One of the extraordinary aspects of the Guatemalan trial of General Efrain Rios Montt is that, unlike Nuremberg and similar proceedings, this is not a case of victor's justice.
This is not a case of ruling powers setting out to hang the army they defeated, but rather of the defeated -- the dead -- coming back to legally try the victors who killed them.
They were decapitated, strangled, shot in the face, slit open with machetes while pregnant, yet they left enough family and spirit behind to wreak some justice on their killers' commander.
The way this happened is a story for the history books and an inspiration and lesson for those of us still living.
If the trial is allowed to proceed to verdict and Rios Montt is convicted he will go down in memory as a leader of a social regime that won, but also as a common criminal.
Allan Nairn
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