From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Guatemala: Findings of Int'l Symposium on Torture
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 01:42:18 GMT

/** reg.guatemala: 112.0 **/
** Topic: Response to Guatemala Gov't **
** Written  7:10 pm  Nov 19, 1992 by ghrc in cdp:reg.guatemala **
The following statement has been sent to President
Serrano and the Minister of Defense, Jose Garcia Samayoa
 
 
          THE RIGHT TO RESPOND TO THE GOVERNMENT OF GUATEMALA
 
Representatives from the organizations participating in CONFRONTING THE HEART
OF DARKNESS: AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON TORTURE IN GUATEMALA, held in
Washington D.C., November 13-15, 1992, want to express to the Guatemalan
government and the international community:
 
1.  That the symposium, attended by over 300 representatives of organizations
and experts from eight countries around the world, constitutes an academic
exercise of the highest level.  The humanitarian, religious and academic
sponsoring organizations of the symposium have brought together individuals
from human rights organizations in Guatemala, representatives from the
U.S. Congress and State Department, among others, in order to analyze the
continued practice of torture in Guatemala, and contribute to its eradication.
 
2.  That the symposium categorically rejects statements by the President
of Guatemala, Jorge Serrano Elias, and the Minister of Defense, Jose
Garcia Samayoa, accusing the participants of the conference of responding
to proposals from the URNG and attempting to destabalize the Guatemalan
government.
 
3.  That the symposium repudiates, in particular, statements made by the
Minister of Defense, and supported by the President, falsely attacking
and threatening to bring to trial Amilcar Mendez Urizar, Factor Mendez,
and Ronald Ochaeta (who was not even in attendance at the symposium),
and other conference participants for speaking out in this international
event.  We, the undersigned recognize these threats as a further attempt
by the government to silence human rights activists, and we are fearful
that these statements will endanger the lives of all the Guatemalans who
attended this conference, and members of the organizations which they represent.
 
4.  That we not only recognize these statements as dangerous, but
unconstitutional, as Article 3 of the Guatemalan constitution protects
the right to personal security, and Article 35 guarantees the right to
freedom of expression.
 
5.  That we emphatically urge that Serrano Elias and Garcia Samayoa uphold
these constitutional protections and retract their false and threatening
comments against Guatemalan human rights activists.  As Ambassador Thomas
Stroock stated at congressional human rights caucus meeting on Friday,
November 13, 1992, the Guatemalan government has to learn that a democracy
is founded on the respect of basic human rights and freedom to criticize
government policy.  We specifically request that the Guatemalan government
and its security forces respect the physical integrity of the participants
in this conference on their return to Guatemala.
 
Finally, we call upon the Guatemalan government to end, once and for all,
the practice of torture, which agents of the security forces of the state
continue to exercise against its citizens.

** End of text from cdp:reg.guatemala **

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