According to the director, conditions are ripe for the Guatemalan government to strengthen the rule of law, and achieve the peaceful coexistence of its citizens. The mission also registered a change in the authorship of most violations. In 1995 the army or paramilitary groups were responsible for almost 45 percent of the violations investigated, but last year this figure dropped to 34 percent. Instead abuses by police, public prosecutors, and the courts made up the bulk at 43.5 percent. The question is no longer protecting citizens from a state that systematically violates their rights .
Impunity is also a persistent problem, the product of weak government institutions.
The mission found that arrest warrants are not carried out, criminal investigations deficient, witnesses afraid to testify, state institutions do not collaborate with eac h other, judges and prosecutors susceptible to pressure, and court rulings sometimes faulty. But the main problem in the post-war era will be to overcome the culture of violence created by decades of repressive responses to social conflicts, the mission states. A revised mission under former peace talks moderator Jean Arnault is now charged with verifying all the peace accords. Worries Student Community Guatemala City, March 5. Assailants have shot dead four university students in separate incidents in the past 10 days, just as the university prepares for its traditional Huelga de Dolores parade.