Fausto Reyes Caballero was placed under "immediate" removal orders some
months ago. He is expected to leave Canada at any time. The three
others are still under investigation, and it is expected that they will
face similar orders.
The men are being denied refugee status in Canada because of their
involvement with a Honduran military unit that is suspected of carrying
out human rights violations that include torture and assassination. The
men admit to their involvement in such activity, and have offered to
testify against the officers who gave the orders to commit these offenses.
Many of these officers are still in positions of power in the Honduran
military. No officer has ever stood trial for the crimes of the "dirty war" of
the 1980's.
Honduran human rights groups are asking that Canada allow the men to stay.
While they admit the irony of asking the Canadian government to protect
the lives of these killers, they stress the greater importance of bringing
the true authors of the Honduran "dirty war" to justice.
The Canadian government cannot legally deport an individual if they face
persecution or death. Despite evidence that assassination awaits these
ex-soldiers, the Canadian government seems unwilling to reconsider.
Amnesty International, which is following the case, argues that Canada can
take evidence from these men outside of Honduras. However, these
proceedings are complicated, and Amnesty has suggested that the Canadian
government is trying to turn the problem over to someone else.
The following article will provide further details. It is still possible
for the Canadian government to reconsider this decision. If you want to
help bring Honduran death squad leaders to justice, send letters or faxes to:
Sergio Marchi
Minister of Immigration
Room 105-S Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, KIA OA6
(613) 997 3530
fax (613) 953 4930
"A conflict, a war...call it what you want," says Eric, as
he fiddles with the rope he is coiling outside of his home. Eric
is a United States Peace Corp worker stationed in the isolated
eastern region of Honduras known as the Mosquitia. He is the
first to return here since the end of the Contra War in
Nicaragua, just across the nearby border.
"The Contras had bases set up right around here," he
continues. "There were contras and American soldiers all over the
place. Lots of weird things happening. People in town say that
they'd be working in their field and a helicopter would fly over
and a body would come flying out. It would land right in front of
them."
Some of the bodies dumped in this remote and swampy land
belonged to Nicaraguan victims of the Contra War. The others
belonged to Hondurans, victims of another war being fought in
what the people of the Mosquitia call the distant "interior" --
the part of the country where the majority of the population
lives.
Much of the current news about Central America is focused on
the abuses of the Guatemalan military and its ties to the CIA,
and few people are aware of neighbouring Honduras' own "dirty
war" during the 1980's. Used as a base by the United States to
wage its wars against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua and
leftist guerillas in El Salvador, Honduras began to wage a war
within its own borders as the military sought to crush what it
perceived to be dangerous subversion.
In recent years, this nation has begun to try to uncover the
truth about this "dirty war". After the release of a
government-commissioned 1993 report on the issue, the
newly-inaugurated President Carlos Reina recognized the fact that
at least 184 Hondurans were "disappeared" during the last decade
and are now presumed dead. Added to this number are the many
people gunned down in the street and the even greater number
imprisoned and tortured but who were later released.
This report, as well as the persistence of CODEH (the
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras) and
COFADEH (the Committee of Families of the Detained and
Disappeared in Honduras), the two main human rights groups
operating in the country, have increased political pressure to
have those responsible brought to justice. Among those suspected
of directing widespread abuses of human rights are several
retired and serving high-ranking military officers up to and
including past and present heads of the armed forces. Most are
connected with Battalion 3-16, the Honduran military's special
intelligence unit. This unit is widely believed to be responsible
for the torture, assassination and disappearance of Honduran
civilians.
Central to the efforts of human rights groups in Honduras
are the testimonies of the four ex-members of Battalion 3-16 now
living in Canada. The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board is
currently investigating three of the men in connection with their
participation in Battalion 3-16. The fourth has been found guilty
of crimes against humanity, and is slated for immediate
deportation.
