From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Guatemala: Cerigua Refugee bulletin
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 22:15:42 GMT

/** reg.guatemala: 154.0 **/
** Topic: Cerigua Radio Bulletin Jan 21 **
** Written  6:12 pm  Jan 21, 1993 by cerigua in cdp:reg.guatemala **


CERIGUA Radio Bulletin, Thursday, January 21, 1993


********** Following is a transcript of a radio news bulletin from the
Guatemalan news agency CERIGUA.  If you use the information in your news
programming, please cite CERIGUA as the source.  If you would like a live
feed by phone or would like more information about CERIGUA's radio
bulletins, please contact us by e-mail or call our Mexico City office at
510-2320 or 510-9061 and ask for Allison Martin.  You may also inquire by
fax (24 hours a day) at 510-9061. **********


Host lead--- Thousands of Guatemalans have spent more than a decade
living in refugee camps in neighboring Mexico.  The war between army and
rebel forces continues in Guatemala and government officials have called
the refugees "guerrilla sympathizers".  But despite the lack of safe
conditions, the refugees are going back.


3 and 2 and 1

Guatemalan refugees who have lived in Mexico for more than a decade are
beginning the return home.  A bus caravan nearly a mile long has taken
the first group of more than 2,000 refugees across the border into
Guatemala.  This year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu was at
the border to greet the refugees.  Rigoberta Menchu is a Guatemalan
indigenous woman who has also lived in exile.

Menchu is criticizing the Guatemalan government for trying to keep the
refugees' return at a low profile.  Guatemalan President Jorge Serrano
went to New York to present his latest peace proposal to the United
Nations.  But there were no government officials at the border to welcome
the first group of returning refugees.  The refugees are only a few of
the tens of thousands of Guatemalans who fled their country in the early
1980s to escape army violence that wiped out entire villages.

The refugees say they are not returning because things have changed in
Guatemala.  Refugees say the army has set up a new military post where
the first group is returning.  After pressure from a United Nations
representative, the army said it would move the post - but would not
demilitarize the area since guerrilla forces operate nearby.

Refugees are already protesting the treatment by authorities in their
first 24 hours in Guatemala.  Authorities have not allowed the bus
caravan to stop for celebration activities planned along the route.
Observers say the temporary shelter provided for the refugees at their
first stop in Guatemala looks like a concentration camp.  Only a wall
separates the shelter from the local military base.  Authorities are not
allowing refugees to leave the shelter to greet relatives waiting
outside.

The refugee caravan will continue on to the capital city this weekend.
There, religious groups and grassroots organizations are planning a
welcoming celebration.  Then, the refugees will travel to the Quiche
province where they hope to receive a small plot of land.  Most of the
refugees are indigenous peasants with strong traditions of cultivating
the land.  The Guatemalan government gave away most of the land left
behind by the refugees to other small farmers.  It remains to be seen if
the government will be able to fulfill its promise of land for all
returning refugees.

For _____ News, Allison Martin in Mexico City for the Guatemalan new
agency CERIGUA.
** End of text from cdp:reg.guatemala **

Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive