Guatemalan massacre trial starts

Six former paramilitaries have gone on trial in Guatemala over the massacre of 143 people in one of the worst incidents in the country's civil war.

Three other fighters have already been convicted over the 1982 attack on Mayan Indians - mostly women and children - in the village of Rio Negro.

It is thought the murders may have been punishment for the villagers' refusal to allow a dam to be built nearby.

A defence lawyer said his clients were innocent.

More than 200,000 people disappeared or were killed during the 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996.

Human rights activists say the former paramilitaries were behind some of the country's worst war crimes, including massacres, rapes and tortures.

Smashed against rocks

Guatemala's Truth Commission has described the killings in Rio Negro as genocide.

According to its report, the perpetrators raped women and smashed childrens' heads on rocks.

Afterwards, local people are said to have fled to the hills, where many more died of hunger or illness.

As the trial started, prosecutors said they could prove the fighters were the people who actually carried out the killings.

The defence said the fighters were not in Rio Negro at the time.

"The brothers and sisters who died were not animals. What we want is justice to be brought to those responsible," a witness told Reuters news agency.