In a minute memories must be kept alive otherwise theyll be extinguished like the flame of the candle. Remembering needs pictures words what is who is up what has he done to me that is why they made them disappear my father of feet his brother and so many others to wipe out all trace of their struggles as if theyve never existed as if theyd never been here among us you seem communities dont peek into news. From one nine hundred sixty two one thousand nine hundred ninety six what amala was subjected to the worst repression in latin American History thousands of people were murdered or disappeared in two thousand and twelve a group of citizens who had taken their case to the enter American Court of human rights obtained a judgment against the state of guatemala as part of their compensation the families requested that a documentary be made and financed by the guatemalan government the state failed to comply with the ruling and the point came when the families were no longer willing to wait this is their documentary and seeming to emerge in the delivery van arrived to expect them in fifty a thick yes they had planned it all carefully how you want to put it. They blocked off the road and drove a white van into the door to gain access to the apartment. Down for months and found them in a few climbed up this window grate and thats what i am being it had only been there you were. This is the room i showed you when we were by the street a tin roof covered most of the courtyard and this is the door i was talking about. Those people sitting you know they came over the roof jumped down where the pipe is and met the others here you have the here and then some rushed into the rooms where we were. The others went straight to my brothers room and kicked in the door. And i think i mean this is evil that is that what then we heard a shot fired that the bullet hit the corner over there. And. Sorry for asking but did you see him being physically abused did you hear him shout will scream. Or you must be hell yes we did because back then there was only a curtain where that door is now you know all of them therefore i know. Someone outside gave an order to bring me out they thought we had weapons and i was supposed to show them where they were buried. Even mentally youll find me. I went outside and saw my father digging a hole. You know youll get stung. By them after they thought thats where the weapons were. But i knew nothing about that so i couldnt tell them anything. Else only went back when i was outside i saw a man standing next to the kitchen upstairs hes the one who had sussed out the layout of the house i mean. You have. Never seen some years later your neighbor who lives opposite my mother said that she was on her way to do some shopping that morning and she saw two men grabbed my brother as he was coming out of the house. Theyd been waiting by the door. That usually those people would return later to record the apartment and if they discovered anyone there theyd take them away to go thats why we left the house quickly and look into quitters it with your parents there when they took sergio. Yes my mother and father were also there when sergio was abducted. He took the meaning of the did your parents try to find him my. Sister was i mean thats a difficult subject it was really hard on them i think every mother who has gone through it has reacted in a similar way including my mother. Eventually they get up in the morning and say i dreamt overlander or i dreamt to say geo or i dreamt that or someone might say i think i saw him in the streets of mumbai go through. But it wasnt him. It wasnt him but thats the only way he was ever mentioned again when. I went and saw the wires the subject was to. Get in the spirit when youve been a good recipe those were the worst years of the civil war which devastated the country the police and the army were fighting against the guerrillas thousands of people were abducted forty five thousand around the whole country forty five thousand and those are just the ones who disappeared another two hundred thousand died the population of guatemala was eight million at the time to me and pointed out to me you needed and it was the most brutal repression of a people ever endured in latin america i mean. What are you doing as you were here a lot back then i already see them yeah i mean yes yes with my family usually with my brother to see whether our brother rubin was amongst the bodies that were brought here marked double x. In other words the nameless i wanted to look at the you saw a lot of people here and look to the lot of bodies. When you see the one most often run into other relatives especially in love of being in a cemetery he. Is where most of the murder victims were taken gavia unless you know. It will be recognised many of the dead we see and then we also know i want this it was soap. Painful i came for about six months and then could no longer bear to look at the terrible things they had done to people some of the victims had cuts on their feet cut so finely were probably made with a razor blade of the house or maybe less. Salt in lemon had been rubbed into the world. It was horrifying sent. Also flame consumed and the most harrowing thing of all though im able to get it out of my head was a couple because they were said to be engaged. Most of us. Dont if they were students at San Carlos University and she was pregnant but it is so i. See him babble. I think i would if somebody told us that when they were found the babys head was in its mothers stomach the news will. Then truly be in. The Solidarity Group of why i want to it was founded around then the main means mutual aid we met at the morgue each of us alone to face the atrocities and fear we needed one another in this group we women tried in our own way to do something to see our missing fathers brothers sons and husbands again but if you. Didnt see when you think jenkins since the founding of our organization on june the fifth nine hundred eighty four we have been calling on the transitional military government to provide information on the whereabouts of hundreds and hundreds of guatemalan citizens. Many of