Subj: Guatemala (Human Rights Watch)
Title: 1/28/96 Repatriation Grows Increasingly Dangerous
GUATEMALAN REPATRIATION GROWS INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS
SOLDIERS AND CIVIL PATROLLERS ATTACK RETURNING REFUGEES
Human Rights Watch/Americas strongly condemned recent cases of
state violence against Guatemalan refugees returning from Mexican
camps, asserting that they cast serious doubts on the government's
commitment to safe refugee repatriation. Return to Violence in
Guatemala: Refugees, Civil Patrollers, and Impunity, released today,
calls on officials to prosecute soldiers and civil patrollers
responsible for abuses.
"Recent human rights violations against former refugees reflect
deep resistance to repatriation by military officers and civil
patrollers, which the government of Ramiro de Leon Carpio failed to
overcome," commented Anne Manuel, deputy director of Human Rights
Watch/Americas. "President Alvaro Arzu must demonstrate his commitment
to the safety of refugees, by prosecuting those responsible for
violating their rights. He must effectively counter the stance of army
officers and civil patrollers who continue to view refugees as
potential subversives, even as the peace process progresses."
Massive forced dislocation occurred in the early eighties
throughout Guatemala as the army systematically massacred civilians
and razed hundreds of villages. Tens of thousands of Guatemalans fled
to southern Mexico in the early eighties and hundreds of thousands
more are believed to be internally displaced. Refugees began to return
in small numbers after the army allowed a civilian president to take
office in 1986. An organized process of refugee return did not begin,
however, until the government reached agreement with refugees in
Mexican camps in October 1992. Roughly 9,000 Guatemalans repatriated
with international funds and assistance during 1995. "Urgent steps
must be taken so that refugees who have lost so much do not become
victims again. Safe refugee return is indicative of the government's
commitment to the peace process," added Manuel.
On October 5, 1995, twenty-six soldiers opened fire on a crowd
of unarmed civilians in Xaman, Alta Verapaz Department, killing eleven
returned refugees and wounding more than thirty. Human Rights
Watch/Americas, which visited the site after the killings, concludes
in the report that the soldiers used "deadly force on an unarmed crowd
as well a carrying out deliberate, execution-style killings of some of
those fleeing the scene" in violation of international standards
restricting the use of force. Guatemala's defense minister was forced
to resign after initially accusing civilians of opening fire on the
government troops. The soldiers are facing trial before a military
tribunal. Human Rights Watch/Americas urges the Guatemalan government
to transfer the case to a civilian court, however, in order to comply
with its international obligations to ensure an impartial trial. The
rights group cites reports of deficiencies in prosecuting the case,
including the failure to preserve key evidence during the initial
investigation. The Xaman killings constituted the first large-scale
army massacre since soldiers fired on a crowd in Santiago Atitlan in
December 1990, killing and injuring dozens of people.
Human Rights Watch/Americas also finds that the Guatemalan
authorities have failed to disarm and prosecute army-sponsored civil
patrollers responsible for human rights violations against returning
refugees and international observers in El Quiche Department. The
report describes how a regional association of local authorities,
armed civil patrollers, and military commissioners blocked refugees
returning to the Zona Reyna del Ixcan. Zona Reyna civil patrollers
began to attack returning refugees and their supporters in September
1994, and dramatically escalated their abuses during the first half of
1995. In June, the patrollers took United Nations officials and other
foreign aid workers hostage for twenty-six hours in the Zona Reyna
village of San Antonio Tzeja in El Quiche Department. Their
ringleader, de facto patrol chief Raul Martinez, has been a fugitive
from justice since an arrest warrant was issued in May 1995, yet the
government has made no attempt to apprehend him or seven other
villagers named in later warrants.
"The police and then President de Leon Carpio claimed they could
not arrest Martinez because the patrollers he controls are armed and
dangerous, yet the army refuses to disarm the patrollers," said Gretta
Tovar-Siebentritt, who conducted on-site research in the Zona Reyna
for Human Rights Watch/Americas. "In effect, a handful of abusive
civil patrollers, with army-issued weapons, is successfully holding
the state hostage."
The report recounts how the government discriminated against
refugees and contributed to violence through its failure to adjudicate
fairly competing land claims between returnees and more recent
settlers. Government officials fanned the flames of local conflicts by
publicly accusing returning refugees of sympathizing with the
guerrillas.
Human Rights Watch/Americas calls on President Arzu, who took
office on January 14, to place the security of returning refugees high
on his agenda. Even as the group prepared -Return to Violence in
Guatemala for publication, information on new attacks against refugees
became public. "We continue to receive disturbing reports of violence
against returning refugees, including the killing of a repatriated
child in December," said Human Rights Watch/Americas Deputy Director
Anne Manuel. Preliminary information available indicates that on
December 16, one or more unidentified assailants fired from close
range on children in a temporary refugee settlement in Cantabal, El
Quiche Department, killing nine-year-old Magdalena Caal Coc and
wounding Santiago Quix Caal, aged twelve. Human Rights Watch/Americas
called on the government to conduct a full investigation into the
attacks.
Return to Violence in Guatemala contains a series of
recommendations to end human rights violations against former and
returning refugees and restore confidence in the viability of
repatriation:
-- The Guatemalan government should investigate and prosecute
vigorously the perpetrators of the October 5, 1995 massacre in
Xaman, Alta Verapaz. The Public Ministry should petition for the
transfer of the case to a civilian tribunal to ensure an
impartial and independent proceeding consistent with Guatemala's
international obligations.
-- The army should issue clear and public instructions to its
officers and troops regarding the proper handling of tensions
and disturbances involving unarmed civilians, using standards
found in the U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials
and Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law
Enforcement Officials.
-- President Arzu should order the prompt disarming of abusive Zona
Reyna civil patrollers and former military commissioners and
their dismissal from any position within the military structure.
Defense Minister Julio Balconi Turcios should ensure military
police compliance with judicial orders to apprehend Martinez and
seven other villagers with outstanding arrest warrants for
threats, intimidation, and hostage-taking to prevent refugee
return. The National Police should employ the resources and
logistical support necessary to ensure the arrest of Martinez
and the other alleged violators.
-- The Public Ministry should pursue actively the arrest,
investigation, and prosecution of Martinez and abusive civil
patrollers. The judge should reiterate the warrant against
Martinez adding new charges stemming from his seizure of
hostages in June.
-- The government must observe due process and adhere to the
internationally supervised accords relating to forced
displacement in resolving competing land claims.
-- The United Nations human rights observer mission (MINUGUA) must
be particularly vigilant in verifying progress in both the Xaman
and the Zona Reyna del Ixcan cases, given their significance in
the fight against impunity and the safe repatriation and
reintegration of Guatemalan refugees.
-- The international community, including the United States and
Western European governments which are actively involved in
refugee repatriation and the peace process, must press the
Guatemalan government to achieve justice in these cases. The
U.S. government should evaluate Guatemalan military cooperation
with efforts to resolve these cases as a condition for security
assistance and training. Great Britain should reconsider its
recent decision to lift the ban on arms sales to Guatemala until
the government demonstrates a serious effort to prosecute and
punish human rights violators.
Copies of this publication are available from Human Rights Watch,
Publications Department, 485 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6104 for
$6.00 (domestic shipping) and $7.00 (international shipping).
Human Rights Watch/Americas
Human Rights Watch is a nongovernmental organization established in
1978 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally
recognized human rights in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East
and among the signatories of the Helsinki accords. It is supported by
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accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly. Its Americas
division was established in 1981 to monitor human rights in Latin
America and the Caribbean.