Mexico's army is committing human rights violations¹ while engaged in anti-narcotics activities as an arm of the police, a human rights group says.

一个人权组织称，墨西哥军队在禁毒运动中侵犯人权。

Some 40,000 soldiers are involved in the drug war

The armed forces are involved in rape², murder and torture, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

A new HRW report documents apparent abuses against environmentalists, indigenous³（土著的） women and others, many with no link to illegal drugs.

The army investigates abuses, but HRW says a culture of impunity⁴（无事，无患） exists.

In one of 17 examples cited by the organisation⁵ in its Uniform Impunity report, six civilians⁷ returning from a party in a car were chased and shot by armed soldiers in Sinaloa state.

Four people - the driver and three passengers - were killed despite pleas（借口，恳求） by the civilians that they were unarmed, it said.

The two survivors⁸ were forced to lie face down in the dirt with their hands on their necks for several hours before being released without charge. One was also beaten, the report said.

No weapons were found in the car.

But the military initially⁹ claimed the occupants（居住者） were "four suspected assassins（刺客） of the drug trade" who had shot at the soldiers first.

Official investigations¹⁰ led the state prosecutor¹¹ to conclude that the [civilian⁶] account of the events was more credible¹² that the military's, the HRW report says.

After an inconsequential（不合逻辑的，不合理的） military tribunal（军事法庭） the families of the victims were presented with an offer of compensation by the military - and given an afternoon to accept it. If they did not do so they were told it would be withdrawn¹³.

The HRW report says abuses continue because they go unpunished, and blames this on the military investigating most cases itself.

It says the military system is not transparent¹⁴ and "by allowing the military to investigate itself through a system that lacks basic safeguards to ensure independence and impartiality¹⁵（公平，无私）, Mexico is in practice allowing military officers involved in law enforcement activities to commit egregious¹⁶（恶名昭著的，过分的） human rights violations with impunity".

It calls on military suspects of human rights violations to be tried under Mexico's civilian justice system.