Mexican Court Orders Civilian Trials For Troops Accused Of Rights Abuse

(RTTNews) - Mexico's Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that soldiers accused of torture, forced disappearances, extrajudicial killing and other violations of civilian human rights should be tried in civilian courts instead of military tribunals.

The development came amid increasing cases of military personnel violating rights of civilians in Mexico, where thousands of troops are deployed in cities and towns across the country as part of an intensified military campaign against powerful drug cartels.

The country's troops come in direct contact with its civilian population than in most countries as the Mexican military has been granted policing powers under a major anti-drug cartel campaign launched by President Felipe Calderon five years ago.

Rights groups have alleged in the past that civilian abuses and arbitrary arrests of suspects by military personnel have increased exponentially since Calderon launched the anti-drug cartel initiative in 2006.

Rights groups have often accused troops of opening fire on civilians during gun-battles with drug gangs and carrying out illegal arrests and searches. They have also reported cases of suspects disappearing totally after their arrests by the Army.

The National Human Rights Commission has confirmed that it has so far received some 4,772 complaints about soldiers violating human rights of civilians. It says that only a small fraction of those cases have ended in convictions in military courts that heard them.

Last year, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had ordered Mexico to review its military justice system after finding that concerned authorities had failed to investigate the case of an alleged Left-wing activist who disappeared following his detention by security forces in southern Mexico in 1974.

The latest ruling by the Supreme Court is seen as a step toward implementing the directive of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. From now on, rights abuse cases involving civilian rights abuse by military personnel would be heard in civilian courts instead of military tribunals as practised earlier.

The Mexican government says that more than 34,600 people have died in drug-related violence in the country since Calderon launched the offensive against drug gangs after taking office in December 2006.

Besides fighting drug cartels, Calderon has deployed thousands of troops across the country to check drug-related violence and launched a massive anti-corruption drive named 'Operation Clean-up' to identify and punish public servants having links with drug cartels.

by RTT Staff Writer

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(2011-7-13/rttnews)