/* Written  9:50 PM  Feb 26, 1991 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */
/* ---------- "Cerigua Briefs Feb. 17-23" ---------- */
	CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, February 17 - 23, 1991

Post Deadline News on UN Human Rights Commission

A close vote on Monday by the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights determined that Guatemala will not be placed on the list of
countries where human rights are seriously and systematically
violated.  Venezuela introduced a proposal by Latin American
countries to give the new government the benefit of the doubt and
keep Guatemala under the category of receiving UN consultation.
The only Latin American countries which did not vote with the
Latin American bloc were Panama, which joined the United States in
calling for a special rapporteur to be named, and Cuba, which
abstained.  The other countries that voted in a favor of a special
rapporteur included Canada, Japan, Australia, Zambia and European
countries.

Testimony Before UN Human Rights Commission Continues

Guatemalan and international organizations testified before the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights this week in Geneva,
Switzerland.  Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi said that military
intelligence policy in Guatemala not only foments selective
political violence but has also revived the use of massacres.
Bishop Gerardi is the vice president of the National
Reconciliation Commission and the coordinator of the Archbishop's
Human Rights Office.  The bishop commented that the good
intentions expressed by Serrano are the same as those expressed by
the last government, which was unsuccessful in implementing them.
He urged the Commission to demand that the Guatemalan government
begin investigations to identify and punish those responsible for
violations committed during the Cerezo government and the first
days of the current government.

Nineth de Garcia told the UN Commission that families of the
disappeared wonder how much longer they must live in terror,
knowing that the army is kidnapping, torturing, and killing the
people.  The president of the Mutual Support Group for the
Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM) asked the United Nations to
appoint a special rapporteur to monitor human rights violations in
Guatemala.  She said this appointment would not be in judgment of
the newly-elected government but could prevent repeating the human
rights violations carried out under the previous government.  She
reminded the Human Rights Commission that ex-president Cerezo was
given the benefit of the doubt and a severe price was paid.
During the five years of the Cerezo government, 4332 Guatemalans
were murdered.

The U.S. government's representative before the UN Commission said
that security forces have committed the majority of serious human
rights violations in Guatemala under a shieldof almost complete
impunity.  The representative reported that in some cases,
legitimate efforts to express political opinions are met with
arbitrary violence committed by government civilian or military
officials.

Guatemalan organizations such as GAM and the Association of
University Students (AEU) as well as international organizations
urged the UN Commission to place Guatemala on the list of "worst
offenders."  This would call for a UN special rapporteur to
monitor human rights violations in Guatemala.  The Serrano
government insists that this would be unfair and wants to keep
Guatemala under the category of only receiving UN consultation.
According to Marta Gloria Torres of the United Representation of
the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG), placement in the latter category
presumes that a government has not only the will but the capacity
to maintain respect for human rights.

A group of non-governmental organizations participating in the UN
assembly asked representatives of the Guatemalan government to
guarantee the personal safety of members of Guatemalan human
rights groups giving testimony when they return to Guatemala.  The
request was denied by the Guatemalan ambassador to the United
Nations, who responded that the members of the government
delegation do not reside in Guatemala.

Violence Against Street Kids Under Investigation

An average of two street children are tortured and killed by
national police and mobile military forces every week in
Guatemala, according to Congressman Mario Taracena.  He pointed to
strong evidence that street children are held and tortured in
clandestine jails, and later found dead.  Taracena is the
president of the congressional Commission for the Protection of
Minors which met this week.  The commission is investigating human
rights violations against children who live in the streets of
Guatemala City.  Police forces have been charged with unleashing a
campaign of violence against the street children.

Taracena told the Commission that other street children are beaten
mercilessly by police officers when they are found sniffing glue,
known to relieve hunger.  The homeless children shine shoes or
steal watches by day; at night they sleep in store entrances,
using newspapers for blankets.  Taracena said that not a single
police officer has been arrested, even though there have been at
least 23 charges filed.

The government human rights office said on Tuesday that it will
request a warrant to search police quarters for secret jails where
street children might be held, in response to Taracena's
statements.  The director of the national police, Colonel Mario
Paiz, denied that such jails exist and challenged Congressman
Taracena to show proof to the contrary.  The police chief appeared
before the Commission on Thursday and was presented with 36 cases
of police violations against street children.  During the
discussion which followed, Paiz accused the staff of Covenant
House, a shelter for street kids, of blaming police officers for
mistreatment of the children without providing adequate evidence.
He claimed that various officers have been prosecuted but released
because they were innocent.  Colonel Paiz also announced that the
director of Covenant House will be investigated for manipulating
and distorting the facts in order to receive international
funding.  The Covenant House staff has reportedly been harrassed
and threatened by security forces.  In its report on violence
against street children released last year, Amnesty International
expressed its fear that the June 1990 murder of staff member
Daniel Sequen Sinay was committed as a reprisal for the active
role played by Covenant House in pressing for prosecution of those
responsible for the violence.

Two CERJ Members Murdered

A father and son who were members of the Runujel Junam Council of
Ethnic Communities (CERJ) were murdered by two civil patrol chiefs
at dawn on Sunday, according to CERJ representatives.  Juan
Perebal Morales and his father, Juan Perebal Morales Xirun, were
from the village of Chunima in Quiche province.  Diego Perebal
Leon was seriously wounded in the attack.

