Article: Land Conflict (2)

Guatemala Probes Mass Grave Claims After Ranch Clash

By Frank Jack Daniel

Guatemala City (Reuters) - Guatemalan prosecutors are investigating claims that riot police summarily executed dozens of peasant squatters in a violent eviction on a ranch this week, the government said on Wednesday.

Deputy Interior Minister Juan Carlos Villacorta said prosecutors had begun digging up a possible mass grave at the ranch, where police and armed squatters clashed on Tuesday.

"I understand they are digging to see if these accusations ... are true," Villacorta told Reuters.

A battle erupted at the Nueva Linda cattle ranch, near the southern town of Champerico, when about 2,000 police arrived to evict some 3,000 squatter peasants, some armed with AK-47 assault rifles.

Police said earlier on Wednesday that the death toll from the clash was nine, while 20 policemen and an unspecified number of squatters were treated for gunshot wounds.

But the government-appointed human rights ombudsman, Sergio Morales, said up to 40 people were missing after the eviction and squatters believed that many had been summarily executed by police and buried in a mass grave.

"(They) showed us a place where the earth has been moved. They say that it is a grave and that between seven and 20 people are buried there, he said."

He said squatters had claimed bodies were thrown in a river but investigators had found no evidence of that.

Three of the dead were policemen. Police eventually evicted the squatters and arrested 30 people.

The squatters occupied the ranch last year in protest at the kidnapping of a ranch-hand, allegedly by the owners.

Guatemalan journalists reported that police beat and then shot to death at least one squatter on Tuesday, and threatened to shoot journalists if they took photographs.

The government blamed the violence on criminals intent on destabilizing the country.

Villacorta said accusations of police brutality would be investigated.

"Any policeman found committing an illegal act will immediately face justice," he said.

Posted by elcanche at September 1, 2004 10:47 PM