From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Guatemala: Cerigua Briefs AUGUST 23 - 29, 1992
Date: 4 Sep 92 00:46:46 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: PACH
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

/** reg.guatemala: 80.0 **/
** Topic: Cerigua Weekly Briefs **
** Written 11:49 pm  Sep  2, 1992 by cerisea in cdp:reg.guatemala **
CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, AUGUST 23 - 29, 1992
Human Rights Official Invites Serrano to Visit Bombed Areas

Religious workers and human rights advocates from Guatemala
and the international community confirmed military bombing
and harassment of civilian populations hiding out in remote
areas of the Guatemalan highlands, reported radio Guatemala
Flash August 25.  A multi-sector commission visited the
Resistance Communities (CPR) of the Quiche August 20-22 and
found evidence of houses bombed and animals killed as well as
a 100-pound bomb which had failed to explode during an army
attack.  The commission also reported finding debris left
from a bomb which killed one man and wounded another.

Upon his return from the visit, Assistant Human Rights
Ombudsman Cesar Alvarez Guadamuz personally invited President
Serrano to visit the communities stating that the president
would re-evaluate government policy toward them if he
witnessed the people's precarious situation first-hand.  In
the report over radio Patrullaje Informativo, Alvarez said
the 24,000 people living in the Quiche mountains cannot go
ignored.

Defense Minister Jose Garcia Samayoa denied any bombings of
civilians, saying the mentioned area is a battleground
between the army and the guerrillas.  Garcia said the region
is of strategic and tactical value to the rebels and that the
communities themselves serve as the insurgency's political
arm.  "This so-called multi-sector commission presented the
subversion's terrorist artefacts and other weapons and said
they belonged to the army," Garcia said in response to the
commission's report.  He then produced for the press military
evidence of guerrilla weaponry taken in combat from that
region.  "We don't bomb anyone but the enemy," he said.

Bishops Express Grave Concern

Guatemalan society is facing a deep crisis, and is at the
brink of desperation, warns the Guatemalan Bishops Conference
in their pastoral letter released August 27.  In "500 Years
Spreading the Gospel" the bishops say Guatemala rates the
third lowest world-wide in human development, with only a
minority having access to health services, potable water and
education.  The bishops say the combination of unemployment,
lack of housing, the high cost of living, common crime,
impunity and corruption in public and private sectors depicts
nothing but despair.  The Guatemalan people feel
"disappointment, disillusionment and frustration," the letter
concludes.

The Catholic bishops warn that the gap is widening between
the rich and poor, adding that "a society which grants
privileges has to create 'slaves' in order to maintain the
system."  Land ownership in Guatemala is among the mostunjust and unbalanced in all of Latin American, the bishops
say.

In rural areas, campesinos know the military leadership keeps
constant vigil and control over them, the pastoral letter
says.  Such military presence, far from creating security and
tranquility, generates fear, anxiety and insecurity, the
bishops conclude.

The Bishops Conference criticizes the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Unity (URNG) for maintaining a climate of war
and "provoking violent reactions from the army, even at the
price of harm to the civilian population, which is always the
most affected in these cases."

No Agreements in Peace Talks

Peace mediator Bishop Rodolfo Quezada announced on August 24
that another round of negotiations ended without reaching
agreement on human rights issues.  Representatives from the
government, army and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary
Unity (URNG) met August 22-24 in Mexico City.  Negotiators
could not agree on the issues of respect for international
humanitarian laws in wartime and the formation of a Truth and
Justice Commission to investigate past human rights abuses.
Both sides agree such a commission is necessary, but they
disagree on who will make up the commission and when it will
begin its work.

URNG Gives Its Perspective

Leaders of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG)
gave a press conference after the latest round of talks ended
abruptly on August 24.  The URNG General Command broke with
the usual silence around the discussions behind closed doors,
while peace mediator Bishop Rodolfo Quezada made only a brief
statement to the press and government delegate Manuel Conde
answered a few questions and left.  In response to the rumor
that negotiations had broken down, Commander Gaspar Ilom
described the situation as "tense" and "delicate" but assured
that the peace process was not suspended.  The URNG said
peace mediator Bishop Rodolfo Quezada will again shuttle back
and forth between the two sides to seek a way to resolve the
disagreements, and said another meeting between two sides is
scheduled for September 11.

URNG leaders said the government and army hardened their
stance in the latest round of talks, especially on the
timeline for implementing accords.  Commander Pablo Monsanto
said the government wants to wait until the final peace
accord is reached before implementing human rights agreements
"but the Guatemalan people cannot wait until peace is signed
before human rights are respected."  Monsanto added that
human rights were violated before the civil war began and itis therefore unnecessary to link respect for these rights to
an end to the war.  Monsanto said "the negotiation process
will gain credibility and the people's confidence to the
extent that it is translated into real changes in the human
rights situation for Guatemalans."  Monsanto said government
negotiators argue that the immediate formation of the Truth
and Justice Commission will increase the polarization of the
society and destabilize the peace process.

