Forwarded by the InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF). 

[2-20-02]

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Tomorrow night (Thursday, Feb. 21) PBS will be showing "Justice and the Generals," a 90-minute documentary that explores military impunity for gross human rights abuses in El Salvador. The program focus is a new lawsuit against two Salvadoran generals - now living in Florida - for murder, rape, torture, and disappearances. The plaintiffs include four Salvadoran torture survivors and the families of the four U.S. church women raped and murdered in El Salvador in December 1980.

stations throughout the country (with the exception of Florida) will be showing it if they choose to do so. Check local schedules on the PBS web page at www.pbs.org (see A-Z on the web page * top line *, then check Justice and the Generals, then check broadcast schedule *lower right corner*).

Justice and the Generals was recently previewed by Salvadoran refugees and other members of the Latin America solidarity community in the US; they have urged that it be seen as widely as possible.

PBS Description of Justice and the Generals:

"In late 1980, the bodies of four American women were exhumed from a crude grave in war-torn El Salvador. The women -- three Catholic nuns and a lay missionary -- had been abducted, raped, and murdered. An investigation led to the trial and imprisonment of five Salvadoran National Guardsmen convicted of committing the crime. But who was behind the murders? The families of the victims believed the orders to kill came from high up in the military, but after 20 years of pressuring the State Department for information, they still had no direct evidence of higher orders. They did, however, have enough circumstantial evidence to take two Salvadoran generals to trial. In a second case, a group of Salvadoran torture survivors are set to bring the same two generals to court as well. In an unusual legal move, both cases are being decided not in international war tribunals, but in American civil court. These historic cases -- which not only herald a radical change in the way human rights violations are redressed but also provide disturbing insight into the political forces that can shield the military from any legal responsibility -- are the subject of JUSTICE & THE GENERALS.

In exploring these two historic cases, JUSTICE & THE GENERALS offers unique insight into a new chapter in international human rights law, an important step forward in the campaign to bring military commanders to justice for crimes committed within their ranks. At the same time, as it follows efforts to hold human rights abusers accountable, JUSTICE & THE GENERALS also maps the confusion, barbarism, and, ultimately, the tragic heart of a conflict whose wounds, two decades later, are far from healed.

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