And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: This message is forwarded to you as a service of Zapatistas Online. Comments and volunteers are welcome. Write [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 14:06:16 -0400 From: irlandesa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Hernandez Navarro: the Fire and the Alarm Sender: irlandesa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: chiapas-l <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada _________________________ Translated by irlandesa La Jornada Tuesday, August 3, 1999. Luis Hernandez Navarro Human Rights: The Fire and the Alarm The building is burning. The alarm is sounding. Instead of allowing the firefighters to do their work, the property manager, who believes himself to be the building's owner, is trying to turn off the fire alarm. He says: "It's an exaggeration. Nothing is going on, everything is under control." The building is called Mexico. The fire is the human rights situation in the country. The alarm is the reports that the defense organizations have prepared. The property manager is the federal government. Despite attempts to downplay the fire, it is growing within the building. The government can see to it that the alarm is barely heard within national territory, and it can squander the prestige accumulated by Mexican diplomacy in causes that belittle it, such as pressuring the international community to ignore the human rights situation. But the flames and the smoke can be seen in all corners of the planet. The July 30, 1999 recommendations from the UN Human Rights Commission are the most recent evidence of the failure of the official attempts to cover up the national reality. Other links that testify to the defeat of the government strategy are the July 23 report by Asma Jahangir, UN Special Relator for Extrajudicial Executions, that provoked an irate response from the Department of Foreign Relations (SRE). The resolution of August 14, 1998 by the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on the human rights situation in Mexico, and, in particular, in Chiapas. And the consecutive reports by organizations with unquestionable political and moral authority, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. They have all been systematically dismissed or questioned by President Zedillo's administration, despite their being supported by solid evidence. The UN Human Rights Committee reviewed the extent to which the International Pact of Civil and Political Rights has been fulfilled. During this working session, Cambodia, Rumania and North Korea were subjected to scrutiny, as was Mexico, who presented a report in 1997, that was later brought up to date. Our country sent a committee to the meeting that was made up of officials from the Department of Government, from the Department of Foreign Relations and from the National Indigenous Institute (INI), with officials such as Alicia Perez Duarte and Alan Arias. A network of human rights defenders in our land delivered, in turn, a counter-report, in which they documented and analyzed a multitude of abuses and violations. They also met with experts from the multilateral body in order to clarify doubts and to go more deeply into the information they had provided. During the meetings with the UN, the representatives from the federal executive denied the existence of paramilitary groups, but they recognized the existence of armed civilian groups. They "explained" the extrajudicial executions as being a product of "collateral violence in the communities," And, in the height of racism, suggested that there was a long tradition of expulsions and bloody revenge in the indigenous communities. The Acteal massacre, according to them, was the result of inter-community violence. With arguments like these, it is not surprising that the United Nations experts strongly criticized the official delegation, nor that the final report - although it did not reflect to the letter the points made during the meetings - makes very strong judgements against the Mexican government. The Committee of the multilateral organization has "deep concern" about the militarization of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero; about the limiting of work by foreign observers; about the limitations on freedom of movement imposed on people in the conflict zone; as well as about the lack of legal regulations that protect victims of violations by military and police personnel. In the dust being raised by the political elites in their stampede for the presidential succession, the fire of human rights seems not to be seen. Nor does it even form a central part in the opposition party platforms. Nevertheless, the fire is there, even though the fire alarm is not being heard within the country. At least, that is what those citizens inside and outside the country, acting as firefighters, are saying, concerned because the flames will devour all of us. 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/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
