Members of a team from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation received death threats in February 2008. The foundation excavates mass graves to look for evidence of genocide and other crimes against humanity committed by the Guatemalan military during the 36-year-long civil war, which ended in 1996. The head of the foundation, Fredy Peccerelli, his colleagues and relatives had also received threats via text messages and emails in May and June 2007, warning that they were being watched and threatening them with rape, torture and death. Members of the team and their relatives had earlier been threatened in person – by gunmen pushing a gun against their head on the street, for instance – or by letter, warning them to stop their work.422

[Refworld note: The source report "Education under Attack 2010" was posted on the UNESCO website (www.unesco.org) in pdf format, with country chapters run together. Original footnote numbers have been retained here.]

422 Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR), "Death Threats to Guatemalan Forensic Anthropologists," February 12, 2008; NEAR, "Urgent Action for Guatemalan Forensic Anthropologists," June 5, 2007; and NEAR, "Death Threats Against Forensic Anthropologists," September 14, 2005.

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