Madrid - Spain's National Court has accused Guatemala of "discrediting" human rights, violating international legislation and protecting the suspected perpetrators of the "genocide" of the country's Maya population between 1961 and 1996, press reports said Thursday. Judge Santiago Pedraz issued a ruling accusing the Guatemalan judiciary of not collaborating with his investigation, launched on the basis of a complaint lodged by Guatemalan 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu.
The National Court has indicted eight people, including former military leaders Efrain Rios Montt and Oscar Humberto Mejia, of involvement in the killings of more than 250,000 people, 83 per cent of whom were Mayas.
Guatemala has refused to collaborate with the investigation, arguing that the Spanish judiciary did not have the authority to handle it, and not allowing Pedraz to interrogate any of the suspects when visiting the Latin American country, the judge complained.
The cases under investigation include the massacre of more than 35 people at the Spanish embassy in Guatemala in 1980.
Pedraz appealed to anyone in the world having information about the Maya genocide to contribute to his investigation.
