91. That week had been a very busy one for CALDH as they had formally announced the intention of a number of Guatemalan communities to bring Rios Montt to trial for Genocide. Montt has recently been elected as the head of the Guatemalan Congress.

92.  Paul asked if there had been recent Canadian legislation, which allowed the extra-territorial prosecution of individuals for crimes against humanity.   I had not heard of such legislation but I promised that I would check on this for him upon my return. 

93. Paul said that he had been happy with the press coverage of the initiative against Rios Montt.  In particular, the printed press coverage was much more extensive than that of the television coverage. In fact, Paul said that he had yet to see any coverage of the charges on television news.  This, in spite of the fact that the announcement made the front page of virtually every Guatemalan newspaper.  This was a direct parallel of the type of coverage that the Gerardi case was getting.

94. Paul indicated that within eight (8) to twelve (12) months there would be a decision by the Public Ministry as to whether the current case against Rios Montt would go to trial.  He indicated that if the case was not going to go to trial within Guatemala that they would be referring the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

95. Paul said that a way for Canadian organizations to help would be to petition the Guatemalan Government and ask for due process in the case, which would serve to increase what he described as “the ethos of professionalism”. Having lawyers pressuring other lawyers to uphold a fair process for the action against Rios Montt would be very helpful to CALDH.  He also urged LRWC to do a letter writing campaign at least letting the Guatemalan authorities know that the international community is aware that the Genocide action has been launched.  He also said that it would be helpful if we could let UN Special Rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy know about what is happening and our knowledge in this regard.

96.  In the Rios Montt case, Paul indicated that there were at least fifty (50) eyewitnesses that could potentially testify in the case and that ultimately they would probably use a very small number of these eyewitnesses in the actual trial itself. He said that CALDH had met with prosecutors involved in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to get strategy advice on how to present their case.

97. When I returned to the CALDH lobby Marta Julia from ODHAG had received two “ghost” calls on her cell phone where no one spoke.  She was extremely worried about the calls because no one had the number other than people who knew her. She wasn’t sure if the calls had come from people she knew and there had been a bad connection or whether the calls had come from someone who was tracking her movements. Later she was able to verify that a friend had been trying to reach her. It was evident from this incident however,  that ODHAG staff live in continual fear of being watched, having their phones tapped, and being threatened. 

June 8, 2001 5:00 pm with the Myrna Mack Foundation

98. I met with Helen Mack, Myrna Mack’s sister and the Founder and Director of the Foundation.

99. Both Helen and I were exhausted at this point in the day as she had also been at the Courthouse and had not slept the previous night. She had spent a large part of the day giving statements to the press about the outcome of the Gerardi trial. After I introduced LRWC and the IDC, Helen gave a brief history of the Myrna Mack Foundation.  Myrna Mack was a Guatemalan anthropologist who had undertaken some consulting work on behalf of Catholic Bishop Cabrerra who had been based in Quiché. Myrna wrote about the displacement of the indigenous people in Quiché and about the difficulties of reintegrating to normal village life following the scorched earth campaigns perpetrated by the Army.  As a result of her work, Myrna Mack became a military target.  In 1990 she was stabbed twenty-seven (27) times by a member of the Estado Mayor Presidencial (EMP)

in Guatemala City. 

100. Myrna’s sister Helen began working to seek justice for Myrna’s murder after an investigating officer was murdered.  This was one of many systemic obstacles which were thrown in the path of the investigation. Over time, twelve (12) Judges have had conduct of Myrna Mack’s case.  Again Canada has been involved in witness protection.

101. There had been a direct eyewitness to the murder and in fact there was a conviction of the material author of the crime in 1994, the first time a member of the military had been convicted in a civil court in Guatemala. Since then Helen Mack has been trying to prosecute the intellectual authors of the crime and in that regard has indicted a number of high-ranking Army officers.

102. Above and beyond working on the Myrna Mack case, the Myrna Mack Foundation has been deeply involved in the organization of NGO’s and community organizations which have been pushing hard for legal reform in Guatemala and working towards general judicial reform which will see an end to legal impunity for Government and Military officials. The Foundation was instrumental in having the charge of extra-judicial execution brought into Guatemalan law.  It was a result of the investigation into Myrna Mack’s killing and the work of the Foundation that for the first time the concept of an “intellectual author” of a crime was introduced.  This was one of the reasons that Helen Mack reacted so emotionally to the verdict in the Gerardi case. The result was a very large symbolic victory for the Foundation. She was also happy because of ODHAG’s success. ODHAG was the very first Guatemalan NGO to support the work of Myrna Mack and to lend solidarity in the investigation of her murder. 

103. The Foundation has also been very involved in the National Commission of Justice which is a commission comprised of a wide group of organizations both directly involved in the justice system and other human rights organizations as well as the universities. The Commission is a body that was established as a result of the 1996 peace agreement and it is designed to recommend legal reform. 

104. In terms of international support, the Foundation is supported by a number of different organizations including the Soros Foundation, the United Nations Development Program, and organizations from Germany, Holland and Denmark.  Helen Mack mentioned that the Foundation received some support from the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, the Canadian NGO based in Montreal headed by Warren Allmand.  The Foundation has also received helped from the U.S.-based Lawyers Committee on Human Rights who have acted as a petitioner for the Myrna Mack case in front of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

105.  Helen indicated that the next case which will involve military accused in Guatemala is quite likely to be the Myrna Mack case and that the Foundation is looking for whatever kind of support they can get from the international community, including observers.