Investigate Attacks on Campaigner against Mass Atrocities

March 10, 2008

Guillermo Chen is a Guatemalan human rights defender and the Director of the New Hope Foundation Rio Negro in the town of Rabinal. He has been encouraging testimony from survivors of mass atrocities committed during the country's civil war for use in court against the alleged perpetrators. A U.N. truth commission estimated that 200,000 Guatemalans were killed in the 36-year armed conflict, which ended in 1996.

Last week, on March 5, the same day that victims his organization works with were presenting evidence in court, unknown attackers shot Chen's house six times. The Guatemalan human rights community fears that this incident was an attempt to deter him and his organization from carrying out their important work to enable the prosecution of mass atrocities in Guatemala.

Please join us in calling on the Interior Minister to provide protective measures for Chen and others at the Foundation. Please also call on the Attorney General to investigate this attack and prosecute those responsible for the massacres committed in Rio Negro and elsewhere during the civil war.

Background:

During the first week of March, Human Rights First conducted advocacy in Washington, DC, with Guatemalan human rights defenders from the Legal Action Center for Human Rights (CALDH) and other organizations, asking the US government and US Congress to encourage Guatemalan authorities to investigate mass atrocities like those committed in Rio Negro. Guillermo Chen was encouraging testimony from victims who lived through these atrocities.

Chen directs the New Hope Foundation Rio Negro, which is located in the city of Rabinal in central Guatemala. Rabinal was one of the areas worst affected by massacres during the civil war, which killed an estimated 200,000 people throughout the country. The New Hope Foundation provides education and other services to victims and survivors of the mass atrocities.

Guillermo Chen has been very active in encouraging community members to give oral evidence to the court charged with investigating these mass atrocities (el Tribunal de Sentencia de Primera Instancia Penal, Narcoactividad y Delitos contra el Ambiente de Baja Verapaz). In February alone, he recorded fifteen radio appearances appealing for victims of the mass atrocities in Rio Negro to attend and testify at the court hearings.

On March 13, 1982, a Civil Patrol group (PAC) killed 177 civilians, mainly indigenous women and girls, in the area of Rio Negro. On March 5, 2008, victims that Chen's organization works with provided evidence in court about the hundreds of people killed in this massacre. Other victims that the organization works with recently went to Spain to give evidence of the massacres in Rio Negro before the Spanish High Court.

The Guatemalan human rights community fears that the attack against Chen is an attempt to intimidate him, the New Hope Foundation Rio Negro and victims in the region to stop them from providing evidence about past mass atrocities.

For further information:

• Human Rights First letter to new Guatemalan President Colom
• Human Rights First Press Release about Guatemalan Constitutional Court Decision
• Human Rights First submission to Human Rights Council about Guatemala
  

See Human Rights First Guatemala web-page: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hrd_guatemala/hrd_guatemala.asp

Sample Letter:

Sr Vinicio Gomez
Minister of the Interior
Ciudad de Guatemala
Guatemala

Dear Mr. Gomez:

I write to express my grave concern about recent attacks against Guillermo Chen, the director of the New Hope Foundation Rio Negro, located in the city of Rabinal. On the evening of March 5, unknown attackers fired six shots into his home while he and his family were inside. I fear that this attack was an attempt to intimidate Chen and to prevent him and his foundation from doing their important work to enable the prosecution of perpetrators of mass atrocities committed during Guatemala's civil war. I fear that the attack on Chen's home is also a means of intimidating the witnesses and victims he works with in Rabinal to stop them from providing evidence about the atrocities they experienced.

Rabinal was one of the areas worst affected by the internal armed conflict in Guatemala. On March 13, 1982, a Civil Patrol group (PAC) killed 177 civilians, mainly indigenous women and girls, in the area of Rio Negro, one of the worst massacres in the conflict. The New Hope Foundation Rio Negro provides education and other services to victims and survivors of the mass atrocities.

Guillermo Chen has been very active in encouraging victims of the massacre and community members to provide evidence to the court charged with investigating the mass atrocities committed in Rio Negro (el Tribunal de Sentencia de Primera Instancia Penal, Narcoactividad y Delitos contra el Ambiente de Baja Verapaz). In February alone, he recorded fifteen radio appearances appealing for victims of the mass atrocities in Rio Negro to attend and testify at the court hearings. On March 5, 2008, victims that Chen's organization works with provided evidence at those court hearings about the hundreds of people killed in the massacres in Rio Negro. Other victims that the organization works with recently went to Spain to give evidence of the massacres in Rio Negro before the Spanish High Court.

I therefore urge you to provide protective measures to Guillermo Chen and others at the New Hope Foundation Rio Negro and the witnesses providing evidence to both the Court of First Instance in Baja Verapaz department and to the High Court in Spain. Furthermore, I call on the Attorney General to investigate the attack against Guillermo Chen and prosecute those responsible and also to investigate and prosecute those most responsible for the mass atrocities committed during the civil war in Rio Negro and elsewhere. Bringing the perpetrators to justice and breaking the cycle of impunity in Guatemala is the best way to protect human rights defenders.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. I will continue to monitor this situation.

Sincerely,

cc.
Juan Luis Florido, Attorney General

Sergio Morales, Human Rights Ombudsman