MEXICAN PRESIDENT STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF PEACE DIALOGUE 


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit


    Copyright 1997 by Agence France-Presse
    Sat, 13 Sep 1997 19:49:02 PDT

   MEXICO CITY, Sept 13 (AFP) - Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo
called Saturday for dialogue to resolve differences in an indirect
message to Zapatista rebel supporters gathered in the capital.
   "In the Mexico of today, everyone must be ready to talk about
any issue," he said in a speech widely interpreted as a message to
the indigenous-based Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).
   Speaking at a ceremony marking the Day of Heroic Children,
Zedillo said that "concerning dialogue and debate, the government of
the Republic bears the primary responsibility to keep watch over
them because these principles give shape to the nation."
   Dialogue and debate "guarantee that every man and woman enjoy
judicial equality under the law," he said.
   On Friday, Zapatista leader Subcommandante Marcos said in a
statement that the government must comply with accords recognizing
indigenous rights negotiated after their armed uprising in 1994.
   Marcos said government opposition could jeopardize sovereignty
and national unity.
   On Saturday, Marcos issued another statement saying that the
Zapatistas would continue to defy the Mexican government "with arms
in their hands, with reason and with history."
   Marcos insisted that the Zapatistas are not ready to transform
themselves into a "civil and peaceful political force" and that the
war continues in southeastern Mexico.
   Some 1,111 Zapatistas -- one representative for each of the
indigenous communities of the southern Chiapas state that back the
rebel force -- arrived in Mexico City on Friday after a
1,000-kilometer (620-mile) trek north by bus and truck.
   It is the first time that a massive delegation of Zapatistas and
their supporters from Chiapas has marched into the capital since the
uprising began January 1, 1994.

 
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