14 September, 2000

Communiqué #1: "HONDURAN INDIGENOUS RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ATTACKED BY POLICE, DENIED MEDICAL CARE"

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1 Background (this page)
2 Update: Sept. 5, 2000
3 Update: Sept. 14, 2000
4 Action/Contact info

Rights Action sends this information concerning a recent spate of repression (violations of political and civil rights) against indigenous and community human rights activists--many are members of community-based organizations supported by Rights Action--who had been rallying and protesting in favor of their rights to land and to numerous economic and social rights.

For information about how to support the work of community-based organizations in Honduras and how otherwise to get involved working on these global human rights and development issues, click here. We produce here a compilation of articles written by Miguel Marsh, a colleague of ours who lives and works in Honduras.

BACKGROUND

Subject: "Honduran Indigenous Strikers Attacked by Police and Denied Medical Care"
Date: Sat, 9 Sept. 2000 17:55:31 -0600
From: "Michael Marsh" miguel@sdnhon.org.hn

In Honduras, it's safe to say that the government could care less about the indigenous population. After being ignored, at best, and mistreated or killed, at worst, for generations, indigenous groups in Honduras have come together over the last ten years to demand their basic human rights -- access to land, security, and health and education.

[CONPAH, the Confederation of Autochthonous Peoples of Honduras, brings together 9 different community-based organizations representing different indigenous, Afro-Honduran and Garifuna peoples. Rights Action supports the work of CONPAH and its member organizations.]

At some of the popular mobilizations I attended in the early 1990s, the atmosphere was frequently festive. [This was after the so-called "cold war" was over, and the US government had finally stopped blatantly underwriting military regimes throughout Central America that systematically violated the political and civil rights of their populations. Honduras was no exception to this policy, being controlled throughout the 1980s by a brutal military regime.]

While the indigenous peoples weren't naive enough to think that after generations of abuse the government was going to do a complete about-face and work openly with them, there was a belief among many participants that if they showed that they were serious in their own demands and development, then the government would assist them. After all, as one Lenca activist said to me "Deben saber que somos Hondurenos tambien y que tenemos necesidades." (They should know that we're Hondurans too, and that we have needs.)

The times feel like they have changed. Over the last few years the atmosphere at the mobilizations has become thicker, harder. Fewer people bring their children; participants seem tenser, more anxious. Most people are extremely skeptical that their issues will be addressed adequately by the government.

Indigenous leaders and participants alike are cynical of the government and well aware that the government is not afraid to use violence, or to even shoot protesters with live ammunition, as they did last October 12th, should they decide to do so.

As a result of the government's refusal to listen and to act responsibly, and as a result of its eagerness to use violence "to restore order", each demonstration is a little more violent than the one before.

Who's to blame? The Honduran government and the US government [that has long backed the Honduran government and unjust economic status quo] and large companies (national and international) that operate throughout the country and that arm the military and security forces.

If the Honduran government had kept the promises that it had made to indigenous people in 1992-93, when they first brought their demands to Tegucigalpa,

… if the Honduran government had honored the accords that it signed with indigenous peoples in 1997,

… if the Honduran government had openly met with indigenous people, instead of shooting indigenous protesters last year,

… if, as the indigenous have been requesting for several years now, the Honduran government had carried out the disarming of cattle ranchers who hire hit squads (quasi-paramilitary groups) to regularly kill indigenous leaders,

… if the Honduran government had committed itself to promoting and guaranteeing the basic economic, social and cultural rights of indigenous people [indeed, of the country's poor majority], instead of living their own corrupt lives behind the curtain of legal immunity,

…then Honduras would not be in the situation that it finds itself.

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1 Background (this page)
2 Update: Sept. 5, 2000
3 Update: Sept. 14, 2000
4 Action/Contact info