/* Written 1:11 AM Feb 4, 1992 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */ /* ---------- "Cerigua Weekly Briefs" ---------- */ CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, JANUARY 26 - FEBRUARY 1, 1992 1992 UN Human Rights Session Opens in Geneva The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (CDHG) based in Mexico will present its 1991 report during the 48th United Nations Session on Human Rights held in Geneva, Switzerland from January 27 to March 6. The CDHG reports that in the first year of the Serrano government, there were 775 victims of extrajudicial execution, which is defined as the application of the death penalty without trial; 83 persons disappeared; 291 attempted murders; 551 persons threatened with murder. According to CDHG Director Anantonia Reyes, violations of international humanitarian law continue with attacks against the non-combatant civilian population. Director Reyes says the CDHG calculated more than 15,000 victims affected by military control or bombings in certain areas. Last year Guatemala escaped condemnation for its human rights record but this year, says Reyes, human rights advocates hope that President Serrano will not be given the benefit of the doubt as last year when he was a newly-elected president promising to improve the situation. The United States and European countries are expected to vote in favor of condemnation while Latin American and African countries are expected to vote as bloques in support of the Serrano government. UN Human Rights Commission Chairman Dr. Pal Solt from Hungary told Raul Molina of the United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG) that his country was aware of the situation in Guatemala and offered to work towards getting Guatemala included among those countries which systematically violate human rights. Rigoberta Menchu Hosted by British Foreign Relations Minister Nobel Peace Prize candidate Rigoberta Menchu Tum met with Foreign Relations Minister Tristan Garel-Jones of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland to discuss ways the international community can help Guatemala achieve peace. Garel-Jones expressed his concern for the human rights situation and said that the democratization of Guatemalan society is difficult since "Guatemala has never had a democratic army or police force." He also recognized that the indigenous factor plays a determining role in Guatemalan society. The Quiche indigenous leader said that it is "important that governments stop giving the Guatemalan government a blank check." She expressed her hope that appropriate treatment of Guatemala by the UN Human Rights Commission would mean the first step toward ending the disproportionate way in which the international community has dealt with the two sides involved in the internal armed conflict. UN Working Group on Disappearances: Guatemala Among WorstCases The United Nations Working Group on Forced or Involuntary Disappearances has stated that the practice of forced disappearance is one of the most aberrant characteristics of repressive regimes. As in last year, the UN Working Group's report lists Guatemala among the worst cases worldwide. The group states that the thirty disappearances denounced "have occurred mainly in the provinces of El Quiche, Escuintla, San Marcos and Guatemala City Those cited most frequently as responsible are the armed forces (10 cases) and armed men in civilian clothes acting with complete impunity and believed to be linked to government forces (17)." UN figures cited are lower that those recorded by the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman Office, the Archbishop's Human Rights Office and both national and international non- governmental human rights organizations. Upon presenting his official yearly human rights report before Congress, Ombudsman Ramiro de Leon said the "wall of impunity" impedes investigation of politically motivated murders and that the rights of individuals are not respected because true participatory democracy has yet to be achieved. 1980 Spanish Embassy Massacre Remembered In commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the Spanish Embassy Massacre, Victims of the Repression and Impunity along with the 500 Years of Indigenous, Black and Popular Resistance Movement held a conference on peace and human rights in Guatemala. Participants including relatives of the disappeared, widows, resistance community members, the internally displaced and refugees called on peace negotiators to establish mechanisms to allow these sectors greater participation in the ongoing peace dialog. On January 31, 1980, police burned the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City when peasants, workers and students peacefully occupied the building in protest of government repression in the countryside. Thirty-nine persons burned to death when police threw fire bombs into the embassy. One severely burned protester was later kidnapped from his hospital room and murdered. The Spanish ambassador Maximo Cajal was the only survivor. URNG Visits Germany on European Tour URNG Commander Gaspar Ilom went to Bonn, Germany on a "good- will visit" to talk about the peace negotiation process, according to the German Press Agency (DPA). Ilom said the greatest difficulty is the lack of conscience on the part of the oligarchy and the army to recognize that even a minimal change in thinking is imperative to find a political solutionto Guatemala's situaion. Commander Ilom is accompanied on the European tour by URNG Political-Diplomatic Team representative Luz Mendez and URNG European representative Jorge Rosales. The insurgency representatives indicated that Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Germany are greatly concerned over the human rights situation in Guatemala. Doubts Raised About Guerrillas Turned Over by Army Two of the six supposed guerrillas turned over January 24 by the army to the Human Rights Ombudsman Office have worked for the military more than a year, Ramiro de