Copyright © 1998 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved
From: Eric Sommer
ORGANIZATIONS: You can add your name to this letter before submission to the United Nations on MAY 8, 1998. Send your organizational name and details to, staff@stewards.net.April 20, 1998. Please forward to all relevant listserves, media outlets, and organizations. Issued by: The Chiapas Alert Network, an organization working to end the paramilitary and military violence and intimidation aimed at the Indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico.
Phone: 604-221-6426
URL: http://www.stewards.net/chiapas/10.htm
Email: staff@stewards.net
STOP THE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN CHIAPAS:
AN OPEN LETTER TO KOFI ANNAN, SECRETARY GENERAL
OF THE UNITED NATIONS: Appeal to the World For ChiapasSynopsis: The International community failed to act in a timely and decisive fashion to prevent massive genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia. Now, massive violence and intimidation is being directed at Indigenous people in Chiapas, Mexico. We call on the UN to act IMMEDIATELY, with armed intervention if necessary, to end the repression and prevent further crimes against humanity in Chiapas. We also call on all Mexican soldiers and police to refuse to obey any illegal order which contravenes Mexican law or which violates International standards regarding human rights and genocide.
This is an urgent appeal to the United Nations, and the world community, to stop the growing violence, intimidation, and repression now directed against the millions of Indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico.
Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, who led the United Nations forces in Rwanda, warned U.N. headquarters of the Rwandan preparations for mass killings almost three months before they occurred. General Dallaire later testified that his forces could have prevented the massacre. The international community, however, failed to step in to avert the genocide.
The world failed in Rwanda.
In Bosnia, the genocide against Moslems was also allowed to proceed relatively unhindered for years, and as a result massive numbers of people were killed.
The world failed in Bosnia.
Now, in Chiapas, massive numbers of civilians are again subject to crimes against humanity, and there is a risk of further escalation to massive violence - this time by civilian paramilitary groups, and by elements of the Mexican military itself, who are targeting the 4-5 million Indigenous peoples of the southernmost state of Mexico.
The most horrific single incident to date took place last December 22 at the little town of Acteal, where forty-five unarmed Indigenous civilians - most of them women and children - were systematically hunted down like animals and murdered by paramilitary forces.
It must be made clear that Acteal is not an isolated incident. It is emblematic of a much broader pattern of escalating violence and intimidation aimed at the Indigenous people of Chiapas. In the past 18 months, there has been a growing pattern of paramilitary violence, and more recently growing military violence, which has: claimed hundreds of lives; converted thousands of Indigenous people into homeless refugees; destroyed Indigenous crops by vandalism, theft, and burning; and produced in recent months a major repressive buildup of Mexican military forces in the region.
Most recently, raids by massed bodies of hundreds and even thousands of government troops and police have unlawfully descended on peaceful Indigenous communities. These raids have brutalized and arrested dozens of members of peaceful Indigenous cooperative economic and political associations. These raids have also illegally arrested dozens of International peace observers, whose presence had been requested by the Indigenous people and their organizations to insure the safety of the Indigenous. These peace observers have been summarily deported from the country without due process of law, thereby depriving the Indigenous people of outside witnesses should further acts of violence and intimidation occur.
On the basis of these developments, the UN, Amnesty International, and many other respected international human rights organizations have found very serious violations of both Mexican legality and Human rights.
In addition, an all-out assault on various civilian Indigenous communities, and on the Zapatista Indigenous Army, which has engaged in no warfare activities for 3 1/2 years, appears to be under preparation. (See appendix on "Indicators of war".) The cost of such an assault in lives is incalculable.
In light of all these developments, we want to issue a challenge to all the governments of the Americas, to the United Nations, and to all world leaders:
Let us not fail again.
Another slaughter has already begun, and a still more massive slaughter looms.
There is no time to waste. Timely and decisive action must be taken immediately to avert further repression and genocide directed at Indigenous people, people who have historically been subjected to the greatest genocide and have been the most oppressed in the Americas.
In particular, we wish to put forward the following urgent appeal:
1) We appeal to the United Nations for immediate intervention, armed if necessary, in order to prevent further crimes against humanity in Chiapas. Any armed intervention should be contingent on being properly mandated by the UN, and should not include troops from the United States due their present involvement in training and arming the Mexican military, and due to the political and economic interests of the U.S. in Mexico.
We call on the United Nations to IMMEDIATELY begin discussion of active measures to halt the crimes against humanity in Chiapas. As part of this investigation, we urge that representatives from the peace and reconciliation body chaired by Bishop Samuel Ruiz of Chiapas, and from the peaceful Indigenous cooperative economic and political associations of Chiapas, be called to UN headquarters as witnesses to the violence and intimidation currently directed by both paramilitary and military forces against the Indigenous people and their organizations in Chiapas.
2) We also appeal to all members of the Mexican army, police forces, and government to IMMEDIATELY BEGIN TO REFUSE TO OBEY ANY ORDER WHICH IS ILLEGAL EITHER UNDER MEXICAN LAW OR FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS REGARDING HUMAN RIGHTS AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. The time has come for all of us to remember - and for the world to remember - the Nuremberg war crimes tribunals - which found that obedience to orders, or to national law, cannot morally or legally justify human rights violations such as those perpetrated in Chiapas today. At Nuremberg, as today, perpetrators and intellectual authors of such crimes are guilty of crimes against humanity, and subject to both moral and legal condemnation and punishment by International bodies.
FROM: CHIAPAS ALERT NETWORK staff@stewards.net
URL: http://www.stewards.net/chiapas/10.htm"Nuevo Amanecer Press" amanecer@aa.net
The South African Municipal Workers Union "Anna Weekes" samwu@wn.apc.org
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (Canadian Sub-commission)
Center For Latin American Vancouverites Ethnic Society (C.L.A.V.E.S.)
Stewards Corporation Movement
The Chiapas Alert Network has identified a series of `indicators' which, taken together, point to the possibility of an imminent or `near-imminent' military assault by the Mexican army on the Zapatista enclave in Southern Chiapas. At the very least, these indicators point to the possibility of greatly intensified repression against Indigenous civilians and their cooperative associations in the region. Here are the `indicators of war' to which we are referring:
1. The first indicator is a build-up of Mexican military equipment and personnel in Chiapas over the past several months.2. The second `indicator of war' is a stepped-up effort to deport and otherwise silence international human rights observers in Chiapas. Many of these deportations are clearly illegal, and frequently involve severe intimidation and denial of due process under Mexican law.
3. The third `indicator of war' is recent statements by Mexican officials, some at high levels, to the effect that foreign `interference' in Mexican political affairs will not be tolerated. Such statements were made just before the massacre at Acteal, when Amnesty International and other international human rights organizations warned that paramilitary violence and intimidation were growing in the region and that further deaths could be expected. At that time Amnesty International and similar groups were told to `stay out' of `internal Mexican politics'. Since the Acteal massacre the Mexican government had not dared to say such things. But now, again, they are singing the song of `we will settle our own affairs'.
4. The fourth `indicator of war' is a reported build-up of paramilitary activity in various areas of Chiapas, including - unbelievably - the reappearance at Acteal, the site of the infamous massacre of 45 people on Dec. 22, of people associated with paramilitary activity.
5. The fifth `indicator of war' is the use of massive numbers of soldiers and police in raids on peaceful Indigenous communities in recent days. One purpose of these raids would appear to be that of terrorizing the civilian population through an overwhelming use of force.
Viewed together, these indicators suggest that the Mexican government may well be gearing up for war and/or intensified repression in Chiapas.
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