Commander Gaspar Ilom said the insurgency proposes that the
Human Rights Ombudsman preside over the Truth and Justice
Commission and that other members include a citizen appointed
by the peace mediator in consultation with both the
government and the URNG, a University of San Carlos delegate,
a United Nations representative and a representative from the
religious sector.  Ilom added that the government has not
made a proposal on the matter, while Quezada proposed the
participation of the Ombudsman, a notable citizen and a
university representative.

URNG leaders explained that discussion of international
humanitarian laws in wartime is focused on the rights of
combatants captured or injured and civilian populations
living in conflict zones.  Commander Ilom mentioned the cases
of two URNG combatants recently captured and then presented
as insurgency deserters.

Commander Monsanto said the URNG was willing to discuss the
participation of civilian sectors in the peace process, but
the government refused.  The government said the insurgency
wanted to discuss the topic because it is to their advantage,
said Monsanto.  But, after negotiations stalled on the human
rights issues, Quezada suggested the discussion shift to
civilian participation, Monsanto explained.  But, he added,
"what the government did was to avoid the topic."   Monsanto
said the URNG has made its position clear:  "The URNG
believes all civilian sectors of the population have the
legitimate right to participate."

Residents Say Civil Patrols Must Go

Tens of thousands from the Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan
municipality in the Solola province are demanding that the
Defense Minister disarm 1,800 civil patrollers in the region.
Residents say patrollers keep families in the village of
Guineales under constant threat.  Nearly 40,000 residents
demonstrated on August 27 and two days later, two town
councilors went to Guatemala City to attend a meeting on the
matter at the Archbishop's Palace.

Local officials say everything was calm in Guineales until
the army established a civil patrol--then, the threats and
abuses began.  The officials report that patrollers threaten
residents, machine-gun their homes and prevent them fromtraveling to the southern coast region to work.  Protesting
residents say if the Defense Minister fails to disarm the
patrols, they will do it themselves, even if it means
bloodshed.

UN Resolution on Human Rights

A United Nations sub-commission urges the Guatemalan
government to intensify efforts to guarantee respect for
human rights.  The UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of
Discrimination and Protection of Minorities passed a
resolution on August 25 to express its deep concern over the
continuation of serious human rights violations in Guatemala.
The resolution notes that "a situation of serious violations
of human rights persists as a result of practices carried out
by groups linked to the security forces."

The UN Sub-Commission is likewise concerned over "the
situation of the indigenous peoples, who are subjected to
violations of their human, civil, political, economic, social
and cultural rights and whose legitimate demands continue to
be ignored."  The resolution urges the government to "pay
special attention to the recommendations made by the [UN]
Independent Expert in his report, principally the abolition
of the system for the protection of the citizenry and of the
voluntary civil self-defence committees, within the context
of the negotiations between the Government and the Unidad
Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca."  The Sub-Commission
resolution also calls on the government to adopt urgent
measures to facilitate the return of the refugees and
displaced persons within the country.

In testimony before the UN Sub-Commission, the International
Indian Treaty Council said genocidal and ethnocidal policies
remain in force in Guatemala.  The Treaty Council demanded
that the Mayan people participate directly in the government-
army-URNG negotiation process in order to resolve the
country's structural problems that caused the civil war.
Council members also said indigenous peoples must be among
those who make political, economic and social decisions.

Army Captain Ordered Murder

A soldier says Army Captain Hugo Contreras Alvarado gave the
order to kill US citizen Michael Devine over two years ago.
Soldier Rafael Tiul Cucul was the only one of eleven military
men implicated in the June 1990 murder who appeared for a
military court hearing on the matter August 25.  Radio
Patrullaje Informativo reported that since not all of those
arrested for the murder appeared, the hearing did not take
place.  Soldier Tiul Cucul told the press he did not know the
reason behind the murder, but that Contreras had given the
order.
The body of Michael Devine was found partially decapitated in
Santa Elena, Peten in June 1990.  Since then, Colonels Mario
Garcia and Guillermo Portillo, Captain Contreras, army
intelligence specialist Fabian Arevalo and seven soldiers
have been implicated in the crime.

US Archeologist Murdered in Hotel Room

Police are investigating the August 22 murder of US
archeologist Peter Tisciones.  A hotel employee found
Tisciones, 50, stabbed to death with a machete in his room at
the Panamerican hotel in Guatemala City, reported radio
Guatemala Flash.

Almost 4,000 Confirmed Cases of Cholera

The Health Ministry reports that between April and August of
this year, 3,964 patients tested positive with the cholera
virus.  The death toll in the cholera epidemic for this
period reached 255 while 17,817 suspected cases are still
under examination.

*****************

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