A former defense minister and two colonels went on trial in El Salvador Tuesday for the killings of four Dutch journalists 43 years ago, an NGO assisting the victims' families said.

Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemsen were killed in 1982 while filming a television documentary during El Salvador's civil war.

The accused are General Jose Guillermo Garcia, 91, former police colonel Francisco Antonio Moran, 93, and ex-infantry brigade commander Mario Reyes Mena, 85.

In 1993, a UN-sponsored Truth Commission found the journalists had walked into an ambush planned by Reyes, who lives in the United States, and with the knowledge of other officers.

The Salvadoran Supreme Court approved an extradition request for Reyes in March, but there has been no progress so far.

Garci

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