Honduran human rights groups are concerned with this
development. While they are eager to see that the men do not
escape justice for their activities with the notorious death
squad, they argue that if the men are sent back to Honduras they
will be assassinated before they can testify in a court of law
implicating higher rnaking officers who bear ultimate
responsibility for the creation and direction of Battallion 3-16.
"He is a torturer," says Bertha Oliva de Nativi, referring to
Fausto-Ramon Reyes Caballero, the man currently scheduled for
deportation by the Canadian Department of Immigration. Oliva de
nativi is the head of COFADEH, and her own husband was torn out
of their bed in the middle of the night by six armed men in 1981.
He was never seen again.
"It may seem strange that a human rights organization is
concerned for the life of a torturer or the lives of torturers,
but, as a human rights organization, we must find out the truth.
And how can we find out the truth about what was done? By taking
care of the few witnesses to these deeds that we have. And we
know that if Fausto Reyes comes back to Honduras, he will be
eliminated. And in eliminating him, they will be able to bury
many secrets; they will hide many facts."
Honduran human rights workers have good reason to believe
that Reyes and the other men are in danger if they are returned.
In 1988, another former member of the Honduran military came
forward to testify before the Inter-American Court on Human
Rights in Costa Rica. The day before he was to testify, Sergeant
Jose Isais Vilorio Barahona was gunned down by four men while
getting onto a bus in his neighbourhood in Tegucigalpa.
There is a concern that if this should happen to Reyes,
others will be discouraged from speaking out, burying the truth
even deeper. "It is simple," says Dr. Ramon Custodio Lopez, the
head of CODEH. "Those who have already spoken out will not speak
out any longer."
Already the imminent deportation of the Reyes has put in
doubt the willingness of the other three to testify.
"We are worried that other potential witnesses that live
here in Honduras will not speak out because they are afraid,"
says Oliva de Nativi. "There are no people or countries that will
offer them protection. And they know that no protection is
possible here in Honduras. The people that are supposed to offer
this protection are the same people that we are investigating."
Oliva de Nativi refers to former and present members of the
Honduran military, a powerful and extensive organization which
also includes the police forces. Few of these men are openly
named in Honduras, despite the growing interest in facing the
reality of the war. To date, the only high-ranking officer whose
role is generally acknowledged is General Gustavo Alvarez
Martinez. While head of the armed forces in the early 1980's,
Alvarez set up Battalion 3-16 and initiated its brutal campaign.
He was killed in 1988, some years after being deposed by junior
officers who handcuffed him and held a gun to his head.
A persistant climate of fear has maintained the silence for
years. Edmundo Orellano Mercado, the Chief Prosecutor of
Honduras, recently issued a statement expressing concern that he
and other officials looking into the war were in danger.
"We suspect that they want to eliminate some of us," he said
on July 24th. "And we are saying this so that the public will
know that, if something does happen to us, it will not be common
criminals that have done it but rather the dark forces which we
are fighting."
Prosecutors and human rights advocates are regularly
harassed and threatened. Leo Valladares, the government-appointed
National Commissioner for the Defense of Human Rights, recently
sent his wife and children to live in the United States. Others
describe being followed by unmarked cars with tinted windows,
vehicles often seen in conjuction with the disappearances of a
decade ago. While speaking on the phone in January of last year,
Oliva de Nativi was interrupted by a third voice that said: "We
are going to kill you and all of your family." The threat was
followed by laughter and a recording of a death march. In
Honduras, the phone company is also controlled by the military.
Not surprisingly, prosecutors are tentative in commenting on
the cases they are building. "We have a lot of the pieces, but
these are delicate cases," says Sonia Dubon, the Special
Prosecutor for Human Rights. "We'll wait until we have the facts
and then it will be the judges who will decide if the
commandantes and generals of the armed forces have any
responsibility."
