The Atrocity Archives

The wife of Guatemala's human rights ombudsman was kidnapped, held for 14 hours, and beaten. Just a day after the release of a report into police atrocities during the country's 36-year-long civil war.

It is being viewed as a warning to those behind the release of the first batch of the 80 million documents discovered in 2005 in an abandoned warehouse.

The documents contain evidence of police involvement in tens of thousands of kidnappings, forced disappearances, and extra-judicial killings.

There were few prosecutions for human rights violations carried out during the war waged between successive right-wing dictatorships and a left-wing insurgency.

However, two former policemen have been charged with the forced disappearance of union leader Fernando Garcia in 1984.

Prosecutors for the first time used information found in the archives to make a case.

Gerry Northam hears the story of the archive's chance discovery and what it contains.

Programme Two begins with a tour of the archives - where documents, mouldy and crumbling, are being deciphered by a team of dedicated archivists and technicians.

Many of them do so in the hope of finding evidence of what happened to their loved ones were either killed or ‘disappeared.'

These include the case of union leader Fernando Garcia, and an eye-witness account of a village massacre, with buildings set on fire, children tossed into the flames, and women raped.

The last word goes to a Mayan spokesman who has seen the worst of Guatemala.

He tells Gerry that the opening of the archives might lead to justice, reconciliation, and the best of Guatemala.

First broadcast Monday 13 April 2009