A Tortured Path to Justice

DdC · 09-05-2003, 11:08 PM

Under Pressure from Corporations, Ashcroft Threatens to Overturn a 200 Year-Old Law Used to Fight Human Rights Abusers and War Criminals

We take a look at the case of a torture-victim from El Salvador who confronted two former Salvadoran generals living in the U.S. He won a watershed victory last summer when a jury ruled that the two generals held "command responsibility" over abuses by the military. We speak with an investigative journalist who covered the story.

Could your neighbors be war criminals?

Well over the years hundreds of human rights violators from around the world have found their way into the United States. Many of them settling in the same communities as their former victims.

According to a recent report by Amnesty International, as many as 1,000 human-rights violators from around the world live in the U.S.

But unlike former Nazis--who for decades have been subject to a concerted federal effort to find and deport them--most retired torturers have little to fear from the U.S. government. Until now.

In December 1980, investigators pulled four bodies from a shallow grave along a remote road in El Salvador. They were the bodies of three American nuns and a lay worker who had come to El Salvador to minister to the poor.

The women had been abducted, raped, and killed by members of El Salvador's national guard. The murders made headlines around the world.

Thirteen years later, a truth commission established by El Salvador's new civilian government issued a report naming dozens of top officials responsible for atrocities during the late 1970s and early '80s. High on its list were two generals, Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova.

The truth commission hadn't been able to interview Garcia and Vides Casanova - they had settled in Florida in 1989, having come to the United States on legal, U.S. Embassy-issued visas.

In 1999, relatives of the churchwomen filed a lawsuit against Garcia and Vides Casanova, but the men successfully argued that they could not be held responsible for the actions of rogue subordinates.

By last summer, however, the generals' luck had run out. They were in court again, facing claims from three victims of military abuses, including a doctor, Juan Romagoza, who had been tortured in the Salvadoran national guard's headquarters. A jury concluded that Garcia and Vides Casanova held "command responsibility" over the crimes. They were ordered to pay their victims $54.6 million.

Joshua Philips, investigative journalist and author of a recent piece in the Washington Post Magazine detailing the case of Juan Romagoza, an El Salvadoran refugee who won a case last year against two Generals guilty of war crimes in El Salvador’s dirty war.

A Tortured Path to Justice

Listen to: Segment || Show
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream
To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, call 1 (800) 881-2359.

Democracy Now

TODAY'S STORIES
In Surprise Decision, Federal Judges Block FCC Media Ownership Rules
With Occupation Costs Soaring, U.S. Set to Go Back To U.N. Asking For Unprecedented Resolution
Will Bush Backers Manipulate Votes to Deliver GW Another Election?

Alternative Justice: The Alien Tort Claims Act
Unable to pursue justice through their own courts, some victims of war crimes are suing their perpetrators in U.S. courts with an obscure piece of legislation called the Alien Tort Law

Alien Tort Claims Act
The Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 grants jurisdiction to US Ferderal Courts over "any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." In 1980 a Paraguayan man successfully used ATCA to sue the policeman who had tortured his son to death in Paraguay. Others have since filed civil suits against individuals, including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, seeking compensation for damages resulting from breaches of international law. On the rare occassion that a suit is successful, however, the defendant rarely has sufficient assets in the US to satisfy the final judgment.

An interesting development has been the recent efforts to use ATCA to sue transnational corporations for violations of international law in countries outside the US. If these suits are allowed to proceed, then ATCA could become a powerful tool to increase corporate accountability.

In Defense of the Alien Tort Claims Act
One might have thought that in the aftermath of Enron, Worldcom et al., attacking the few measures we have for corporate accountability would be embarrassing for any politician or business executive. Yet big business is doing exactly that.

And with a Republican Congress about to join a business-friendly Administration in Washington, there is every reason to believe their campaign is dead serious.

The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), a trade group of some of the largest multinational companies, is leading the effort, supported by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world’s largest and most prominent business association.

Their target is the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), an important federal law that promotes respect for basic human rights by holding government officials and corporations liable for wrongs committed against non-U.S. citizens. The NFTC has announced that it will lobby Congress to have this centuries-old law weakened. USA-Engage, the lobby arm of NFTC, “has established a working group to provide support for companies that have been sued [under ATCA] and to explore remedies to the abuse of the law.”

More information about ATCA

Human Rights Watch: Defend the Alien Tort Claims Act
The Alien Tort Claims Act is one of the only tools Americans have to make human rights abusers pay for their actions. Now the U.S. Justice Department is trying to undermine this important law. Don’t let it happen!

Human Rights Watch
Corp Watch.org
Earthrights.org

Background on the Alien Tort Claims Act
Myths and Facts about the Alien Tort Claims Act
Case Studies

Google: Alien Tort Law
Google: Command Responsibility

Command Responsibility in a Florida Courtroom

A COMBAT COMPANY COMMANDER HAS CERTAIN UNIQUE DUTIES

A COMPANY COMMANDER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTROLLING AND SUPERVISING HIS SUBORDINATES DURING COMBAT OPERATIONS

NCGUB, 202-393-7342
Zarni, Free Burma Coalition, 608-827-7734
Larry Dohrs, Free Burma Coalition, 206-784-5742
Simon Billenness, Franklin Research and Development, 800-548-5684
Edward Lahey, Jr., PepsiCo General Counsel, 914-253-3077

Command Responsibility

About Ashcroft

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
-- George W. Bush, 12/18/00

