Commission says Guatemalan military obstructing investigations

The special international commission set up in Guatemala to probe the human rights abuses of the past has accused the armed forces of not doing enough to help investigators.

Senior members of the commission say the army has blocked access to certain information, claiming it is protecting state secrets.

The commission was set up as part of the peace agreement signed a year ago to end three decades of civil war in which a hundred-and-fifty-thousand people were killed.

Most of the dead were civilians, and the Guatemalan armed forces were frequently accused by the international community of widespread human rights violations.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service