WUNRN
Guatemala -
First Court Proceeding for Sexual Slavery in
Armed Conflict in
National Jurisdiction Where Acts Took Place
By
Luz Mendez
| 25 / October / 2014
On Oct. 14,
2014 Guatemala’s Court for High-Risk Crimes ruled to open trial against two
members of the Army for sexual slavery and domestic slavery against q’eqchís
women in the military outpost of Sepur Zarco and other serious crimes
perpetrated in the framework of the government counterinsurgency policies
during the armed conflict.
At the public
hearing, Judge Miguel Angel Galvez ruled that there are sufficient elements for
open the trial against colonel Esteelmer Reyes Girón, former chief of the Sepur
Zarco military outpost, and Heriberto Valdéz Asij, former military
commissioner in the region. Reyes will be judged for the crimes against
humanity of sexual violence and sexual slavery, domestic slavery, and
assassination of Dominga Coc and her two young daughters on the base.
Acts of Violence
For
six years women of rural communities of the Alta Verapaz and Izabal departments
were the objects of sexual slavery and domestic slavery at the military outpost
of the community of Sepur Zarco, located on the border between the townships of
Panzós and El Estor. These crimes formed part of attacks on the civilian
population between 1982 and 1988. At the outpost, the women were organized in
three-day shifts, and forced to do domestic work, including cooking and washing
soldiers’ clothes with no pay whatsoever. The forced work as
accompanied by sexual violence–every time they did their shifts they were
systematically raped by soldiers at the outpost.The sexual and domestic slavery
perpetrated against the women of Sepur Zarco formed part of a military plan
executed in stages that started with the kidnapping, torture and forced
disappearance of their husbands, who were peasant leaders. After that, soldiers
and officers brutally gang-raped the women in their homes, in front of their
children. Their homes and belongings were burned and their crops destroyed.
Then the women were named by the soldiers as “the widows” and had to move to
Sepur Zarco where they were forced into sexual and domestic slavery at the
military outpost.
Even after the military outpost was closed in 1988, the women still faced the
physical and psychological consequences of the sexual violence. One of the
cruelest results has been that they are stigmatized in their communities.
According to the patriarchal logic, sexual violence is a crime for which the
victims must pay. In spite of the fact that the rapes were committed in a
context of terror and militarization, today the women are blamed for the sexual
violence they suffered.
The
Road to Justice
Today the women
of Sepur Zarco are demanding justice for these horrendous crimes against them.
The road to justice they’ve come down started ten years ago. One of the most
important strategies they employed was to build groups of women and alliances
on the local and national level. They broke the silence and told their hard
truth in a process of constructing the historic memory of the sexual violence
against indigenous women during the armed conflict, published in a book in
2009. [1].
In 2010 the
protagonists in this history, along with women of the other three regions of
the country, participated in the Tribunal of Conscience against sexual violence
against the women during the armed conflict in
A
Historic Trial
The criminal
trial brought by the Sepur Zarco women has national and international
significance. In
This
case also has worldwide relevance, since it is the first legal proceeding for
sexual slavery during armed conflict that has been presented in the national
jurisdiction where the acts took place. It will be a precedent-setting case for
all efforts to end sexual violence during armed conflict, one of the most
widespread and unrecognized violations of human rights, as well as eradicating
impunity for these crimes.
Luz Méndez
Gutiérrez is the co-autor of the book Mujeres q’eqchís: violencia sexual y lucha
por la justicia (ECAP-IDRC)
(forthcoming). She is a member of the Board of Directors of the National
NOTES:
[1]
Fulchiron, Amandine; Paz, Olga Alicia & López, Angélica (2009). Tejidos que lleva el alma. Memoria de
las mujeres mayas sobrevivientes de violación sexual durante el conflicto
armado.
[2]
Currently the Sepur Zarco women are supported by the Alliance Breaking the
Silence and Impunity (Alianza Rompiendo el Silencio y la Impunidad), made up of
Women Transforming the World (Mujeres Transformando el Mundo), Community and
Psycho-social Action (Equipo de Estudios Comunitarios y Acción Psicosocial) and
the National Union of Guatemalan Women (Unión Nacional de Mujeres
Guatemaltecas).