17 May 2013 11:53 am
Allan Nairn: After Ros Montt Verdict, Time for U.S. to Account for Its Role in Guatemalan GenocideFollowing last weeks guilty verdict in Guatemalas historic genocide trial, reporter Allan Nairn says the United States should follow Guatemalas lead and indict the Reagan administration officials who supported the genocide under General Efran Ros Montt. "All of (these crimes) were crimes not just of General Ros Montt, but also of the U.S. government," Nairn says.Former President Ronald Reagan once called Ros Montt "a man of great personal integrity."After the verdict, Judge Yassmin Barrios ordered the attorney general to launch an immediate investigation of "all others" connected to the crimes.Nairn said that The U.S. prosecutors in Washington should immediately convene a grand jury with two missions: first, coming to the aid of the Guatemalan attorney general, who has just been ordered by the court to investigate all others involved in Ros Montt’s crimes, by releasing all classified U.S. documents about what happened during the slaughter, which U.S. personnel were involved, providing to the Guatemalan attorney general a list of all Guatemalan army officials and security force officials who were on the payroll of the American CIA, and then proceeding to issue indictments against U.S. officials who acted in the role of accessory or accomplice to the crimes for which Ros Montt has already been convicted.The top officials of the Reagan administration who made the policy-President Reagan is deceased, but his top aides, including Elliott Abrams and many others, are still alive; the U.S. CIA personnel on the ground who worked within the G2, the military intelligence unit that coordinated the assassinations and disappearances; the U.S. military attachs who worked with the Guatemalan generals to develop this sweep-and-massacre strategy in the mountains. There would be hundreds of U.S. officials who were complicit in this and should be subpoenaed, called before a grand jury and subjected to indictment. And the U.S. should be ready to extradite them to Guatemala to face punishment.