A Guatemalan human rights court revealed Tuesday more than 30 boxes containing the remains and clothes of 48 people, at the seventh hearing of a ground-breaking sex slavery trial.
ANALYSIS: Sepur Zarco Trial: Guatemala Women Seek Justice for Sex Slavery
Prosecutors presented the sealed cardboard boxes of the remains of victims linked to the Sepur Zarco trial, against former military officers accused of committing sexual enslavement and forced disappearance during the most brutal years of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war.
Boxes of human remains in middle of the courtroom rare a powerful reminder of why we're here. #Justice #SepurZarco pic.twitter.com/69C93ZbUVB
— Jo-Marie Burt (@jomaburt) February 9, 2016
The remains were exhumed from Las Tinajas farm, in the same Alta Verapaz region as the Sepur Zarco military base, where 11 indigenous Q’eqchi’ women were held captive, forced to be domestic slaves and systematically raped after their husbands were massacred by the military.
Forensics expert Oscar Ariel Ixpatan explained that injuries found in the remains were consistent with gunshots and beatings. He also said that he found blindfolds and ropes around the mouths and hands of the remains of the victims.
The expert then opened the boxes, and demonstrated the remains and clothing of the victims.
The prosecutor confirmed that 51 bodies were exhumed in Tinajas in 2012, according to journalist Jo-Marie Burt who attended the hearing. Forty-eight of the bodies were complete, two were identified and returned to their relatives. One of these was Sebino Chen Chama, husband of Rosa Tiul, one of the 11 women victims in the Sepur Zarco case.
Peritos del MP abren las cajas donde se encuentran las osamentas. pic.twitter.com/3rPsRSFCK5
— Carlos Álvarez (@calvarez_pl) February 9, 2016
The historic trial, which began Feb. 1 this year, seeks to prove that 11 women were victims of sexual abuse and domestic slavery in the the Sepur Zarco military base, between 1982 and 1986. It considers the acts committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The victims were present in the courtroom, wearing indigenous dress and with their heads and faces covered.
Las valientes mujeres sobrevivientes antentas a la exposición de pruebas encontradas en destacamento de Tinajas. pic.twitter.com/hKDXOe1gTm
— MTM Guatemala (@mtm_guatemala) February 9, 2016
"Courageous female survivors attentive to the display of evidence found at the Tinajas base."
Standing accused are coronel Esteelmer Francisco Reyes Giron and former soldier Heriberto Valdez Asij, who have been been in prison for the last 20 years.
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On the first day of the trial, Reyes Giron refused to cooperate with the proceedings.
“I am not going to respond to anyone, I won’t even give you my name,” he told Judge Yassmin Barrios.
In 1999, three years after the peace accords were signed in Guatemala, the U.N.-backed Truth Commission investigating civil war atrocities found that rape was systematic and widespread during the conflict.
According to the commission, “the rape of women, during torture or before being murdered, was a common practice aimed at destroying one of the most intimate and vulnerable aspects of the individual’s dignity.”
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