UPDATED ON:
Sunday, July 01, 2007
02:22 Mecca time, 23:22 GMT
News Americas
Guatemala army parade turns ugly
Police used tear gas to disperse protesters after they interrupted the Army Day parade [Reuters]
Protesters in Guatemala have disrupted an Army Day parade, which they said was an insult to the memory of the war's 200,000 mostly civilian victims.
 
Police on Saturday used tear gas to disperse protesters, members of the Children's Collective, whose relatives died or disappeared in the 1960-1996 civil war.
Protesters tossed red paint on some of the marchers and later scuffled with soldiers and their relatives.

Only minor injuries were reported.
"They fought and some were hurt," but none accepted medical treatment, Carlos Salazar a spokesman for the firefighters, said.
 
Wendy Mendez, a member of the Children's Collective, said military police sprayed the demonstrators with tear gas and pepper spray.
 
"We believe that an institution that committed genocide should not be honored at the national level," she said.
 
A 1998 report by the Roman Catholic Church's human rights office blamed Guatemala's military for the overwhelming majority of atrocities committed during the civil war.
 Source: Agencies
 
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