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August 31, 2004<br>
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR<br>
Justice Comes for the Archbishop<br>
By RIGOBERTA MENCHÚ TUM<br><br>
Guatemala City - Nearly 25 years after Archbishop Óscar Romero was<br>
assassinated while celebrating Mass in San Salvador, a chance for
justice<br>
has finally appeared. A judge is expected to rule on Friday in a
landmark<br>
lawsuit brought against a man accused of being an accomplice in the
murder.<br>
The venue, however, is not a Salvadoran tribunal but a federal court
in<br>
Fresno, Calif., where a longtime United States resident, Álvaro
Saravia,<br>
faces civil charges for helping carry out orders to have Archbishop
Romero<br>
killed.<br><br>
Mr. Saravia, a former Salvadoran air force captain and close associate
of<br>
Roberto d'Aubuisson, the founder of El Salvador's ruling right-wing
party,<br>
is accused of obtaining the assassin's gun, arranging for his
transportation<br>
to the chapel, and paying him afterwards. The suit, filed on behalf of
a<br>
relative of the archbishop by the Center for Justice and Accountability,
a<br>
human rights group, seeks damages for extrajudicial killing and
crimes<br>
against humanity. Evidence was presented last week, and although Mr.
Saravia<br>
has gone into hiding and is being tried in absentia, if the judge finds
him<br>
liable he will face monetary damages.<br><br>
This case is being watched closely throughout Central America, where
fragile<br>
new democracies suffer the lingering effects of unpunished wartime
crimes.<br>
The failure to bring human rights violators to justice encourages
more<br>
violence, as the killing of Archbishop Romero and the 1998 assassination
of<br>
Bishop Juan Gerardi in Guatemala sadly illustrated. The lack of arrests
in<br>
the Romero murder was a signal that Salvadoran armed forces and
paramilitary<br>
groups enjoyed impunity for their crimes, quickening the country's
descent<br>
into a brutal 12-year civil war that left more than 75,000 civilians
dead.<br><br>
Countries emerging from civil conflict must reconcile the dual needs
of<br>
consolidating stability and pursuing justice, a difficulty easily
exploited<br>
by those intent on protecting their own interests. In El Salvador,
a<br>
sweeping amnesty law rendered the 1993 findings of a United Nations
truth<br>
commission legally irrelevant. That commission found Mr. d'Aubuisson
(who<br>
died in 1992) and Mr. Saravia responsible for Archbishop Romero's
murder,<br>
but neither man could be prosecuted in his homeland.<br><br>
Thus the best chance for justice stems from the coincidence of Mr.
Saravia's<br>
residency - he has been in America since at least 1987. Through the
Alien<br>
Tort Claims Act of 1789, the United States allows foreign citizens to
sue<br>
people living within American borders. Fortunately, this summer in a
case<br>
involving the kidnapping of a Mexican doctor, the Supreme Court
decided<br>
against the Bush administration and affirmed the applicability of the act
in<br>
human rights cases.<br><br>
The Saravia trial, while an inspiring exercise in American law, does
raise<br>
disturbing questions about United States policy. How did Mr. Saravia come
to<br>
live in California in the first place? Declassified State Department
and<br>
Central Intelligence Agency documents reveal that the government was
aware<br>
of Mr. Saravia's alleged involvement in the Romero assassination as early
as<br>
May 1980. The trial also represents an opportunity to examine,
albeit<br>
obliquely, the responsibility of the Salvadoran government and its
closest<br>
ally, the United States, in the events that led to the deaths of tens
of<br>
thousands of Salvadoran civilians.<br><br>
It is a sort of redemption, then, that the first trial in this murder
is<br>
taking place in an American court. Let us hope that justice will be
served<br>
at last in the case of Óscar Romero, and that it will inspire the<br>
governments of the United States, El Salvador and other nations to
prosecute<br>
the many human rights abusers who live openly among us.<br><br>
<br>
Rigoberta Menchú Tum was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992.<br><br>
<br><br>
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company <br>
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