home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!dtix!darwin.sura.net!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Subject: Guatemala: Cerigua Briefs AUGUST 23 - 29, 1992
- Message-ID: <1992Sep4.004646.27500@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Date: 4 Sep 92 00:46:46 GMT
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Organization: PACH
- Lines: 259
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
-
- /** reg.guatemala: 80.0 **/
- ** Topic: Cerigua Weekly Briefs **
- ** Written 11:49 pm Sep 2, 1992 by cerisea in cdp:reg.guatemala **
- CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, AUGUST 23 - 29, 1992
- Human Rights Official Invites Serrano to Visit Bombed Areas
-
- Religious workers and human rights advocates from Guatemala
- and the international community confirmed military bombing
- and harassment of civilian populations hiding out in remote
- areas of the Guatemalan highlands, reported radio Guatemala
- Flash August 25. A multi-sector commission visited the
- Resistance Communities (CPR) of the Quiche August 20-22 and
- found evidence of houses bombed and animals killed as well as
- a 100-pound bomb which had failed to explode during an army
- attack. The commission also reported finding debris left
- from a bomb which killed one man and wounded another.
-
- Upon his return from the visit, Assistant Human Rights
- Ombudsman Cesar Alvarez Guadamuz personally invited President
- Serrano to visit the communities stating that the president
- would re-evaluate government policy toward them if he
- witnessed the people's precarious situation first-hand. In
- the report over radio Patrullaje Informativo, Alvarez said
- the 24,000 people living in the Quiche mountains cannot go
- ignored.
-
- Defense Minister Jose Garcia Samayoa denied any bombings of
- civilians, saying the mentioned area is a battleground
- between the army and the guerrillas. Garcia said the region
- is of strategic and tactical value to the rebels and that the
- communities themselves serve as the insurgency's political
- arm. "This so-called multi-sector commission presented the
- subversion's terrorist artefacts and other weapons and said
- they belonged to the army," Garcia said in response to the
- commission's report. He then produced for the press military
- evidence of guerrilla weaponry taken in combat from that
- region. "We don't bomb anyone but the enemy," he said.
-
- Bishops Express Grave Concern
-
- Guatemalan society is facing a deep crisis, and is at the
- brink of desperation, warns the Guatemalan Bishops Conference
- in their pastoral letter released August 27. In "500 Years
- Spreading the Gospel" the bishops say Guatemala rates the
- third lowest world-wide in human development, with only a
- minority having access to health services, potable water and
- education. The bishops say the combination of unemployment,
- lack of housing, the high cost of living, common crime,
- impunity and corruption in public and private sectors depicts
- nothing but despair. The Guatemalan people feel
- "disappointment, disillusionment and frustration," the letter
- concludes.
-
- The Catholic bishops warn that the gap is widening between
- the rich and poor, adding that "a society which grants
- privileges has to create 'slaves' in order to maintain the
- system." Land ownership in Guatemala is among the mostunjust and unbalanced in all of Latin American, the bishops
- say.
-
- In rural areas, campesinos know the military leadership keeps
- constant vigil and control over them, the pastoral letter
- says. Such military presence, far from creating security and
- tranquility, generates fear, anxiety and insecurity, the
- bishops conclude.
-
- The Bishops Conference criticizes the Guatemalan National
- Revolutionary Unity (URNG) for maintaining a climate of war
- and "provoking violent reactions from the army, even at the
- price of harm to the civilian population, which is always the
- most affected in these cases."
-
- No Agreements in Peace Talks
-
- Peace mediator Bishop Rodolfo Quezada announced on August 24
- that another round of negotiations ended without reaching
- agreement on human rights issues. Representatives from the
- government, army and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary
- Unity (URNG) met August 22-24 in Mexico City. Negotiators
- could not agree on the issues of respect for international
- humanitarian laws in wartime and the formation of a Truth and
- Justice Commission to investigate past human rights abuses.
- Both sides agree such a commission is necessary, but they
- disagree on who will make up the commission and when it will
- begin its work.
-
- URNG Gives Its Perspective
-
- Leaders of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG)
- gave a press conference after the latest round of talks ended
- abruptly on August 24. The URNG General Command broke with
- the usual silence around the discussions behind closed doors,
- while peace mediator Bishop Rodolfo Quezada made only a brief
- statement to the press and government delegate Manuel Conde
- answered a few questions and left. In response to the rumor
- that negotiations had broken down, Commander Gaspar Ilom
- described the situation as "tense" and "delicate" but assured
- that the peace process was not suspended. The URNG said
- peace mediator Bishop Rodolfo Quezada will again shuttle back
- and forth between the two sides to seek a way to resolve the
- disagreements, and said another meeting between two sides is
- scheduled for September 11.
-
- URNG leaders said the government and army hardened their
- stance in the latest round of talks, especially on the
- timeline for implementing accords. Commander Pablo Monsanto
- said the government wants to wait until the final peace
- accord is reached before implementing human rights agreements
- "but the Guatemalan people cannot wait until peace is signed
- before human rights are respected." Monsanto added that
- human rights were violated before the civil war began and itis therefore unnecessary to link respect for these rights to
- an end to the war. Monsanto said "the negotiation process
- will gain credibility and the people's confidence to the
- extent that it is translated into real changes in the human
- rights situation for Guatemalans." Monsanto said government
- negotiators argue that the immediate formation of the Truth
- and Justice Commission will increase the polarization of the
- society and destabilize the peace process.
