From: nyt@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: Guatemalan Refugee Update 1/20 ed-l
Date: 21 Jan 93 04:48:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:LyLPXB9w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-83243111:000:6782
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nyt    Jan 20 20:48:00 1993


Subject: Guatemalan Refugee Update 1/20 ed-lp
From: nyxfer!nyt (NY Transfer News)


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

From el diario/La Prensa

Translated and edited by Toby Mailman. "el Diario/La Prensa" is 
a Spanish language newspaper published in New York City.


Guatemalan Exiles Question Fate of Returnees

Guatemalan refugees in Mexico are being attacked by doubts 
as thousands prepare for their massive return to their country. 
The doubt is whether or not their desperate hope to return to 
their land and live in peace will not end in the refrain "salir 
de Guatemala para entrar a guatepeor," ("to leave a [bad] 
Guatemala to enter a worse Guatemala - `mala' in Spanish means 
`bad', `peor' means `worse'.) They are currently living in 
refugee camps in Mexico in poverty and abandonment, since the 
little help they get is not enough. However, motivated by the 
non-governmental Permanent Commission for Refugees (CCPP), the 
Nobel Peace Prize winning Rigoberta Menchu, and promises by the 
Guatemalan government, the exiles have divided opinions regarding 
the return. Many are hoping for fulfillment of the agreements, 
while others do not believe they will see the hoped for 
conditions.

In the San Lorenzo camp, 5 kilometers (1 kilometer = .062 
miles) from the Guatemalan border, Juan Gaspar Garcia, 64 yers 
old, thinks, "What can we do? Stay here until the governments 
tell us to go.

While nearly 3,000 refugees are concentrated in area of 
Comitan in order to return on January 20, Nicolas Gomez Lucas, 27
years old, said that "we are always afraid of the army which 
continues to kill. Here the conditions are difficult, but we 
don't know what we're returning to."

The camp receives little food from the Mexican government's 
Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR). Some Guatemalans say 
that each month each person receives 5 kilos (1 kilogram = 2.02 
lbs.) of corn, one of beans, one of sugar and two cans of ham. 
The refugees cannot work openly because of Mexican law. Nor can 
they have workshops or collective gardens, at least in Chiapas. 
Besides, there are no resources with which to promote any 
productive activities in the camps.

The conditions are not as serious in El Ocotal, near San 
Lorenzo, since there is support from the Catholic church, but 
even so, they live the poverty of social inactivity. Martin 
Torres Solis, 21, said that they will leave the camp only of the 
government asks them to. "The Guatemalan government had no pity 
for its people and every once in a while continues to bomb the 
border," he said.

At the side of his 64-year-old mother, Martin, a Cajobal 
indian, said his family of seven people has not gotten [anything]
from COMAR for three years, because it left the camp.

The suffering of the refugees increases. There is no water 
in the settlements. In some the road to where there is water is 
more than a kilometer. In all the camps there are permanent signs,
the crowding, the presence of more than one family in each house 
and the barbed wire near the people which leaves little room for 
desperate hope.

The misery can be seen in the home of Juan Nicolas Juan, 34,
an indigenous peasant like the majority, who lives with his six 
children and his wife in a shack of 4 x 3 meters (1 meter = 1.09 
yards) with a dirt floor, and nothing more than a fire to fight 
the cold.

In his poor shack, armed only with poles and sticks, Juan 
says that he has to look for a way to live. "There is little help
and almost no work. We can't grow anything, only when we leave, 
and the Mexicans give us some work." "There are refugees who want
to return, like the family of Pedro Vargas, who trust that things
cannot be harder," said Dona Concepcion. "We are a family of ten 
and we're going to go," said the woman. Upon being questioned 
about the conditions which they will find, she answered "We still
don't know, we're waiting for news of the first who repatriate." 
(edlp 01/18/93 from AFP)


Some 2,000 Guatemalan Refugees to Return on January 20

Sergio Mollinedo, executive director of the Special 
Commission for Attention to Repatriates, said on January 18 that 
some 2,442 Guatemalan refugees in Mexico were preparing to travel
to the border town of La Mesilla. The Guatemalan government will 
be offering assistance at the reception center at Huehuetenango, 
Guatemlala, from where the groups of refugees will be directed to
Guatemala City along the Panamerican Highway, to arrive finally 
at Poligono 14.

The Guatemalans will also have the assistance of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which will be responsible 
mainly for food during the long trip. However, the final leg of 
the trip is difficult. Therefore Christian Tomuschat, UN human 
rights advisor to Guatemala, recommended that it be taken along 
the Ruta de los Ingenieros, although the proposal was rejected by
the refugees who were supposed to have begun their journey on 
January 13. (edlp 01/19/93 from AP)


Guatemalan Human Rights Worker Questions Peace Proposal

The recently announced peace plan for Guatemala is part of a
campaign to devalue the charges of violence in the country, said 
a member of the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission on January 18.
Osvaldo Rodriguez said on the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) 
from London, that the government's announcement was made in light
of a meeting at the UN which would be analyzing violence in 
Guatemala.

According to the broadcast, Rodriguez criticized the visit 
of President Jorge Serrano to the UN headquarters in order to 
present a formal peace plan. That proposal is directed to UN 
Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, in order to achieve a 
peace agreement with the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit 
(URNG) within a period of 90 days. He said the government's 
position is rhetorical because the problems are not only the 
ceasefire, but the economic structure which allows illiteracy, 
lack of housing and land, and the concentration of wealth in the 
hands of a few. He said that if the act is sincere and there is 
enough political will, including that of the armed forces, then 
it is a good gesture. He said the human rights situation in 
Guatemala has to be corrected immediately and those responsible 
must be investigated and punished.

Negotiations began in August of 1991 but were deadlocked 
over disagreements on the issue of human rights. (edlp 01/19/93 
from Notimex)


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