> >2 Ex-Salvador Generals Cleared by U.S. Jury in Nuns' Deaths
> >http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/04/world/04SALV.html
> >
> >November 4, 2000
> >
> >By DAVID GONZALEZ
> >
> >WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Nov. 3 A federal jury today cleared two
> >retired Salvadoran generals of responsibility in the abduction,
> >rape and murder of four American churchwomen by members of El
> >Salvador's National Guard in 1980. The jury said the two men could
> >not have done anything more to prevent the crime.
> >
> > The unanimous verdict shocked friends and relatives of the women,
> >who had sat through the trial and relived their anguish while
> >listening to gruesome accounts of the violence and chaos that swept
> >through El Salvador in its 12-year civil war, which claimed 75,000
> >lives before it ended in 1992.
> >
> > After what jurors described as emotional deliberations in an
> >almost churchlike atmosphere, they found that the generals had done
> >what they could to curb abuses, given the tumult of the era and a
> >lack of resources to conduct effective investigations or to
> >discipline their troops.
> >
> > "A general can issue orders," a juror, Robert Morrow, said after
> >the verdict. "Say you have 400,000 refugees and you issue an order
> >to feed them. You go to the supply, and there is no food. Are you
> >responsible for them starving because of this? I don't think they
> >could have done anything that could have saved their lives. If they
> >could have done something, either of them, they would have."
> >
> > In 1984, five enlisted members of the guard were convicted in El
> >Salvador and sentenced to 30 years in jail for the murders. Later,
> >four of the men said they had acted on superiors' orders.
> >
> > Neither retired general Jos Guillermo GarcLa, 67, who was
> >defense minister, and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, 62, who was
> >director of the National Guard was in the courtroom. Both retired
> >to Florida and have permanent resident status here.
> >
> > The verdict, rendered after little more than a full day of
> >deliberation, hinged on the legal doctrine of command
> >responsibility and whether the men knew or should have known that
> >troops under their command had been involved in previous abuses and
> >failed to take steps to rein them in.
> >
> > "The instructions we received were explicit in that we had to
> >determine if these two defendants had effective control over their
> >troops," the foreman of the 10-member jury, Bruce Schnirel, said.
> >"We're talking about control, enough to control what they did as it
> >was presented to us as a chaotic time and conflict. There was no
> >way we could determine these two guys could control all events
> >happening with their troops."
> >
> > The women, two Maryknoll nuns, Maura Clarke and Ita C. Ford; an
> >Ursuline nun, Dorothy Kazel; and a lay missionary, Jean Donovan,
> >were abducted shortly after they had left El Salvador International
> >Airport in Comalapa for San Salvador on Dec. 2, 1980. Their
> >relatives filed a $100 million suit under the Torture Victim
> >Protection Act of 1992. That law lets victims or their survivors
> >seek punitive and compensatory damages from people who committed
> >human rights abuses.
> >
> > "It's a great law," the generals' lawyer, Kurt Klaus Jr., said. "I
> >hope it achieves what it is designed to do, which is to keep these
> >political acts of extrajudicial killings from happening. It's meant
> >to hold people responsible for those acts, not those who were not
> >responsible."
> >
> > Ken Hurwitz, a consultant to the Lawyers Committee for Human
> >Rights, which has represented the women's families, said the
> >generals did have control over their troops. He noted that when
> >Vice President George Bush went to El Salvador in 1983 to urge the
> >military to take steps against the death squads that were operating
> >under cover in the war, some changes were made.
> >
> > "It stopped," Mr. Hurwitz said of the killings. "They had control.
> >There is nothing to say they could not have done so."
> >
> > A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Robert Kerrigan, said he would move
> >for a new trial on the ground that the jury had been misled by the
> >defense lawyer's insistence that the generals could not have
> >predicted the slayings. Mr. Kerrigan said the doctrine of command
> >responsibility required only proof that a pattern of abuse existed
> >that created a climate that led to the murders.
> >
> > "This is the first time a U.S. jury has addressed foreign command
> >responsibility," Mr. Kerrigan said. "That concept is not natural to
> >our way of thinking."
> >
> > The victims' relatives were disappointed. They consoled one
> >another outside the courtroom. They said the case had been a
> >victory of sorts, because they were not only able to have the
> >generals appear in court, but they also had evidence introduced
> >that cast light on American foreign policy.
> >
> > "Ita's not going to come back," said Bill Ford, her brother. "But
> >this case has been valuable in pointing out what happened in El
> >Salvador, in pointing out the moral mistakes of U.S. policy during
> >the 1980's, when we gave aid to a murder machine because it was
> >anti-Communist."
> >
> > In the trial, the plaintiffs' lawyers introduced voluminous
> >reports, declassified State Department memorandums and United
> >States Embassy cables that indicated that American officials had
> >told the generals several times that National Guard troops were
> >involved in human rights abuses, but that the generals had seemed
> >resistant to following up. An embassy cable noted that the National
> >Guard had been implicated in the murders of six opposition figures
> >days before the women's deaths and that the murders heralded a new
> >era of extremism in the military.
> >
> > A report by the United Nations-led Truth Commission, which
> >investigated the war, said the generals had obstructed inquiries
> >into the murders. The report said a military investigator whom
> >General GarcLa had appointed to look into the women's case had
> >transferred the implicated troops to a new unit and had them switch
> >rifles with other soldiers.
> >
> > The generals admitted in the trial that they were aware of abuses
> >in the military and that some soldiers were involved in the death
> >squads. Mr. Vides Casanova said at one point that although he knew
> >of torture cells that soldiers used, no charges were ever brought
> >against them.
> >
> > They generals said that they thought the military was out of
> >control when they took command after a coup in 1979, but that they
> >tried to send the message that the killing of civilians was not
> >permissible. They said that when they tried to follow up on reports
> >of killings, their subordinates repeatedly told them the incidents
> >were military confrontations with armed groups.
> >
> > The generals also said they were caught up in a life-or-death
> >struggle against leftist insurgents. Although they lamented the
> >women's deaths, they also said their efforts had helped end the war
> >and usher in a more democratic system.
> >
> > "They were dedicated to enforcing human rights and bringing
> >democracy to the country," Mr. Klaus said. "They were part of the
> >solution, not part of the problem."
> >
> > The women's relatives and their lawyers said they hoped that the
> >new evidence would help another suit filed against the former
> >generals by several survivors of torture. That case is to be heard
> >here in the spring.
> >
> > "The families will continue to tell the truth and seek justice for
> >those who loved and died for the poor," Mary Anne Ford, Ita Ford's
> >sister- in-law, said. "In one of Ita's letters to us, she talked
> >about how she faced roadblocks and obstacles in El Salvador, but
> >she kept on working. This is a roadblock. It is not
> >insurmountable."
> >
> >
> >
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> >