Humanitarian Agencies
Demand End to Impunity
in Guatemala
Humanitarian
organizations from
several countries
demanded in Guatemala an
end to impunity, and
punishment for those who
have violated the
guarantees of the
peoples of the region.
In a statement published
here on Tuesday,
organizations from
Colombia, Uruguay,
Mexico, Guatemala,
Western Sahara and
Sweden condemned the
lack of political will
to clear up human rights
violations over the past
decade.
The document makes
special emphasis on
Guatemala, where the
massacres committed
during the internal
armed conflict have
remained unpunished.
"The indigenous
communities have
resisted in a scenario
without social justice
and in the absence of
truth, which has left a
void in the historic
memory of the new
generations," the
communiqué says.
It adds that ten years
after the Peace
Agreements were signed
and seven years after
the report Memory of
Silence was published,
the victims of genocide
have not found an echo
to their demands to try
and punish those
responsible for the
massacres.
The humanitarian
organizations held a
meeting called
"south-south" in the
town of Nebaj, in the
department of Quiche,
where they debated the
communities' right to
know the truth and be
compensated.
During the armed
conflict in Guatemala
(1960-1996), some
200,000 people were
killed or abducted.
According to two reports
from the Catholic Church
and the United Nations,
the Army committed more
than 90 percent of the
violations. |
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