Leon told the daily Prensa Libre. One of the others has not participated directly with subversive groups, said De Leon. The man has been identified by the resistance communities (CPRs) as a fellow member kidnapped by the army January 15. The other three guerrilla combatants include Veronica Ortiz who the URNG announced had been wounded and captured last October. De Leon said that November 21, the army advised his office that guerrilla Veronica Ortiz was alive and he has since held discussions with her during which he says she requested that her situation not be made public because of her four-year-old daughter. De Leon said that each case will be given special consideration. With the United Nations Human Rights Assembly in Geneva at hand, De Leon indicated that he must prove the veracity of each guerrilla's case given that both insurgents and the army seek to defend their positions. Defense Minister Jose Garcia said none of the guerrillas have been soldiers in the army although they were given money for personal expenses and clothing, and their medical bills were covered by the Defense Ministry. Bishop Quezada: Positive Advances Made in Talks Peace dialog conciliator Bishop Rodolfo Quezada said negotiators made positive advances but definitive accords were not reached during the closed meetings between the government and the URNG January 23-25 in Mexico City. Quezada said there were some points of agreement but offered no details on the military conscription discussion except to say that it should not be forced, nor an act of human rights violations. Conscription should be non-discriminatory and the government has promised new laws on military service, Quezada said. Other important points of agreement were: to combat all illegal security forces, to protect human rights activists and organizations, and to compensate victims of human rights violations. Quezada said the talks are not moving as fast as everyone would like but the process has its own dynamic and many details are not made public to avoid derailing the process. The conciliator said the Salvadoranpeace accord was not analyzed in the latest government-URNG meeting in Mexico. Women Playing New Role in Guatemalan Politics The last decade of military violence has generated a new kind of woman - the widow and mother of victims murdered or disappeared during the counterinsurgency war. According to Anantonia Reyes, director of the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (CDHG) in Mexico City, the repression has left 40,000 widows who in the 90s must face a new set of responsibilities in society, and along with those responsibilities, a new political role in Guatemala's fight to end human rights violations. The National Council of Widows (CONAVIGUA) with its 6,000 members together with women of the Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM) are the first to question government policies. As widows and mothers, they are left alone to ensure the survival of the family in a country where 87% of the population live in extreme poverty. The majority of the women, especially indigenous women, are illiterate and many speak no Spanish. Despite these obstacles, the indigenous and peasant women have made significant advances in political participation, said CDHG Director Reyes. There is tremendous potential in women organizing against the repression, she added. Women who have never left their villages are traveling to Australia, Europe, the US and Japan to rally international support for their fight against violence. CONDEG Condemns Forced Recruitment On January 24, soldiers dressed in civilian clothing kidnapped young men from Boca del Monte, Villa Canales near Guatemala City. The youths were taken to military barracks for recruitment, according to a January 27 denouncement over radio Independiente by the National Council of the Displaced of Guatemala (CONDEG). Among those taken were teenage and university students as well as working minors. The soldiers destroyed the students' and workers' identification papers, CONDEG charged. The daily El Grafico reported other acts of forced recruitment in Solola where fathers, workers and students from that area were taken to the Solola military installation. Defense Minister Jose Garcia told TV Notisiete that in regard to military recruitment, the army is constantly "verifying, studying, checking, testing to see if our administrative mechanisms, directives, laws and regulations are in agreement with the situation...the recruitment law is being analyzed from a legal perspective for presentation to Congress." URNG on the Accords No accords have been signed on human rights between the guerrillas and the government because of the continuous violations and the impunity of the security forces, said Miguel Angel Sandoval of the URNG Political-Diplomatic Team. Sandoval's statements come in response to President Serrano's charges that the insurgency is trying to stall the signing of a peace agreement. He said the impunity, the civil defense patrols (PACs) and forced recruitment are making progress difficult and added that measures to guarantee respect for human rights must be enforced immediately. Sandoval said government remarks are an effort to avoid condemnation of Guatemala in the United Nations 48th Human Rights Session now underway in Geneva. The violations are massive, systematic and unpunished and this must be resolved with or without international condemnation, Sandoval emphasized. He said that it is a serious political error for the government to talk of an impending signing of a peace agreement when the whole agenda has not been discussed; it is also superficial on the part of the government to state that the human rights issue is at the point of being resolved. The URNG representative expressed concern that government statements create false hopes, confuse public opinion and do not contribute to serious progress in arriving at a political solution to the war. ***************** 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.