers (including Lieutenant Lacan Chaclan) to five
years in prison for homicide on August 12, 1999. The other
thirteen patrol members received only four years on charges
of complicity.


4. Though the 1999 convictions were the first ever against
military officials for crimes committed during the civil
conflict, the human rights community, including the Menchu
Foundation, was openly critical of the short sentences. The
Public Ministry appealed the ruling, and in December of 1999,
the Coban Appeals Court increased the sentences of ten
individuals to twelve years and fully acquitted the other 15
(including Lacan Chaclan). The Supreme Court overturned the
December 1999 Appeals sentence in April 2000 and ordered that
the fifteen defendants who had been acquitted the year before
be re-arrested and retried. However, police only captured
four (including Lacan Chaclan). The other eleven remain
at-large.


5. Comment: The Coban Sentencing Tribunal tried fourteen of
the soldiers involved in the Xaman massacre in 2004,
convicting all of them on July 9 to 40 years in prison.
Human rights leaders Frank LaRue and Helen Mack expressed
surprise and pleasure to HROff at the landmark conviction.
Though the sentence will certainly be appealed by the
defendants, the Public Ministry's victory in the Xaman case
could set a benchmark for other massacre cases languishing in
the legal system, including Rio Negro and Dos Erres.
WHARTON