whom were undoubtedly abducted under the regime of gen me if you have victorious and me here. Well what we have experienced and attempted since then defies. Description the reaction from government spokespersons to questions regarding all those who have disappeared is disrespectful and deplorable we cannot accept their contemptuous and completely improbable responses. Every man guilty somebody feels they claim that the missing have left the country or joined the girl years. Ago how could they know that what proof do they have. Will be only one thing i know beneath the people of guatemala we cannot allow these in seed us crimes to go unpunished. That they build machines via appia we urgently call upon you to join our fight for the Immediate Release of abducted guatemalan citizens and for an end to the killing and all forms of violence that violate Human Dignity in the land is more than. So and by the two hundred twenty five families which constitute a poor move to do so that our sons husbands fathers and brothers might be returned to as a life. The objections continued indiscriminately the army took away and killed anyone they suspected of thinking differently irrespective of whether they were a guerrilla or not day after day more and more people came to help were much well and asked for help in their search for relatives who had disappeared. One lawyer got most of us and we first came here ten years ago this was a horrible place dirt floor pitch black. We put the lights in and the individual rooms were shocking. And they were small and had no light or windows. And the doors were just grills. And not industrial grills but homemade want to. Even see how it goes where the grill show that Political Prisoners were kept here and what is also shocking is that over the last ten years we have found no indication whatsoever of someone having survived captivity here in life. Not a single person. To be more this but we learned later that there were a lot of these secret prisons in which the police and army had people disappear but when we questioned them they denied it. They look at us that we know very little about what happened in these places in the news. When this and this when de santis all was held at this Police Station which still exists today you. Know we demand that. The last time i saw her was on march the eighth one thousand nine hundred. Full International Womens day now that im healthy one though. When a group of soldiers burst into our apartment and forced my brother and me to watch as they talked shit. I am just like i dont know. They pulled out her fingernails one by one with pliers. If we not only gals have it and we have to watch. Is a sunless not matter what it was. Those are my last memories of when they seized my mother they also arrested my brother and me and took us to the National Police department on the avenue. They had the torture continued we were subjected to electric shocks them being in the lessons in the. Sins happily we had to watch as our mother was also tortured in the same way we mostly house her lack of money madeleine is the enemy the last words she was able to say to was were be strong be strong where the sampling. Of your mature became increasingly important journalists abroad began to take an interest in us and our struggle in the cause of those who had disappeared but if you can in the end even general may he have a taught us what amount of military dictator had to receive us back as represented in the barbaric repression unleashed by the army and other organizations no one was sorry for the general began to officially accuse a poor motto. Is all written in english and sent from washington by one of these international totalitarian organizations be it Amnesty International or americas watch they are the ones who live you know the Mutual Support Group what do you do in the very same prayer instructions from washington d. C. Yeah you seem to not know where she is in america i watch way too. Because you know what it is i suppose i wanted to finish it shes been in the middle there really was one april the First One Hundred eighty five something happened which we would all feel would. Lead to the leader of a poor motto character gomas kalis or was murdered. Literally off to the counter his tongue the message was clear. And its a moment of his own that must but the devil we knew then that we were not safe something could happen to us at any time i think it was at the cemetery that rosario took the megaphone and said that she wasnt afraid that she would defy head towards killers in the week in his last yamamotos i was a scene of chaos she was truly courageous a real fighter but we were afraid i still remember how we talked about it sort of oh god now its our turn what are we going to do to get me out i lost a lot of sort of value on a job i sat through the q. B. Can as a mother you must have been worried about me me. Happens ability and i think up on the in one thousand nine hundred five things got steadily worse i wanted to take you to your grandfathers. It was a route i drove every day that particular day on our way there i saw three cars and ten or eleven armed men on the hill leading to less precise is when suddenly they point to me got into their cars and came after me i drove faster and faster i turned left and right and wherever possible i went down narrow streets when i arrived fortunately your grandfather was standing by the gate this is only i shouted at him to open up which the poor chap did immediately that i drove in and right to the back where he kept to see i was so scared that held you tight got out of the car and hid in the bedroom is that in a part of him if he has been there what up until he. I mean now they are going to kill us i thought and yet i had promised your father that i would look after you just in a moment the place. Seemed not to be a winning we seemed to be losing after all we had already lost. Back then in the week before easter weve still been consoling and encouraging one another then already called me to say that rosario had disappeared but i see. Even. More that their little boy had diarrhea and so she had gone to buy some nappies