-
- Commander Gaspar Ilom said the insurgency proposes that the
- Human Rights Ombudsman preside over the Truth and Justice
- Commission and that other members include a citizen appointed
- by the peace mediator in consultation with both the
- government and the URNG, a University of San Carlos delegate,
- a United Nations representative and a representative from the
- religious sector. Ilom added that the government has not
- made a proposal on the matter, while Quezada proposed the
- participation of the Ombudsman, a notable citizen and a
- university representative.
-
- URNG leaders explained that discussion of international
- humanitarian laws in wartime is focused on the rights of
- combatants captured or injured and civilian populations
- living in conflict zones. Commander Ilom mentioned the cases
- of two URNG combatants recently captured and then presented
- as insurgency deserters.
-
- Commander Monsanto said the URNG was willing to discuss the
- participation of civilian sectors in the peace process, but
- the government refused. The government said the insurgency
- wanted to discuss the topic because it is to their advantage,
- said Monsanto. But, after negotiations stalled on the human
- rights issues, Quezada suggested the discussion shift to
- civilian participation, Monsanto explained. But, he added,
- "what the government did was to avoid the topic." Monsanto
- said the URNG has made its position clear: "The URNG
- believes all civilian sectors of the population have the
- legitimate right to participate."
-
- Residents Say Civil Patrols Must Go
-
- Tens of thousands from the Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan
- municipality in the Solola province are demanding that the
- Defense Minister disarm 1,800 civil patrollers in the region.
- Residents say patrollers keep families in the village of
- Guineales under constant threat. Nearly 40,000 residents
- demonstrated on August 27 and two days later, two town
- councilors went to Guatemala City to attend a meeting on the
- matter at the Archbishop's Palace.
-
- Local officials say everything was calm in Guineales until
- the army established a civil patrol--then, the threats and
- abuses began. The officials report that patrollers threaten
- residents, machine-gun their homes and prevent them fromtraveling to the southern coast region to work. Protesting
- residents say if the Defense Minister fails to disarm the
- patrols, they will do it themselves, even if it means
- bloodshed.
-
- UN Resolution on Human Rights
-
- A United Nations sub-commission urges the Guatemalan
- government to intensify efforts to guarantee respect for
- human rights. The UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of
- Discrimination and Protection of Minorities passed a
- resolution on August 25 to express its deep concern over the
- continuation of serious human rights violations in Guatemala.
- The resolution notes that "a situation of serious violations
- of human rights persists as a result of practices carried out
- by groups linked to the security forces."
-
- The UN Sub-Commission is likewise concerned over "the
- situation of the indigenous peoples, who are subjected to
- violations of their human, civil, political, economic, social
- and cultural rights and whose legitimate demands continue to
- be ignored." The resolution urges the government to "pay
- special attention to the recommendations made by the [UN]
- Independent Expert in his report, principally the abolition
- of the system for the protection of the citizenry and of the
- voluntary civil self-defence committees, within the context
- of the negotiations between the Government and the Unidad
- Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca." The Sub-Commission
- resolution also calls on the government to adopt urgent
- measures to facilitate the return of the refugees and
- displaced persons within the country.
-
- In testimony before the UN Sub-Commission, the International
- Indian Treaty Council said genocidal and ethnocidal policies
- remain in force in Guatemala. The Treaty Council demanded
- that the Mayan people participate directly in the government-
- army-URNG negotiation process in order to resolve the
- country's structural problems that caused the civil war.
- Council members also said indigenous peoples must be among
- those who make political, economic and social decisions.
-
- Army Captain Ordered Murder
-
- A soldier says Army Captain Hugo Contreras Alvarado gave the
- order to kill US citizen Michael Devine over two years ago.
- Soldier Rafael Tiul Cucul was the only one of eleven military
- men implicated in the June 1990 murder who appeared for a
- military court hearing on the matter August 25. Radio
- Patrullaje Informativo reported that since not all of those
- arrested for the murder appeared, the hearing did not take
- place. Soldier Tiul Cucul told the press he did not know the
- reason behind the murder, but that Contreras had given the
- order.
- The body of Michael Devine was found partially decapitated in
- Santa Elena, Peten in June 1990. Since then, Colonels Mario
- Garcia and Guillermo Portillo, Captain Contreras, army
- intelligence specialist Fabian Arevalo and seven soldiers
- have been implicated in the crime.
-
- US Archeologist Murdered in Hotel Room
-
- Police are investigating the August 22 murder of US
- archeologist Peter Tisciones. A hotel employee found
- Tisciones, 50, stabbed to death with a machete in his room at
- the Panamerican hotel in Guatemala City, reported radio
- Guatemala Flash.
-
- Almost 4,000 Confirmed Cases of Cholera
-
- The Health Ministry reports that between April and August of
- this year, 3,964 patients tested positive with the cholera
- virus. The death toll in the cholera epidemic for this
- period reached 255 while 17,817 suspected cases are still
- under examination.
-
- *****************
-
- In the U.S. and Canada subscribe to Weekly Briefs by sending
- check or money order to:
-
- ANI
- PO Box 28481
- Seattle, WA 98118
-
- Subscription fees in the U.S. and Canada:
- $18 for 6 months, $36 for one year.
- Elsewhere, contact:
-
- CERIGUA
- Apartado Postal 74206
- CP 09080 Delegacion Itzapalapa
- Mexico, D.F.
- Telephone: 5102320 - FAX 5109061 - Telex (17) 64525
-
- Also please send us your comments and suggestions to the
- Seattle address or by email to cerisea on PeaceNet.
- ** End of text from cdp:reg.guatemala **
-