Obama to Mexico: The 'Tlatlaya 22" killings must have a credible investigation

Update:
"After President Barack Obama urged President Enrique Peña Nieto to conduct a investigation into the shooting of 22  at the hands of the military, the Department of Defense and the PGR said they are willing to heed the call,  to investigate the incident.

In separate statements issued simultaneously, both agencies stated "with full respect for the rights of the people" we have begun "a complete and thorough investigation to get to the truth" of what happened on Monday, June 30 at Pedro Limón community in the municipality of Tlatlaya in the state of Mexico.

However, the Ministry of National Defense (Department of Defense), reiterated that the death of 22 young was due to military personnel repelling an armed attack."

The U.S. State Department urged Mexico to investigate the Tlatlaya case, saying it is "imperative that there is a credible review of the circumstances."

Mexican Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said federal prosecutors would investigate the shootings and make the results public if it finds any contradictions in the army's version of events. (is anyone relieved?) 

The army has said soldiers came under fire from a gang of armed men at an abandoned grain warehouse and the troops returned fire in self-defense, killing 22 people and rescuing three kidnap victims unharmed.

However, the mother of the only female killed said she witnessed the June 30 incident and only one of the gunmen died in a brief, initial battle with soldiers. She said the 20 other men and her daughter were killed after they surrendered.

Human Rights Commission investigator Marat Paredes Montiel said commission staff had talked with the mother almost two months ago and were investigating the case to see what really happened.

"We have recently been given access to the case file and the autopsies," Paredes Montiel said. "We are analyzing this data."

The governmental agency has the power to issue recommendations that government entities have to either obey, or explain publicly why they won't.

On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke, speaking to reporters in Washington, said that "we have seen these most recent reports and we've been following this case since June."

"We have encouraged the government of Mexico to investigate and we understand that several Mexican entities are investigating this incident," Rathke said. "But as in all cases where security forces use lethal force, we think it's imperative that there is a credible review of the circumstances undertaken in response to them and the appropriate civilian authorities should conduct those investigations."

In an interview with Radio Formula, Osorio Chong, Mexico's top security official, said the federal Attorney General's Office was leading the investigation.

"Anything that needs to be made known, if something happened that differs from the version we have, will of course be made public," Osorio Chong said.

Later Friday, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement that from the beginning it assigned a team of experts to conduct a thorough investigation.

"It is our responsibility to clarify with precision whether the acts (of the soldiers) were carried out according to the law and with absolute respect to human rights," it said. (Translation: The world is paying attention, we need a finding/determination the soldiers acted within lawful boundaries, and did not slaughter disarmed teens that were in surrender stance)

The comments came after an Associated Press story quoted the mother telling about witnessing the bloodshed and saying soldiers fatally shoot her 15-year-old daughter even though the girl was lying wounded on the ground.

The army's version came into question because government troops suffered only one wounded, and physical evidence at the scene pointed toward more selective killings.

The witness, who asked to be quoted by name for fear of reprisals, said soldiers interrogated the men after they surrendered in front of the warehouse and then took them inside one-by-one. From where she stood just outside the warehouse and in army custody, she heard gunshots and moans of the dying.

Source: AP