(eng)UN says soldiers blamed for Guatemala shootings
The Anarchives (tao@presence.lglobal.com)
Sat, 14 Oct 1995 15:56:44 +0000 (GMT)
^UN says soldiers blamed for Guatemala shootings@
(Updates and wraps, changing dateline)
By Philippe Naughton
GENEVA, Oct 6 (Reuter) - The United Nations cited staff
reports on Friday that Guatemalan soldiers killed at least 10
returned refugees in a remote northern region in the Central
American state.
Troops were reported to have shot and fired grenades at a
refugee gathering, Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said.
He said President Ramiro de Leon had expressed his personal
concern about Thursday's killings and told the U.N. he would set
up an inquiry.
``Yesterday, Guatemalan army soldiers reportedly shot and
lobbed grenades at a meeting of Guatemalan returnees held in the
resettlement community of Xaman,'' Redmond told a news briefing.
``UNHCR staff report this morning that at least 10 villagers
were killed and a further 18 people seriously wounded.
``The events leading up to this incident are unclear at the
present time but UNHCR is appalled by this violence and we are
very concerned that it could have a serious impact on the return
of Guatemalan refugees from southern Mexico,'' he added.
Asked who was blaming the Guatemalan army, Redmond said
UNHCR staff had interviewed some of the returnees and had been
told the army was responsible.
He said there were conflicting reports about the exact
causes of the killings, however, and said three of the wounded
were said to be Guatemalan soldiers.
``This is based on accounts by the returnees. We don't know
exactly what happened,'' Redmond said.
There are around 40,000 Guatemalans living in southern
Mexico, most of them Mayan Indian peasants who took refuge there
in the early 1980s to escape political violence and
scorched-earth army campaigns against leftist guerrillas.
Some 6,000 returned last year, either individually or in
groups, and the U.N. is hoping for a total of 10,000 this year.
Redmond said those in Xaman had returned on October 14, 1994
and a U.N. official in Guatemala said they had been preparing to
celebrate the first anniversary of their homecoming.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, herself a Mayan
Indian, accused the Guatemalan army of carrying out the
killings.
``This is a massacre, and the army is responsible,'' Menchu
said in a radio interview from Wisconsin.
Her Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation said in a separate
statement that up to 30 people may have been killed and 20
wounded in the attack.
Redmond said 10 wounded had so far been evacuated by
UNHCR-chartered helicopters to Guatemala City and five more will
be flown out on Friday. The UNHCR staff who travelled to Xaman
were accompanied by officers from the U.N. human rights
monitoring mission in Guatemala.
Ironically, the killings happened the day before a U.N.
mission was due to start a 10-day visit to report on Guatemala's
human rights situation.
``The president of Guatemala has informed the UNHCR of his
personal concern. He said he would be appointing a group of
high-ranking officials to investigate what happened,'' Redmond
added.
^REUTER@
Reut07:17 10-06-95
Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service
.
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