IRSP: No Amnesty for Guatemalan Butchers Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - IRSP 21 May 1999 IRSP: No Amnesty for Fascist Butchers of Guatemala The Irish Republican Socialist Party issued a statement in solidarity with the working class people of Guatemala in response to news of Human Rights Watch releasing documents taken from secret Guatemalan military files. IRSP's International Department spokesperson, Peadar Baile, said the documents detail activities of a secret military unit that kidnapped, tortured and murdered Guatemalan women and men, during the 1980s, because they challenged the brutal dictatorship. The spokesperson stated: "The documents, released obtained by Human Rights Watch prove the Guatemalan government carried out a campaign of terror and genocide against the exploited Mayan majority of the populace, and retain the privilege and wealth of the Ladino settler colonials, as well as the ability to broker the nation's people and resources to the imperialists. "The Guatemalan workering class should repudiate the amnesty provided by their version of a Truth Commission. The government's failure to make known the evidence of atrocities they had on file invalidate the amnesty agreement. Those responsible for the genocidal attacks on the nation's indigenous Mayan majority and the torture and murder of trade unionists, socialists, indigenous rights advocates, URNG sympathisers, and many thousands of others should not go unpunished for their crimes against humanity." In addition to the solidarity felt by the IRSP for Guatemalan working class for their long fight against the repressive regime supported by its imperialist allies, Baile said Guatemala's experience raises serious concerns among Irish republicans and socialists: "There is a lesson in the Guatemalan experience for Ireland. After three decades of heroic struggle against a brutal regime, the URNG signed a peace accord with the government. Much as was seen with the Zionists, the ruling class used the negotiation process as a means to defeat a guerilla struggle through deceit, when they were unable to do so through military force. "The Guatemalan government has failed to implement most of the political, economic, and cultural reforms promised in exchange for the URNG cease-fire and surrender of weapons and have made it clear they are prepared to return to the brutality previously used against the people to ensure their interests are protected. "We have also witnessed the Zionists exhibit the same kind of dishonesty and arrogance in relation to their agreement with the Palestinian people. The US government--self-styled peacemaker to the world--ignored these blatant treaty violations though they continued bullying and lecturing the Palestinian into line. "In the Six Counties over the course of the past year, there have been a steady stream of murders by Loyalist death squads, The British Army occupation continues, and it appears the RUC is implicated in Rosemary Nelson's murder and a cover-up. The UN and Amnesty International condemned British government human and civil rights abuses in the Six Counties. Prisoners of War incarcerated after the agreement are again being denied special category status. Nationalist working people continue to confront sectarian discrimination and Orange triumphalism. Justice remains thwarted in regard to Bloody Sunday, the Finucane murder, and a host of other crimes, and the Patton Commission remains silent. Britain and their Unionist allies even refuse to establish their toothless Stormont executive, arrogant in breaking their word yet again, and yet we hear unending insistence that republicans decommission weapons while Loyalists death squads murder innocent Catholics and the RUC and British Army remain armed to the teeth. "In Guatemala, as in Palestine, the dishonesty--the complete lack of integrity--displayed by the government towards the agreement made with the URNG can only cause us to worry over what fate Ireland confronts. After all," Baile concluded, "it's the word of the British government the Irish people have been asked to place their hopes on, and Britain has a record centuries long--of duplicity, treachery, and deceit and in their dealingswith the Irish." The IRSP International Secretariat's statement went on to call for justice for the people of Guatemala, and prosecution of those responsible for the attrocities against them, as well as an end to the exploitation of the Guatemalan working class, and for full legal recognition of the language, culture, and rights of the indigenous majority. ENDS ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-05.23.99-00:50:46-16964