From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Guatemala: Menchu returns to share prize with compatriots
Date: 20 Dec 92 03:41:31 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: PACH
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

/** 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 **
Xref: sparky misc.activism.progressive:9516 soc.politics:53