The Village Idiots

09-05-2003, 11:08 PM	#1 (permalink)
DdC Decade Yahookan Join Date: Feb 1999 Location: Santa Cruz,CA,USA Posts: 2,088 Blog Entries: 5 Thanks: 47 Thanked 570 Times in 378 Posts	A Tortured Path to Justice Under Pressure from Corporations, Ashcroft Threatens to Overturn a 200 Year-Old Law Used to Fight Human Rights Abusers and War Criminals We take a look at the case of a torture-victim from El Salvador who confronted two former Salvadoran generals living in the U.S. He won a watershed victory last summer when a jury ruled that the two generals held "command responsibility" over abuses by the military. We speak with an investigative journalist who covered the story. Could your neighbors be war criminals? Well over the years hundreds of human rights violators from around the world have found their way into the United States. Many of them settling in the same communities as their former victims. According to a recent report by Amnesty International, as many as 1,000 human-rights violators from around the world live in the U.S. But unlike former Nazis--who for decades have been subject to a concerted federal effort to find and deport them--most retired torturers have little to fear from the U.S. government. Until now. In December 1980, investigators pulled four bodies from a shallow grave along a remote road in El Salvador. They were the bodies of three American nuns and a lay worker who had come to El Salvador to minister to the poor. The women had been abducted, raped, and killed by members of El Salvador's national guard. The murders made headlines around the world. Thirteen years later, a truth commission established by El Salvador's new civilian government issued a report naming dozens of top officials responsible for atrocities during the late 1970s and early '80s. High on its list were two generals, Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova. The truth commission hadn't been able to interview Garcia and Vides Casanova - they had settled in Florida in 1989, having come to the United States on legal, U.S. Embassy-issued visas. In 1999, relatives of the churchwomen filed a lawsuit against Garcia and Vides Casanova, but the men successfully argued that they could not be held responsible for the actions of rogue subordinates. By last summer, however, the generals' luck had run out. They were in court again, facing claims from three victims of military abuses, including a doctor, Juan Romagoza, who had been tortured in the Salvadoran national guard's headquarters. A jury concluded that Garcia and Vides Casanova held "command responsibility" over the crimes. They were ordered to pay their victims $54.6 million. Joshua Philips, investigative journalist and author of a recent piece in the Washington Post Magazine detailing the case of Juan Romagoza, an El Salvadoran refugee who won a case last year against two Generals guilty of war crimes in El Salvador’s dirty war. A Tortured Path to Justice Listen to: Segment \|\| Show Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, call 1 (800) 881-2359. Democracy Now TODAY'S STORIES In Surprise Decision, Federal Judges Block FCC Media Ownership Rules With Occupation Costs Soaring, U.S. Set to Go Back To U.N. Asking For Unprecedented Resolution Will Bush Backers Manipulate Votes to Deliver GW Another Election? Alternative Justice: The Alien Tort Claims Act Unable to pursue justice through their own courts, some victims of war crimes are suing their perpetrators in U.S. courts with an obscure piece of legislation called the Alien Tort Law Alien Tort Claims Act The Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 grants jurisdiction to US Ferderal Courts over "any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." In 1980 a Paraguayan man successfully used ATCA to sue the policeman who had tortured his son to death in Paraguay. Others have since filed civil suits against individuals, including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, seeking compensation for damages resulting from breaches of international law. On the rare occassion that a suit is successful, however, the defendant rarely has sufficient assets in the US to satisfy the final judgment. An interesting development has been the recent efforts to use ATCA to sue transnational corporations for violations of international law in countries outside the US. If these suits are allowed to proceed, then ATCA could become a powerful tool to increase corporate accountability. In Defense of the Alien Tort Claims Act One might have thought that in the aftermath of Enron, Worldcom et al., attacking the few measures we have for corporate accountability would be embarrassing for any politician or business executive. Yet big business is doing exactly that. And with a Republican Congress about to join a business-friendly Administration in Washington, there is every reason to believe their campaign is dead serious. The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), a trade group of some of the largest multinational companies, is leading the effort, supported by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world’s largest and most prominent business association. Their target is the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), an important federal law that promotes respect for basic human rights by holding government officials and corporations liable for wrongs committed against non-U.S. citizens. The NFTC has announced that it will lobby Congress to have this centuries-old law weakened. USA-Engage, the lobby arm of NFTC, “has established a working group to provide support for companies that have been sued [under ATCA] and to explore remedies to the abuse of the law.” More information about ATCA Human Rights Watch: Defend the Alien Tort Claims Act The Alien Tort Claims Act is one of the only tools Americans have to make human rights abusers pay for their actions. Now the U.S. Justice Department is trying to undermine this important law. Don’t let it happen! Human Rights Watch Corp Watch.org Earthrights.org Background on the Alien Tort Claims Act Myths and Facts about the Alien Tort Claims Act Case Studies Google: Alien Tort Law Google: Command Responsibility Command Responsibility in a Florida Courtroom A COMBAT COMPANY COMMANDER HAS CERTAIN UNIQUE DUTIES A COMPANY COMMANDER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTROLLING AND SUPERVISING HIS SUBORDINATES DURING COMBAT OPERATIONS NCGUB, 202-393-7342 Zarni, Free Burma Coalition, 608-827-7734 Larry Dohrs, Free Burma Coalition, 206-784-5742 Simon Billenness, Franklin Research and Development, 800-548-5684 Edward Lahey, Jr., PepsiCo General Counsel, 914-253-3077 Command Responsibility About Ashcroft "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." -- George W. Bush, 12/18/00 The Village Idiots __________________ Al Capone and Watergate were red herrings to divert the countries attention from the Fascist acts of eliminating competition. Booze/Ethanol then Ganja//Hemp.

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