Tv-team mördades 1982 – tidigare försvarsminister döms
En domstol i El Salvador har dömt tre personer till 15 års fängelse för mordet på fyra nederländska journalister 1982, rapporterar AP.
Bland de dömda finns två pensionerade överstar samt landets tidigare försvarsminister José Guillermo Garcia.
Journalisterna hade rest till El Salvador för att göra en dokumentär om inbördeskriget som skakade landet i 13 år. De följde en grupp soldater från vänsterrebellerna FMLN när de sköts ihjäl av soldater från armén.
Nederländernas utrikesminister Caspar Veldkamp välkomnar domen, som föll efter en flera år lång process.
”Jag är tacksam till myndigheterna i El Salvador som har jobbat outtröttligt med fallet”, skriver han på X.
bakgrund
Inbördeskriget i El Salvador
Wikipedia (en)
The Salvadoran Civil War (Spanish: guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador, backed by the United States, and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left-wing guerilla groups backed by Cuba under Fidel Castro as well as the Soviet Union. A coup on 15 October 1979 followed by government killings of anti-coup protesters is widely seen as the start of civil war. The war did not formally end until after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when, on 16 January 1992 the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in Mexico City.
The United Nations (UN) reports that the war killed more than 75,000 people between 1979 and 1992, along with approximately 8,000 disappeared persons. Human rights violations, particularly the kidnapping, torture, and murder of suspected FMLN sympathizers by state security forces and paramilitary death squads – were pervasive.
The Salvadoran government was considered an ally of the U.S. in the context of the Cold War. During the Carter and Reagan administrations, the US provided economic aid to the Salvadoran government. The US also provided significant training and equipment to the military. By May 1983, it was reported that US military officers were working within the Salvadoran High Command and making important strategic and tactical decisions. The United States government believed its extensive assistance to El Salvador's government was justified on the grounds that the insurgents were backed by the Soviet Union.
Counterinsurgency tactics implemented by the Salvadoran government often targeted civilians. Overall, the United Nations estimated that FMLN guerrillas were responsible for 5 percent of atrocities committed during the civil war, while 85 percent were committed by the Salvadoran security forces.
Accountability for these civil war-era atrocities has been hindered by a 1993 amnesty law. In 2016, however, the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador ruled in case Incostitucionalidad 44-2013/145-2013 that the law was unconstitutional and that the Salvadoran government could prosecute suspected war criminals.
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