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Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 22:05:06 -0400
From: irlandesa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: HLP/UN on Gross Violations Including Mexico
Sender: irlandesa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: chiapas-l <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, chiapas-i <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
harry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
UNITED NATIONS
Commission on Human Rights
Fifty-fifth session
Agenda item 9
7 April 1999
Statement of International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law
Project
International Educational Development is pleased to announce our sixth
annual Armed Conflict in the World Today : A Country by Country Review. We
again welcome the participation of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group
(UK). This year there are five more wars than last year bringing the
current number to 38. There is also an increase in the number of countries
with serious and violent unrest: these 30 additional countries could
explode into full-blown war at any time.
Africa alone has 16 wars and at least seven near wars producing millions
of deaths, hundreds of thousands wounded and disabled, millions displaced
and millions facing starvation. For example, in Sierra Leone, the closing
of the Bo / Kenema roads since the January 1999 new offensive by Sam
Bokarie and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) against Freetown and
other parts of the country has placed hundreds of thousands of people at
risk of starvation. Several days ago, a small food consignment was taken
in, but the situation is exeptionally precarious. The regional political
body ECOWAS has sent
military forces (ECOMOG) to Sierra Leone as part of the 1997 Conakry
Accord but to date has been unable to defuse the armed conflicts between
the Kabbah government, the RUG and other factions, including Johnny
Konoraha's Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Kamajors
militia. The AFRC is reportedly brutalizing civilians,
causing yet more displacement and sheer misery. The international
community should take much stronger action to bring about a lasting peace
in Sierra Leone.
As bad as the situation is in Sierra Leone there are equally bad
wars taking place in Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
the Republic of the Congo and Burundi, with only slightly less
catastrophic wars in Rwanda, Uganda, Lesotho, the Comoro Federation,
Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Angola and between Ethiopia and Eritrea and
Morocco and Western Sahara. Regarding Western Sahara we note yet again
that the UN mandated referendum for Western Sahara is postponed. Africa
should receive much more attention of the international community, given
the sheer numbers of wars and the enormous and tragic consequences of
them.
In Asia, the war in Sri Lanka contiunes and the Sinhala government
rejects all international efforts to encourage dialogue and negotiations.
The situaiton in Burma is expecially grave, in part because of the long
failure of the international community to address the illegal nature of
the regime in control there and the continued failure to address the
ethnic naitonlity questions in that region that have led to the armed
conflicts. In Kashmir, the United Nations acted fifty years ago and
mandated a plebiscite of Kashmiris to resolve the issue. Unfortunately,
the United Nations has yet to carry out its mandate and the parties to the
controversy are brandishing nuclear weapons. In Indian-occupied Kashmir
the Indian armed forces continue to commit serious violations of the
Geneva Conventions and the civilian population is essentially cut off from
effective international monitoring and assistance.
We welcomed the removal of Indonesian ruler Soeharto and the
installation of MR. B.J. Habibie as head of state. We are encouraged by
the efforts he has made to date to resolve the illegal occupancy of
Indonesia in East Timor. However, he has yet to begin to resolve the
situation in the Moluccas and Acheh, including especially the legal status
of these areas in light of the 1948 Round Table Conference Agreements
under United Nations auspices. In Acheh there are new findings of past
atrocities at the hands of the Indonesian military forces and the
situation remains tense. In the Moluccas, violence has broken out between
Javanese Colonizers and the Moluccan people which appears to be provoked
and orchestrated by the Indonesian authorities to divert attention from
the past abuses and to effect the June 7, 1999 national elections. We have
submitted a written statement under agenda item 5 that more fully
discusses these issues. We urge the commission to demand that the
Indonesian authorities undertake sincere negotiations with the political
leadership of the people of Acheh and the Moluccas, including with the
governments in exile of these areas, to resolve the status of both areas in
confomity with the Round Table Conference Agreements.
Our organization has worked intensely on the situation in Mexico
for the past 5 years. We have been stunned by the sheer numbers of human
rights and humanitarian law violations there, as well as with the
brutality of the Mexican authorities. In December 1997 there was a
massacre of the indigenous population in Acteal which could only have
taken place with at least the collusion of the Mexican authorites. We
carried out a number of on-site investigations in Acteal and have
permanent representation in the area where we work closely with Mexican
groups, especially the Enlace Civil and the Centro Fray
Bartolome' de las Casas. In February 1999 we awarded Mexican human rights
activist Rosario Ibarra our first Dag Hammarskjold Prize. Ms. Ibarra has
been a member of the Mexican parliament and is currently Human Rights
Advisor to Mexico City's mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. In 1998 and to date in
1999 we have prepared 4 reports on Mexico with our findings. In December
1999, the government of Mexico issued a 'White Paper' on the events at
Acteal with which we take strong issue - the 'White Paper' contains many
factual discrepancies, and its conclusions contradict much of the physical
evidence and testimonies we have compiled there.
Now the government of Mexico has sought to undermine the San
Andres Accords negotiated with the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion
Nacional (the EZLN). The EZLN arranged for a national referendum called
the 'Consulta Nacional,' the results of which show that, of the 2.5
million voters, over 90% indicated that the government should implement
the Accord.
Reports of continuing violations, including massacres, continue
unabated in Mexico. We presented our videotape of the massacre at Union
Progreso and Chavajeval to the High Commission and the Sub Commission. We
have also submitted a written statement on Mexico under agenda item 9 at
this session. The Commission must take note of the condemnation of Mexico
apparent in the reports of Commission thematic rapporteurs and working
groups. The Commission should also note that the Sub-Commission,
responding to the clear evidence of widespread gross violations of human
rights in Mexico, adopted a resolution on Mexico. It is imperative that
the Commission on Human Rights also adopt a resolution in which it
appoints a Special
Rapporteur for Mexico.
Humanitarian Law Project
8124 West Third Street, Ste. 105
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Tel 323-653-0726
EMail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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