KATE DOYLE
Director of the Guatemala Project at the National Security Archive, which worked with the Commission for Historical Clarification, Doyle said: “Though not all the relevant material was turned over to the `truth commission,’ the U.S. took the Commission’s requests seriously and produced some critical documents. I hope this is a harbinger for support of future human rights investigations in the hemisphere. Now that the Guatemalan commission has finished its work, the U.S. should establish its own truth commission to expose, investigate and analyze our sometimes scandalous role in Latin America during the Cold War.”

JENNIFER HARBURY
Director of the human rights program at Global Exchange and author of “Searching for Everardo: A Story of Love, War and the CIA in Guatemala,” Harbury told the Institute for Public Accuracy today: “All of us with concerns for human rights worldwide and especially in Guatemala must feel very pleased with the recent `truth commission.’ We must take careful note of the commission director Christian Tomuschat’s comments regarding U.S. complicity and responsibility for the repression that took place. Now is the time to carefully examine the role of the U.S. in the dirty wars throughout Latin America.”

LARRY BIRNS
Director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Birns said: “The Clinton administration has been more forthcoming than any other in turning over information, but it has still refused to release much of the documentation on the U.S. government’s role in the killings in Guatemala, and much of what it has released was blacked out. Moreover, the U.S. has declined to urge other countries, like Argentina which provided training, to cooperate with Guatemala as it tries to sort out the facts…. Given the record of the region in terms of corruption, donors need to beware when they give aid — so that the money doesn’t fall into the hands of government officials; that’s what happened after the 1974 hurricane.”
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SR. ALICE ZACHMANN
Founder and director of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA, Sr. Zachmann said: “It is my hope that Clinton offers an apology for the U.S. role in the killings, moves toward making reparations and carries out the recommendations of the Clarification Commission report. The report confirmed what human rights activists have been saying all these years: Over 200,000 people were killed and over 600 massacres took place. The U.S.-backed military death squads carried out 93 percent of the killings, the guerrillas were responsible for 3 percent. Because 83 percent of the victims were Mayan indigenous — long repressed — the report classified it as genocide.” The Commission report is at: www.hrdata.aaas.org/ceh/report

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167