Other officials have faced judicial proceedings for crimes committed during the war years. Last December, a retired Guatemalan colonel was sentenced to 53 years in prison [JURIST report] for his role in the disappearance of eight indigenous Guatemalans during the 36-year civil war. In 2005, Guatemala formally apologized [JURIST report] for the government-ordered peasant massacre that occurred in July 1982, where special forces soldiers are accused of killing 268 men, women and children of mostly Mayan descent in the village Dos Erres. Vice President Eduardo Stein made the acknowledgment in a small town north of Guatemala City, expressing remorse for the army's action that "wipe[d] out an entire community." The apology came in response to an order [press release] from the Inter-American Human Rights Court, part of the Organization of American States [official website], requiring an apology and payments to survivors totaling almost $8 million.