One of the civil patrol chiefs implicated in the murders is
believed to have been involved in the kidnapping and murder of
another CERJ member, Sebastian Velasquez Mejia, last year.  Patrol
Chief Manuel Perebal Ajtzalam had been threatening the two victims
since 1989, according to a report by the Guatemalan Human Rights
Commission.  The CERJ had filed a complaint on behalf of the two
men with human rights ombudsman Ramiro de Leon.

The CERJ openly protests forced participation in the rural civil
patrols.  United Nations expert Christian Tomuschat confirmed in
his recent report on human rights that the patrols are
unconstitutional because participation by males living in the
countryside is obligatory.

UASP Rejects Social Pact

On Wednesday leaders of the United Labor and Popular Action (UASP)
announced their refusal to participate in the so- called social
pact being promoted by President Serrano.  They insisted that if
the government wants an open and honest dialogue, it must first
retract recent measures such as the lifting of price controls on
basic goods, the increase inelectricity rates and layoffs in the
public sector.

A peaceful march on Wednesday night was attended by 5,000 members
of union and grassroots organizations.  In addition to protesting
the proposed social pact, the demonstrators demanded a general
salary increase and expressed their support for striking workers
of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (IGSS).

URNG Refutes Government-Army Charges

In a statement released this week the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Unity (URNG) charged the government and army with
waging a disinformation campaign to create a false image of the
armed opposition.  According to the URNG, the purpose is to impede
the continuation of talks with the insurgency that were initiated
last March with the Oslo Accords.The URNG statement described
distorted reports of combat which took place on February 16 as the
most recent example of this campaign.  The government and army
accuse the insurgency of massacring 11 campesinos on the North
Transverse Highway near Santo Tomas.  The army identified the
campesinos as members of a local civil patrol who were carrying
only machetes and clubs.  In testimony on television news
broadcast Notisiete, one of those wounded in the incident said he
was a member of a civil patrol which exchanged fire with guerrilla
forces.  The URNG reported that their forces were pursued by
heavily armed government forces, and that rifles, ammunition, a
grenade and camouflage uniforms were confiscated by the rebels.

In response to other charges, the insurgency leadership
emphatically denied that rebel forces were responsible for recent
attacks on tourists.  The URNG also repeated that its forces did
not stage an attack against President Serrano when he was
traveling by helicopter through a combat zone.  Serrano has
continued to insist that he was the target of a planned attack by
the insurgency.

House of Representatives Sends Letter to Serrano

More than 100 U.S. Congressional representatives expressed their
deep concern over escalating human rights abuses in Guatemala in a
letter to President Serrano.  The letter dated February 7 was
written by co-chairmen of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus of
the House of Representatives and signed by over 100
representatives.

The legislators pointed to substantial evidence that members of
security forces continue to be implicated in widespread and
systematic human rights violations.  Guatemalans from all sectors
of society and of all ages have been victims of these abuses in
recent years, according to the letter.  Street children and human
rights organizations such as the Mutual Support Group for
Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM) and Runujel Junam Council of
Ethnic Communities (CERJ) were specifically mentioned as targets.

Serrano was urged to take several concrete steps to confront the
situation.  First, to issue a public condemnation of torture,
disappearances and extra-judicial executions.  Second, to announce
his intention to investigate and prosecute all violations.
Finally, to provide adequate resources and authority to
governmental human rights entities, and to protect human rights
monitors.  The U.S.  Representatives added that the Guatemalan
government's success in improving the human rights situation will
have a "favorable impact on the future of bilateral relations
between our two nations."

Ecological Abuses Denounced by Friends of the Forest

An ecological group in Guatemala has protested the cutting of
mangrove trees, a species in danger of extinction, near Tilapa,
San Marcos, by members of the armed forces.  On Monday, the
Friends of the Forest asked the Defense Minister to put an
immediate end to this practice and reforest the affected areas.
The organization denounced that 1,800 mangrove trees have been cut
down by the army without permission and have been transported to a
number of army garrisons.

On February 15 the Friends of the Forest alerted the National
Environmental Commission that aerial anti-narcotics fumigations
are seriously damaging vegetation and animal life near Cuilco,
Huehuetenango.  Inhabitants of the area have testified that "the
entire forest, insects, bees and other species are dying."  Cuilco
officials said that the death of the bees has hit the population
"like an earthquake," affecting 300 farmers for whom beekeeping is
a primary source of income.  Friends of the Forest urged the
government to take urgent action to halt the ecological damage,
and find another way to eliminate poppy fields.  Based on an
agreement between the governments of Guatemala and the United
States, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has been conducting
aerial sprayings since 1986, despite widespread protest.

Majority of Girls Without Education

Only seven percent of girls in Guatemala attend primary school,
according to recent studies.  The average in Latin America is 10
percent.  Girls and women in Guatemala receive the least formal
education out of 28 Latin American countries reviewed by the
Center for Investigation, Study and Promotion of Human Rights
(CIEPRODH) in Guatemala.

Correction:  In the last edition of the Weekly Briefs, we reported
that followers of Father Jose Maria Ruiz Furlan occupied the
archdiocesan palace because the priest had been removed from his
parish and sent to Spain.  Although the controversial priest known
as "Padre Chemita" has been ordered to leave his parish, he has
not yet done so.  Also, he has run for mayor of Guatemala City
during the last four elections.

*****************

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Tomas.  The army identified the campesinos as members of a local
civil patrol who were carrying on