the child and her brother were in the car with her. Is in the gravel on the this is where the alleged accident happened but there was no accident or what really happened is that they murdered rosario her child and her brother. They tortured the infantry horribly they burnt him and ripped out his fingernails and he was just a two year old little boy absolutely barbaric. And they tortured rosarios brother not to mention rosario herself but they really made them suffer all three of them. So rosarios death was a clear direct message to them it was a serious blow to the entire Solidarity Group many of us went into hiding i hid in order to protect you but each one of us only wanted to get somewhere safe after rosarios death a poor young which will was no longer the same we fought on or at least we tried to but not like we had done before but still despite everything we did try me. Lags a little. Bit in this is where his bed was all your life for him not to be tortured when i hear you invoke and i had the feeling that the only way i could endure it all was by opening my heart to the lord and the virgin mary and never stopped believing not even when they told me my son would not be coming back but until his body is found i said there is still hope surely with the new technology thats available they must be able to find something something that will help me like a sign perhaps or a word it would be a day passes without me asking mr gauntlet when i can i go out into the yard or two or three in the morning and pray to the lord please give me an ounce or i cant enjoy your silence any longer please look at me i feel im going to cry again but the tears never come give me an answer lord you give others an answer why not me all i want is for my son to have a home to live in a roof over his head a bed where he can rest and a table he can sit and eat he remembers her own theyre committed. To finish the picking we have to cling to Little Things like photographs. Because their disappearance is an attempt to obliterate them as though they had never existed as though there had never been people who wanted to change this country our own community we so that it seems like its impossible to change the really its an attempt at obliteration which extends into their private lives and into ours and to those of the survivors and to those of their relatives even to the memories we perhaps still have of them. Who what were they like how do they live before someone tried to obliterate them. And this defeat them so we had a special relationship with our father he was a tall man is he i thought. It was time which as we all i liked his mustache his beard he was big and had a dull complection i got my complexion from him and. When they abducted my father murdered him i was in a state of shock for a whole year. Its like its hard to describe the has always been this hand that youve been able to hold on and suddenly its taken away from you at the moment and it was an incredible shock when that hand was taken away jenna and even today i am in need of my fathers advice and i need orientation and i still need things that no one else can give me and if you remember. Youve been stalking me but i believe that my father finds a million ways and moments to be with me he companies me along my path just to come in. And if you can i mean it seemed like there was nothing more we could do as if our every attempt to learn something about those who disappeared hit a wall of silence until nine hundred ninety nine that is when the deity only tapped the military log book appeared. In the log book league guatemalas military secret service recorded information on people who between one thousand eighty three and one thousand nine hundred five under general asco home battle met here victorious were arrested in abducted by state officials in action nine hundred ninety nine a member of the army stole this list from the Army Archives and handed it over to a civilian he didnt give the most important part of the military logbook consists of a record of state activities and it contains the names of one hundred eighty three persons along with the date and location of their abduction another date indicates the day on which the detainee was moved to. Another secret Service Facility or was released in most cases the follows the code three hundred or say a lowly able poncho poncho took him away that meant death or execution must be apart from our notices the diorio militant is the only document which proves that the abductions were the work of the army in the police force here. To give them a part of the record is also devoted to the aquarium of talk it contains the names of those relatives of the leaders of our group who disappeared the result is husband my brother my own failures brother powerless father. The little boy the whatever the purpose of this code is to dehumanize them to deprive them of any form of selfdetermination thats why codes were used in the local it was probably the same for every family when the newspaper published the list of names my mother immediately took me somewhere else the old fear had returned your book about his illness and the star known as a video only zero mean look at me differently question the list was published in the sunday edition of a national newspaper. On the i mean yeah. Someone came to our house and said look your husbands name is in the paper. With us here but it does so over me up with newspapers were all tucked away in our house my family just didnt want to know my father was the only one who looked at the list but then it was get rid of it were not going to discuss the matter all the act on the one hand there was pain anguish and tears on the other hand though we were glad that at long last we were learning something about our family members whether we might discover their mortal remains or we even find out they were still alive so they go along with the wearing of the laureus the horse and im the one in a service to him alone the good thing in our case was that fathers photograph and his personal details were printed in the news. Paper we relatives finally knew for certain something that wed always known