DEMANDS

In this context, the undersigned organizations are uniting with the people of Rio Negro to support them in their efforts to get full and proper compensation and just reparations, both from their own government and from the two banks. We set out here some of the general demands:

The WB and the IDB must fully compensate and provide reparations to the communities affected by the construction of the Chixoy Dam. This must be based on close consultation with the affected population and should include:

1. compensation for land and personal and community property lost or stolen
2. reparations for loss of life and suffering related to the repression
3. reparations for 17 years of lost income due to lack of access to land and personal and communal property
4. reparations for lost family support due to murdered heads of household
5. reparations for psychological damages
6. reparations for loss of burial grounds and religious and cultural heritage.

The WB and IDB should appoint an independent commission specifically to investigate and publicly report on WB and IDB role and responsibility in the Chixoy experience.

This commission must look especially at

1. the lack of prior consultation and negotiation
2. faulty project design, evaluation and monitoring
3. corruption in the use of funds by Guatemalan military and other officials
4. what WB and IDB officials knew about the repression, and when
5. etc.

The WB and IDB should release all documents related to the Chixoy project. These documents should include internal memos project supervision reports and project evaluations and reports.

The WB and IDB should cancel, or reimburse in terms of reparations grants and projects, all debt related to the Chixoy project.

The WB, IDB and the international community should ask the Guatemalan government to place programs of reparations as the utmost priority in the peace process, closely monitor and fund Guatemala in the implementation of these programs.

Given the Truth Commission's finding that the United States government played a key role in supporting the Guatemalan military during the war, the US has a special responsibility with respect to reparations and rebuilding. Reparations should be implemented as outlined in the Program of National Reparation proposed by the Multi-institutional Coalition for Peace and Reconciliation. Peace funds have been disproportionately used for national infrastructure projects and even military equipment.

Donor countries that loaned funds to the Guatemala government for the Chixoy dam, or for work related to its construction, and Transnational Companies involved in the Chixoy project, should be held accountable for their actions or inaction as well.

This is the case of the Italian Government, that gave a loan of 14.3 billion, in 1992, and a grant of 12.9 billion liras in 1991. Moreover, the Italian Company Cogefar-Impresit (now Impregilo) helped in the construction of the dam, both during and after the massacres. Within the Paris Club of creditors, the Italian government should cancel the Guatemala debt, providing reparations -- in form of a grant -- to the affected communities.

The Italian government should also commission an independent inquiry on the use, by the Guatemalan regime of the time, of "cooperation" funds, and on the responsibility of the Italian company involved in the construction.

ADVOCACY PROJECT's "On the Record" series.

For more information about the Rio Negro massacres and efforts to get compensation and reparations from the World Bank and the IDB, contact the Advocacy Project, that earlier this year produced an "On the Record" series: "Guatemala's indigenous communities seek reparations for two decades of murder and impoverishment."

Contact: teresa@advocacynet.org.

New series of On the Record will follow the campaign from Guatemala's highlands to the World Bank in Washington

Written from Guatemala and the United States, this series tells how the small indigenous community of Rio Negro, in the Guatemalan highlands, lost more than half its members in a series of massacres in 1982. Carlos Chen, one of the survivors, fled to the mountains. After returning to the town of Rabinal in 1992, Carlos and a small group of fellow survivors formed a community organization and began to work to bring the killers to justice. With help from Rights Action, the community has succeeded in exhuming graves, erecting monuments to those who died, and bringing to trial three civil patrolmen who participated in the 1982 massacres. The three men were recently sentenced to fifty years in prison. Hopefully, this will lead to more trials and chip away at the wall of impunity which has impeded the prospects for peace and reconciliation in Rabinal. In the meantime the survivors of Rio Negro suffer from extreme poverty. They blame this on the loss of their lands and homes to a large dam that was built across the river Chixoy near the original community in 1983. Last year, the UN-sponsored Truth Commission also put the massacres in the context of the dam and the refusal of the community to be relocated. This series of On the Record was written from Guatemala by Peter Lippman, an associate of the Advocacy Project, who visited the region of Rabinal recently.

<Back

1 Letter of Intent
2 Background and summary
3 Demands

Thank-you for distributing and republishing this information. As the campaign proceeds, we will keep you informed. If need be, we will distribute urgent action requests. We also look forward to receiving your questions, comments and suggestions.

Rights Action
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