Military officers and other high-ranking officials have
denied any connection to the human rights abuses carried out by
Reyes and other soldiers. Retired Captain Billy Joya, a former
officer of Battalion 3-16, recently appeared before a tribunal
and denied any involvement in tortures and disappearances. He
refused to answer reporters when they asked for the names of his
superiors. "Thank-you," he said. "But I'm a little tired and I'd
like to ask you to excuse me and we'll wait for the facts to be
revealed."
Oliva de Nativi is not willing to accept Joya's dismissal of
the suspicions. "The time is coming when the Honduran people will
demand that Billy Joya face up to the truth and there will be no
more doubts," she says.
She insists that the responsibility for disappearances and
torture ultimately lies with such officials. "Reyes and the
others are only what we call sombreros. The clothing. They were
the workers. The lackeys. What we need to have is a process
whereby they report what they know about their bosses and their
involvement in these kinds of acts. And then, they need to pay
too."
Among the officials now under suspicion are the former head
of the Armed Forces, General Humberto Regalado Hernandez, and the
current head, General Luis Alonso Discua. During the early
1980's, Discua headed the Battalion for a brief time, while
Regalado Hernandez is accused by ex-President Azcona Hoyo of
concealing information about the disappeared. More recently,
Regalado Hernandez has been linked to the January assassination
of the ex-mayor of San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city.
While still mayor in 1985, Juan Pablo Rivas accused Regalado
Hernandez of the misappropriation of funds. Since his murder,
Rivas' widow has complained of being followed by unmarked cars on
several occasions.
No high-ranking Honduran officer -- nor anyone else for that
matter -- has ever had to answer for the crimes of the 1980's. As
a result, human rights advocates are both excited and worried
about the testimony of Reyes and the others in Canada.
"Fausto Reyes' testimony," explains Oliva de Nativi, "is
fundamental to getting to the bottom of what happened here and of
knowing who were the worst torturers and who collaborated with
the practice of forced disappearances. He can, through the
judicial process, make the cases against those responsible."
Since Reyes and the others cannot be brought back to Honduras
safely, human rights advocates are asking the Canadian government
to cooperate in taking testimony from the men inside Canada, far
>from any forces that might interfere.
"What we want," says Chief Prosecutor Orellana, "is for a
representative of the Honduran judiciary to go up there and take
their testimony. But with the expulsion order, it will be
difficult."
Fausto-Ramon Reyes Caballero first arrived in Canada in
April of 1989. He claimed refugee status, but by January of 1991
a Refugee Board inquiry decided that his involvement in crimes
against humanity excluded him from any consideration as a
refugee. Reyes took his case to the Federal Court and asked for a
judicial review. In May of 1993, the Federal Court upheld the
original ruling, and denied Reyes a judicial review. As a former
member of a death squad, Reyes simply could not be considered a
refugee.
Reyes is currently under an "immediate" removal order.
Amnesty International echoes Honduran groups in arguing that this
is as good as a death sentence. Spokesman John Tackaberry notes
that there have been many other cases where paramilitary groups
have executed individuals who had come forward to testify about
death squad activities.
"As an abolitionist organization, we are opposed to the
death penalty in any situation," explains Tackaberry. "Whether
this person is guilty or not guilty is not relevant." He is
careful to stress that this does not amount to a call for
clemency. He explains that Amnesty is not interested in excusing
these men from being convicted for violating human rights, but it
doesn't want them to fall victim to another type of human rights
violation should they be returned.
"These men should be brought to justice," says Tackaberry.
"But if they are returned to Honduras, they may not be able to
achieve the desired goal, which is to present as much information
as possible about the types of human rights violations that have
occured in Honduras. If these people are to be killed before they
can testify, we are, in a way, adding to the eradication of the
record."
Tackaberry insists that the situation needn't be reduced to
a choice between deporting the men or letting them get away with
their crimes. He argues that there are provisions in the Canadian
Criminal Code that allow for bringing people to justice outside
of their own country, but that the legal complications have made
it difficult to bring about convictions in the past.
"As a result, the federal government prefers to simply
remove those people that are objectionable. That's not really an
effective solution if they're not going to be facing a judicial
system that won't deal with the issues that the individuals are
being accused of."
