PRESS BRIEFING SPONSORED BY DIRECTOR OF MINUGUA
Press Briefing
PRESS BRIEFING SPONSORED BY DIRECTOR OF MINUGUA
19960321
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Leonardo Franco, Director of the United Nations Human Rights Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing following today's noon briefing that the situation in Guatemala was very dynamic. Yesterday the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) had announced a cessation of offensive military activities as a contribution to peace talks. President Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen had ordered the national army of Guatemala to suspend its counter-insurgency operations. That was the first open-ended cease-fire to be announced in Guatemala in decades, Mr. Franco said. It would no doubt positively affect the situation of human rights in that country.
Mr. Franco said that since November 1994, MINUGUA had carried out verification activities and institution-building throughout Guatemala. Its 282 international staff, comprising human rights monitors, legal experts, indigenous specialists, police and military observers were posted in 13 regional offices throughout the country -- even in remote areas.
The Mission's presence was essential to ending a conflict that had affected Guatemala for 35 years, one of the longest civil conflicts in the history of Latin America, Mr. Franco said. Its presence had a dissuasive effect and created new political spaces. Its verification activities had focused public attention on human rights and the related problem of impunity, and had reinforced downward trends in political violence. The MINUGUA was rallying international support for changes in key institutions, including judicial reform.
A correspondent asked Mr. Franco how the Mission could rectify its financial problems without the support of the six "friends of Guatemala" (Colombia, Mexico, Norway, Spain, United States and Venezuela).
He responded that those six countries, and many others, were supporting the Mission. The Guatemalan parties had also very clearly articulated their support for continuation of the Mission. He hoped that a solution would be found to the Mission's financial problems.
The Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Ahmed Fawzi, interjected that the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) was meeting on Friday on the question of Mission financing, and that on Tuesday, 26 March, the General Assembly's Fifth Committee would discuss the same subject.
How serious was the problem of impunity in Guatemala? a correspondent asked.
MINUGUA Briefing - 2 - 21 March 1996
Mr. Franco responded that impunity was the most serious obstacle to the enjoyment of human rights in Guatemala. Most problems were not the result of government policy, but of a failure to prosecute illegal actions by police and other officials. The new Government had adopted three positive initiatives: it had discharged 119 police officials suspected of corruption or of violating human rights; it had made changes in the national army; and the Minister of the Interior had initiated measures against illegal armed groups, including the identification of military officers affiliated with them.
Would MINUGUA undertake a commission similar to that which had been convened in the case of El Salvador?
He responded that the parties had agreed to form a commission along those lines after the signature of a peace agreement. The timing of such action would be contingent upon the date of that agreement. The parties had expressed their wish that a peace agreement be signed this year.
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