By Megan
Abbot
The Sepur Zarco
case, named after a military base in which widespread human rights abuses
occurred against the civilian population, charges Lieutenant Colonel Esteelmer
Reyes Giron, former commander of the base, and former military commissioner
Heriberto Valdez Asig for their leadership of crimes of mass sexual violence
and slavery. The prosecutor is charging
these crimes as violations of international humanitarian law, and thus as war
crimes. Jo-Marie Burt reports for the
International Justice Monitor
that it is the first time that the Guatemalan court has prosecuted a crime of
sexual violence from its decades-long civil war. It is the first time that any court of any
country is hearing crimes of sexual violence as crimes under international law.
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