World Leaders Condemn Bloody Mexican Massacre 04:58 p.m Dec 24, 1997 Eastern By Caroline Brothers ACTEAL, Mexico (Reuters) - The massacre of 45 refugees in southern Mexico sparked world outrage Wednesday as a rebel leader blamed the government and the United Nations condemned the five-hour orgy of killing. Most people who lived in Acteal, a coffee and banana growing village about 450 miles southeast of Mexico City, fled the area after the killings Monday. Twenty-one of the victims, all Tzotzil Indians, were women and 14 were children. The rebel leader known as Subcommandante Marcos, who heads the Zapatista rebels in the area where the killings took place, Wednesday blamed Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and his government for the massacre. ``The direct responsibility of this bloody event lies on the shoulders of Ernesto Zedillo and the Interior Ministry who two years ago gave the green light to counterinsurgency by the army,'' Marcos said in a statement. A local church leader accused the Mexican government of ignoring warnings that paramilitaries linked to Zedillo's ruling party were preparing attacks in the troubled state of Chiapas -- scene of a Zapatista-led Indian uprising in 1994 against the government. While placing no blame for the incident, the White House said President Clinton was outraged at the massacre. ``He condemned the attack as a violation of the most basic human values and, on behalf of the American people, extends condolences to the families of the victims,'' spokesman Mike McCurry said in a statement. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also condemned the killings. ``He strongly condemns this odious crime, as he does all acts of terrorism, and supports President (Ernesto) Zedillo's efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice,'' a statement issued through a U.N. spokesman said. Aside from heavy troop and police presence, Acteal looked like a ghost town Wednesday as survivors fled. The village is close to the colonial capital of San Cristobal de las Casas in the state of Chiapas. ``They have fled further into the mountains,'' said Maria Isabel Lopez Zamorra, a nun from the neighboring town of Pantelho that planned a special Christmas mass later Wednesday in memory of the victims. In other communities in this wild region of Chiapas, peasants and shoeless children stood along the sides of dirt roads waving makeshift banners demanding action. ``We demand that the paramilitary aggressors be punished'' and ``Indian blood will earn the recognition of the rights of poor people'' read two banners on the outskirts of Pantelho. ``We are on the verge of a civil war and we don't understand why neither the federal nor the state governments are really doing anything to stop this,'' Raul Vera, assistant bishop of the town of San Cristobal, told reporters late Tuesday. The bodies of the 45 victims were still stacked in a morgue in the Chiapas state capital Tuxtla Gutierrez Wednesday morning under heavy police guard. Relatives and reporters were not allowed access. The handful of Indians who managed to escape from the slaughter recovered in hospitals in San Cristobal. Orphaned by the murder of her parents, 4-year-old Lucia Vazquez Luna lay in a hospital bed unable to walk after a bullet shattered her leg. Next to her stood her aunt, Maria Vazquez Gomez, whose mother and brother died in the slaughter. Trembling uncontrollably and sobbing, she cried: ``I'm all alone, I'm all alone''. Zedillo condemned the massacre and ordered federal investigators to Chiapas to hunt for the killers and calm tension between Indians, Zapatistas and paramilitaries backed by local landowners and politicians. The moves did little to calm local people, whose grief for the dead was mixed with anger at the government for failing to guarantee their safety despite a huge military presence in the state left over from the January 1994 uprising by the Indian Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Mexico's main left-wing opposition, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), called for the resignation of Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet, a hardliner widely blamed for blocking attempts to get stalled peace negotiations between the Zapatistas and the government back on track. Chuayffet denied any responsibility but Bishop Vera released a copy of a letter he wrote to the minister October 18 saying: ``We have information that paramilitary groups are multiplying ... former soldiers and police are training civilians to fight their brothers, ruling party congressmen are sponsoring the sale and the trafficking of weapons, acting as protectors and coordinators of the various paramilitary groups''. Vera said the government never responded to the letter. Federal Attorney-General Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, whose office has taken over the investigation of the massacre, said Tuesday night that his detectives were questioning four people in connection with the crime. About 25 men traveling in light trucks carried out the killings. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