Tackaberry suggests that the federal govenment should honour
its obligation to uphold international human rights by working to
try and convict the men outside of Honduras. At the very least,
he asks that deportation be considered only if the government is
offered a guarantee of the personal safety of the men upon their
return to Honduras. But Honduran human rights workers insist that
this is simply not possible.
"We cannot guarantee Fausto-Ramon Reyes any security," says
Chief Prosecutor Orellana, commenting on the news of his
imminient expulsion from Canada. "If no country will accept him,
he will have to come to Honduras, and the authorities and
institutions will have an obligation to protect him." The problem
is that these same institutions are commanded by officials
suspected of being connected to the death squads. Such officials
would have an obvious interest in preventing Reyes from making
any testimony.
Despite such warnings, the Department of Immigration seems
satisfied with the decision to remove Reyes from the country.
Spokesman Roger White points out that the case was decided on the
basis of all the information available since Reyes arrived in
1989, and that he has since had full benefit of all legal avenues
open to him. Reyes, along with any other concerned group, is
apparently free to produce any further information, although
White admits that this would not automatically open the case for
reconsideration. In the meantime, the Department officials are
meeting with Reyes and making arrangements for his removal.
Such arrangements take some time to be settled; as a result
no definate date has been set for the expulsion of Reyes. White
explains that the Department of Immigration must first make
certain that there is a country that will accept him, and that he
has a valid travel document to allow an airline to carry him to
that country. Most importantly, the Department has to be
satisfied either in law or from a humanitarian point of view that
there is no reason why the person shouln't be removed.
White does not feel that comments by Chief Prosecutor
Orellana and Honduran human rights groups suggest any
humanitarian reason for letting Reyes stay in Canada. He
reiterates that there is not currently enough evidence to support
his claim.
"If there's new information that he wants to provide, or if
other groups come forward with sufficient evidence, either before
the media or in a significant representation to the office of the
Minister [of Immigration], then...I can't speculate on what might
or might not happen."
For her part, COFADEH's Bertha Oliva de Nativi has no
illusions as to what might or might not happen depending on what
the Canadian Department of Immigration decides.
"If these men end up coming back here, these men are going
to die. They will die. If they are buried then it ends. We are
very close to bringing the truth into the light. If they can
reveal what they know and these revelations are corrobroated in a
court of law in our country, then we will have justice...but with
the elimination of these men, this will not be possible. This
worries us, that the truth will be kept silent."
Honduras is a small country; with only 5 million people, its
population is comparable to that of metro Toronto. The comparison
serves to illustrate the extent of violence and corruption in
this small country. By June of this year COFADEH has already
documented 8 murders by the police as a result of the abuse of
authority, 20 people killed by the police under suspicious
circumstances, 36 assassination attempts against individuals --
including the President of the Republic -- 27 murders of
suspected criminals, and 29 death threats to various
individuals. There have been 29 documented cases of the torture
of prisoners and 22 instances of beatings. There have been 49
illegal detentions.
Oliva de Nativi believes that the process of protecting the
rights of human beings in Honduras today begins with the task
exposing the truth about and those responsible for the abuses of
these rights in the past. She fears that if Reyes and the others
die, a chance to change Honduran society dies with them.
"Fausto is a torturer," says Nativi. "We ask the
government of Canada that it not expel Fausto because, right now,
that does not help us here in Honduras to get at the truth. We,
of course, understand why any government would feel uncomfortable
in offering protection to someone who was a confessed
assassin."
"What needs to happen is that people in Canada have to
concern themselves in these people staying in their country and,
at the same time, concern themselves with what will happen or not
happen if they return them to Honduras. They must call for the
government of Canada to revoke the decision to expel them."
"I think that the Canadian government will act in good
conscience in this matter."
David Sanders in Tegucigalpa
David Bieber in Ottawa
http://www.lglobal.com/TAO/
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