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- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Subject: Guatemala: Menchu returns to share prize with compatriots
- Message-ID: <1992Dec20.034131.24670@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Date: 20 Dec 92 03:41:31 GMT
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
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- /** reg.guatemala: 128.0 **/
- ** Topic: GUATEMAALA: MENCHU RETURNS TO SHARE **
- ** Written 3:33 am Dec 14, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:reg.guatemala **
- From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
- Subject: GUATEMAALA: MENCHU RETURNS TO SHARE
-
- /* Written 12:18 am Dec 14, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in
- igc:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
- rights reserved. Permission to re- print within 7 days of
- original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.
-
- Title: GUATEMAALA: MENCHU RETURNS TO SHARE PEACE PRIZE WITH
- COMPATRIOTS
-
- guatemala city, dec 11 (ips) -- guatemalan rigoberta menchu, the
- quiche maya indian woman who won the 1992 nobel peace prize, will
- return home dec. 19, after 11 years of exile, to share the
- international award with her compatriots.
-
- nora colomo, press officer for the guatemalan evangelical churches
- conference (ciedes), told ips that menchu would arrive here from
- mexico, where she has remained in exile since 1981. she is
- expected to stay in guatemala until dec. 26.
-
- colomo said that while in guatemala, menchu ''will share her nobel
- experience with her brothers in the country.''
-
- a spokesperson for the national commission of widows of men who
- died through violence (cnvv), said ''this will be the first time
- in many years that rigoberrta will have the opportunity to spend
- christmas with her family.''
-
- menchu was born at chimel, a town in north-western guatemala.
- this is a part of the country which has been ravaged by the
- 25-year civil war, in which more than 100,000 people have died.
-
- fighting the government is the guatemalan national revolutionary
- union (urng)--an association of four guerrilla groups active in
- the cities as well as the countryside.
-
- another 35,000 people have just...''disappeared'' after being
- arrested by the army and police, and it is generally believed they
- have been summarily executed.
-
- urng and the government have been negotiating a peaceful
- settlement of the long civil war since april 1991, but for the
- past 14 months the talks have been virtually deadlocked. little
- progress has been made toward a ceasefire.
-
- shortly after winning the nobel award, menchu told reporters that
- one of her first objectives was to try and help settle the
- conflict which has plagued her country for so long.
-
- on dec. 21 menchu will inaugurate a monument dedicated to peace in
- kaminal kuju--a suburb of guatemala city where many maya era
- archaeological discoveries have been made. (more/ips)
-
- guatemala: menchu (2)
-
- a 'national rally for peace and reconciliation' is scheduled to
- take place at kaminal kuju on the same day. it is being organised
- by human rights organisations on behalf of the national peace
- coordination committee.
-
- menchu's return to her country will take place only a few weeks
- before 5,000 guatemalan refugees, who had been housed in camps in
- mexico, begin to return home under the auspices of the u.n. high
- commission on refugees (unhcr).
-
- altogether more than a quarter million guatemalans have had to
- abandon their country in order to escape from the horrors of the
- civil war. about 40,000 of them have been living in mexico,
- depending on international charity.
- (ends/ips/tr/sp/hr/np/ff/ds/it)
- ** End of text from cdp:reg.guatemala **
-