The Guatemalan's Human Rights Ombudsmen (PDH) went to the press last week to give an update on the discovery of millions of old police files dating back over the last century. For many human rights groups in Guatemala, the hope is that the files' contents hold the key to future prosecutions of past human rights abuses.

Reports appeared by Reuters (Mica Rosenberg) in AlertNet and Associated Press (Juan Carlos Llorca) in the Guardian. There was even a very brief mention in the Times.

It is a race against time for the PDH, which aims to begin scanning and storing the written information contained in the files electronically. Around a million pages are ready for scanning at the moment- a fraction of the estimated 48 millions pages in total. However, of those million, 750,000 pages were compiled by the office of the National Police director between 1980 and 1985 - when many of the war's worst massacres and other human rights violations occurred. The challenge now is to advance this work before the documents succumb to the elements, are vandalised or stolen.

Llorca writes: "With $2.5 million from Sweden, the Guatemalans plan to buy high-speed scanners and build a digital archive of the files. The U.N. Development Program is providing advice and Spain has promised to send archive specialists."

Rosenberg quotes Gustavo Meono, lead investigator and formerly of the Rigoberta Menchu Foundation: "Prosecutions using the files as evidence are still a long way off, since many of those implicated in state crimes are still in power".