Slain Rebel's Wife to Plead Case Before High Court

By Charles Lane

Monday, March 18

A political and legal drama that began 10 years ago in a remote corner of Guatemala reaches the Supreme Court today, where a lawyer-activist will argue for the right to sue former senior U.S. officials for allegedly covering up the murder of her husband, a Guatemalan rebel leader who died in Guatemalan army custody.

Jennifer K. Harbury says her constitutional right of access to the courts was violated by then-Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher, then-national security adviser Anthony Lake, and five other White House and State Department officials who, she says, falsely assured her in 1993 and 1994 that they were looking into Efrain Bamaca Velasquez's fate.

"But for those deceptive statements," Harbury said in an interview, "I could have gone to court and saved his life."

Although its origins lie in a bygone chapter of U.S. foreign policy, and the ultimate result is likely to turn on how broadly the justices define the right of access to the courts, the Harbury case is attracting attention as a conflict between citizens' right to know what their government is doing - and the government's need to operate in secrecy under some circumstances.

It arises at a time when the United States and its allies are conducting secret intelligence, law enforcement and military operations against terrorists around the world - amid criticism from civil libertarians that secrecy could prevent accountability for violations of human rights.

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Originally published at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42287-2002Mar17.html