FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 30,
2011
U.S Human Rights Observer Team Returns from Honduras with
Troubling Report
Tegucigalpa, Honduras- Nine U.S human rights observers returned to the
United States this week after an intensive twelve-day investigation of the
country’s worsening human rights crisis. Team members had been closely
following events in Honduras since the June 28, 2009 coup d’etat that
ousted democratically elected President Mel Zelaya at gunpoint. “In the
last two years since the coup, despite the supposed election of current
President Pepe Lobo, there has been as many as 200 political assassinations of
members and leaders of the growing popular resistance front known as the FNRP-
Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular. “ says Tanya Cole-director of the
human rights group Witness for Peace Southwest. Several human rights
organizations that are part of the U.S Honduras Solidarity Network assembled
this emergency observation team to travel directly to the Aguan basin of
Honduras where recent killings of campesino leaders and police/military raids
of campesino communities have left dozens dead and hundreds as internal
refugees. "While we were in the Aguan Region, there were two
police/military raids on the same community (Los Rigores- September 16, 19) in
which 22 people were temporarily detained, tortured and threatened with death.
A 16 yr old was drenched in gasoline by the police and threatened with being
burned. All the detainees were released with no charges filed."
reports Vicki Cervantes of Chicago’s human rights group La Voz de los de
Abajo.
The US State Department recently lobbied for the re-entry of Honduras into
the Organization of American States as part of an agreement facilitated by
Colombia President Santos and Venezuela President Hugo Chavez in May of this
year known as the Cartagena Accord. The US State Department was quick to
recognize the 2009 election of Pepe Lobo while most nations in South America
and Europe still do not recognize the current government of Honduras because of
the political climate during the 2009 elections and the continued concerns
about human rights violations in Honduras. "I am particularly
concerned that the US government is perpetuating gross human rights abuses by
providing military funds and training to the Honduras security forces. An
example of this is the $40 million recently given by the State
Department.” responds Dale Sorensen of the California based human
rights group Task Force on the Americas. In May of this year 87 US congress
members signed a scathing letter addressed to US Secretary Hillary Clinton
regarding the continued human rights violations in Honduras asking the state
department and US Embassy in Honduras to speak out against violence targeted
towards human rights defenders and journalists. “When we asked the
new US Ambassador Lisa Kubiske if the embassy had complied with any of the asks
of congress, she replied the letter pre-dates her and ‘there is a time to
speak out and a time not to’.” quotes Brian Stefan Szittai of
the Cleveland based organization Inter-Religious Task Force on Central
America.
The Observer Team’s preliminary findings show that the Honduras
government is not completing its part of the Cartagena Accord, which includes:
1. Free return of all exiles to Honduras with out fear of prosecution. Four
are already exiled again and one is under house arrest. 2. Investigations
and prosecutions for political assassinations. There continues to be a 90%
impunity rate and increase in politically motivated killings. 3. The
allowance for the registration of the FNRP has a political force including the
creation of a new political party. In the weeks leading up to the
ratification of the FNRP’s new party, the FARP, there were 3 political
assassinations of leaders of the FNPR leaving an unsafe environment for the
political process to freely move forward. 4. Beginning the process for a
new constituent assembly to re-write the constitution. This process has not
been able to proceed and many claim was the trigger for the military coup that
took place June 28, 2009. “It is clear the current Honduran government
has not complied to the Cartagena Accord nor made a concerted effort to
complete its commitment. Even more concerning is that there are reports of
threats recently made by Honduran police against international human rights
groups working in the Aguan Valley.” reports observer team member
Corinthian Davis of the Chicago Religious Leadership Network.
Preliminary recommendations from the September Observer Team’s findings
are 1. International Human Rights Organizations increase their attention on
Honduras as the electoral process is pursued by the FARP and the land struggle
continues in the Aguan Basin of Honduras. 2. That US congress and State
Department take concrete and public action to condemn human right violations in
Honduras and withhold military/police aid from Honduras while Honduran military
and police agents continue to be complicit in forced disappearances, illegal
raids, illegal detentions and human rights violations across the country.
CONTACTS:
Vicki Cervantes- Chicago
Phone: (312)
259-5042 (english/spanish)
Tanya Cole-
Los Angeles
phone: 805-421-9708 (eng/span)
Dale
Sorensen- San Francisco
Phone:
415-669-7828 (English only)
