And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 22:44:44 EDT Subject: 20 Sentenced in 1997 Chiapas Massacre 20 Sentenced in 1997 Chiapas Massacre .c The Associated Press By ALEJANDRO RUIZ SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) - Twenty government supporters were sentenced to 35 years in prison Monday for massacring dozens rebel sympathizers - the first murder convictions in a case that touched off an international outcry. The killers gunned down 21 women, 15 children and nine men on Dec. 22, 1997, in Acteal, a village in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas that was sympathetic to the Zapatista rebels. The perpetrators were Indians from neighboring villages who supported the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and allegedly received some of their weapons from the Mexican army and police. Each of the 20 was sentenced Monday to 35 years in prison. All together, 102 people - including the soldiers and policemen accused of aiding the killers or failing to stop the massacre - have been arrested. The remaining 81 people charged in the case are scheduled to be tried between August and December, court officials said Monday. In December 1998, a police officer was convicted of providing guns to the killers and sentenced to nearly four years in prison. Another 12 policemen also are on trial in the case, and a soldier has been charged with having trained the group that committed the massacre. A retired army general serving as a police officer has been charged with failing to stop the killing. The government has denied that paramilitary groups are active in Chiapas, saying the armed gangs do not receive support from the army. The Zapatistas staged a brief armed uprising in Chiapas in January 1994, demanding greater democracy and Indian rights. Peace talks between the government and the rebels have been stalled since 1996, and clashes between rebel supporters and soldiers and paramilitary groups have been frequent since then. The massacre in Acteal drove the conflict in Chiapas back into headlines across the world and revived sympathy for a rebellion that was by most measures dead. AP-NY-07-19-99 2243EDT Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
