Guatemala identifies two victims of civil war

Guatemala authorities said they have identified the first two victims of decades-old civil war crimes through DNA testing.In 2009 Guatemalas Forensic Anthropology Foundation opened the $1.5 million laboratory funded by international donations to identify victims excavated from hundreds of mass graves from the 1960-1996 civil war.The remains of Amancio Samuel Villatoro and Sergio Saul Linares Morales, who disappeared in 1984, were found buried on the military base of Chimaltenango in 2003. DNA samples were taken last year but it was only possible to identify their remains until now.Villatorio disappeared on January 30, 1984, when armed men broke into his home in Guatemala City. He was the general secretary of the Adams company syndicate. Meanwhile, Linares Morales disappeared on March 24 that same year when he left work at the Municipal Promotion Institute.The names of the victims were found on a list of 183 people published in a document known as the military diary which includes the names of those who disappeared at the hands of military personnel between August 1983 and March 1985 during the times in office of former presidents Efrain Rios Montt and Oscar Mejia Victores.It is 53 pages-long and was published in 1999. It is considered unique, showing systematic abuses by military dictatorships.