Freed General Wants Chiapas Troops Withdrawn Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - MichaelP AP - Saturday May 18, 2002 1:30 PM Freed Gen. Remove Chiapas Troops SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) - A general who spent eight years behind bars as Mexico's "last prisoner of conscience" called on President Vicente Fox to remove remaining government troops from Chiapas and let the Zapatista rebels live in peace. Visiting Chiapas for a human rights forum, Brig. Gen. Jose Francisco Gallardo asked what was stopping Fox's government from letting Indian communities in Mexico's southernmost state "live free, independent and peaceful lives." Gallardo was arrested in 1993 after writing an article calling for a human rights ombudsman in the military. A military tribunal later sentenced him to 23 years in prison on dubious charges of corruption, illegally amassing a fortune and destroying files. After years of protests from human rights groups, Fox, who ended seven decades of Institutional Revolutionary Party rule by winning the presidency in 2000, ordered Gallardo's release in February. Fox made bringing a peace settlement to troubled Chiapas a top priority. Zapatista guerrillas staged a bloody 12-day rebellion in the name of Indian rights and socialism in 1994, but since then their conflict with the government has been mostly a war of words. Fox has removed hundreds of troops from Chiapas, closed seven army bases built to surround Zapatista strongholds, freed dozens of rebel prisoners and sent a Zapatista-backed Indian Rights bill to Congress. But the rebels refused to resume formal peace talks with the government after legislators watered down the bill. Army officials say several hundred troops are still stationed around Chiapas, mostly to prevent violence between Zapatista supporters and right-wing paramilitary forces and to help implement social programs. The exact number of soldiers in the area has never been made public. A Fox spokesman declined to comment on Gallardo's comments Friday. ====================== *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Feel free to distribute widely but PLEASE acknowledge the original source. *** ================================================================= 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 ================================================================= nytcamer-05.19.02-06:55:22-27293