Guatemala Funeral - Remains of several Cuichef Indians are buried, possible civil war victims
TAPE: EF03/0637
IN_TIME: 21:54:49
DURATION: 3:48
SOURCES: APTN
RESTRICTIONS:
DATELINE: Various, 12 July 2003/Recent
SHOT LIST:
San Jose Poaquil - 12 July 2003
1. Women singing and burning incense
2. Wide of coffins and candles
3. Candles burning beside photo
4. Priest sprinkling holy water
5. Women praying
6. Close up of incense
7. Pan from woman crying to coffin
8. Cutaway of candles
9. Family members receiving coffins
10. Families carrying coffins
11. Wide shot of families carrying coffins
12. Man praying and crying
13. Coffin on ground
14. Coffin being placed into hole in ground
15. Med shot of man shovelling dirt on to coffin
16. Woman crying
17. Dirt being shoveled onto coffin
18. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Rosalina Tuyuc, indigenous leader:
"104 human remains were announced lost, 78 were found from which 35 could not be identified, because these people were probably kidnapped from other places out of Poaquil"
Guatemala City - Recent
19. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Frank Larue, human rights analyst:
"The commission for historical clarification established that in 1982 and 1983 there was genocide in Guatemala and as Chief of State at that point, he (Presidential candidate and former leader of Guatemala, Efrian Rios Montt) is responsible so we cannot have a killer in the presidency"
20. Coffins being lifted in front of billboard with a picture of Rios Montt
21. Woman shouting
22. Mid shot of demonstration
23. Various of security standing around dead body
24. Wife of victim crying
25. Armed man walking in the city market
STORYLINE:
The legacy of Guatemala's brutal civil war resurfaced on Saturday as more than a thousand people gathered for the burial of seventy Cuichef indians, allegedly victims of government hit squads during the 1980's.
Following Christian and native traditions, family members lit incense and chanted prayers at a cemetary in San Jose Poaquil, about 70 kilometres (43 miles) from the capital of Guatemala City, where the killings took place.
Human rights advocates and forensic specialists trace the date of the massacre in San Jose Poaquil to between 1982 and 1983.
According to local witnesses, and some of the widows present at the funeral, uniformed officials kidnapped more than one hundred locals and took them to a football field where they were killed, and where their remains were recently exhumed.
Presidential candidate and former leader of Guatemala, Efrian Rios Montt, is accused by human rights groups of masterminding the massacre.