Secret archives aid further war crimes prosecution in Guatemala

Official archives unearthed years after the end of civil war in Guatemala are aiding the prosecution of war crimes suspects, including senior military officials.

The evidence found within the archives is reported to be sufficient enough to start new cases, bringing yet more perpetrators to trial, even now.

The archives, housed in a maze of dark rooms in a disused building, being used to store munitions, were found accidentally in 2005. Since then, the records have been digitally scanned and backed up on secure servers ourside the country by human rights groups, in order to push through further prosecutions.

 

In 2009, the records were made public, with 12 million digitalised copies published online by the University of Texas in Austin.

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