but had never wanted to accept at least not until we saw the body in front of us from. Someone from the military who told my parents i didnt see him myself that when they began to torture him they not all his teeth out with a hammer that is how i know that they tortured him for a long time to try and extract information from him the man said they only stopped when their victims were nothing more than a vestige of a human being the last thing they did was gouge their eyes out. When we read said gios name in the newspaper we knew it was time to abandon all hope since then we only refer to them as devils murderers and swine. Flu season. It is of course painful to look through the log book its pages demonstrate how much these people who wanted to change the country suffered. But it is also about our relatives and about revealing parts of our history like little and yes it is a lot of money yes but there was this thought and at the same time we have first hand proof in the form of a document we can take to a judge and say here is the proof what more do you need to. Get. Thanks to the video merely town and we were able to bring the first legal actions but the military denied everything and the judges were still afraid not one person was found guilty but then in two thousand and five an incredibly important discovery was made another left on the barrier to me and i think the Public Prosecutors Office for human rights decided to have this building investigated i mean a delegation arrived and came down here just like we are doing that when he glanced up at the windows and deliberate us if went. As source stacks of documents piled up thousands and thousands of them and when he asked the state employee responsible for them what they were its the Police Archives she said she was up on the c. S. Born in so natural gas well it was a lucky break and an unbelievably important one for so many years we had had no idea this is where the National Police archive was hidden what it was a key moment because it marked the start of this story. Yet when the peace treaties were signs theyd also denied that an archive even existed in that it was done just for leave to go all back then when the government was toppled they used this building as a secret prison that clandestine. Memo saying well in the archives we found more than six thousand documents which relate to what is recorded in the the audio military. And if you did install what any level is for the i was they confirm the accuracy of the information contained in the log book but i think that the acts of violence carried out by the police are also documented sealyham was more like you sneaking in of a medium in suggested and yet when someone was abducted and taken away witnesses would take note of the vehicles number plate and no doubt only a woman. With a baby could in the same way again was probably what we have here are ledgers which list those vehicles that were taken to a workshop for maintenance or repair and those number plates that were noted down also appear in these vehicle lists. And this proves that the vehicle in which someone was abducted belonged to the National Police force so the state police that were responsible withdrawal is a. Big one. Here is every state Police Activity was documented they even took the trouble to include a summary of the respective report in the entry for each individual these entries usually include the name a few dates the document number the designation of the Government Organization involved and a summary of the report you must remember to. Go with the street journal that was on the basis of these personal records we have drawn up a data bank with one point two million names. Being here does any of them help if we put the population of guatemala in the seventys and eightys at around eight million and assume that half the people who are minors it means that the state police are registered and monitored more than one quarter of all adults in this country will roll over their mother even be single for simple little in my case. Only that what i book of yes was. Was published in one thousand nine hundred ninety. S. When alan. Said by two thousand and four enough time had passed for us to say the internal options have been exhausted but most of all is that here ive already got this west lets move up a step to obtain a decision for an investigation at the National Level he was not sure that it was the National Police archive helpful to the investigation in the west of working for him paul of course in the case of a tool other persons were also registered which does help to shed light on the abductions in the middle of this about israels force that you can actually study and a lot of the documents which emerged in the historical archives confirm the validity of the famous military log book last and that is as you own the promotional nearly thirty meter media year to twenty six families accepted hellens after we took the keys to the enter American Court of human rights. They call it was saying its a change in the early one nine hundred eighty s. The Interamerican Commission on human rights stated in its reports on the human rights situation in guatemala that there had been a dramatic increase in violence there along with suppression of trades unions with opposition groups students and academics Political Parties cooperatives Farmers AssociationChurch Members journalists and indigenous inhabitants. Is from the main to the left for the. Security forces document that confirms their participation in the repression it is a unique source which confirms the actions taken by the state against its own citizens twenty seven years on the abductions as well as many serious violations of human rights in this conflict remain unpunished in addition the report documents how the state of guatemala covered up all action taken against the civilian population because the conflict the mother there are over the years here we see people increase seedings in the Area Military took seven long years then in two thousand and twelve the Court Announced its decision for the First Time Since the end of the civil war and thirty years after the horrible events the guatemalan government was found guilty of several instances of complicity in the disappearance of people and was ordered to pay compensation it was also obligated to document for past very precisely what had taken place amongst other things the state had to produce and broadcast a documentary film. That was me get on has idea it seemed to us the best way to prevent people from forgetting. Is post by second these fields are perhaps the last thing trades union is among c. O. V. A toto saw when they took him to the military base at kaamelott in effect you could if you by chance we were able to identify his mortal remains here in a secret mass grave you few and hundreds of graves like this have been found thanks to the many people who are not afraid of threats and repression. In that its according to the militant six other people were executed on the same day as a month zero. Person can be found all of them in this grave and its the fourth. It opens up this is it and if he doesnt see this museum is like a place where weve buried him and can reveal to everyone his story his struggle and his death you cease to protect he says to get into it in and this exhibition of his bones has indeed had an impact yet for me these are not his bonus they are a months ago himself each of us reacts in our own way to this point of what i would describe as the cycle of pain when you actually find your missing relatives if you look in the photos of just you itll be for me personally that is the start of the cycle of pain the beginning of grief you know i mean its because at that moment you accept everything that has been written and said. Said and what we ourselves knew about my fathers disappearance you recently but is even less interested in this bill mean to me until the bones are found deep down inside you still nurture hope but when they appear i think of the fifty seven days of torture that has had the greatest effect on me i think yes they happened those fifty seven days of torture yes he had to suffer the torture mentioned in his statement by allah votto dahmus who saw him there. He was the one seven year old welt at dawn heard screaming under torture. Yes he was the one that the audio mini tada says was buried in a former garrison this all becomes so real when you have to identify the remains and it is worst of all for the relatives of someone who disappeared this is something we first had to learn to cope with and even though identifying a relative who was abducted is a terrible experience i believe that everyone should have the right to find their loved ones no matter how agonizing it is. They arrested him together with his girlfriend and they never came back now neither of them. We can still look at so many photographs here. And thats my uncle yes. When i get the most and this is the door to the bunker i think its five meters wide and. Its thirty meters deep and five meters long its simple middleboro. Didnt do it because it was a month if i remember correctly it says in the log book that jose xenon was murdered in zone eleven homes. Thats right. I havent had a chance to look in the file again but i think he was found here this gives us hope that someone else from the log book could also be identified. By mickey to consider what it was yes from the geology omega tar people do you think there are people who say no thats not my relative because they are afraid of claiming him. As i can a sack out with no noise and look for one of themselves in the most intense one hes funny and it was like that with luis collins race he was arrested tortured murdered and buried at a cemetery his parents drove here to identify his remains but they were so afraid that they didnt say a thing. They had longed to be able to bury him but out of fear they had to pretend they didnt know who he was it was only years later that they summoned the courage to bring him here from an anonymous grave and give him a proper burial. So i covered all the you know in the style of. Today they can visit him and bring him flowers on his birthday on Public Holidays and on special days like today he. Will spend a few years the same but yeah. We cant do that who can we visit. So out also no. I know one of the cars we dont know where they are the. Government representatives were only fooling themselves if they thought we would intact. The list and in the us were not afraid of them and neither are so many other guatemalans the government wanted to intimidate and to see if that is. In the me in twenty fifteen off to six months of demonstrations against corruption former general autopen a small enough had to resign as president hes now in prison i. Want a memory of someone has to be kept alive otherwise like the flame of the candle it dies memories need pictures words but now. You. Know it is for this reason that my father ophelia is brother and so many others were made to disappear. Because she took on their fight goes on in a totally different why i mean. And they are still here with us. You gave a areas. I think. Among the oscar nominees these europeans best chances. What are they odds. As a real shot at changing the coveted prize. We get the lowdown from a film expert scott rock star. Yell fingers crossed you have an off. Callous series all scared for your a. Few moments in thirty minutes total you. Meet the germans. And surprisingly aspects of lines and culture in germany. She was american keep losing take a look at germany dissing presumes that their traditions from everyday lives and blood which has come out of. T. W. Dot com make the germans. Just as strong as he made of pleiku still. A miracle representative. Architect of east germanys police. In london if i had my way east germany would still be a good place to start. If you have to push you know about the. Lead starting march thirteenth d w. Players. This is the job the news coming to you live from berlin reports of most are filed for a truce in syria. These buses are meant to evacuate civilians but they were made empty grosss minute you say as rebels are shelling a designated humanitarian corridor but the rebels deny this accusation and also coming up millions of people obviously