"WITNESS
Rights Alert" Features Guatemalan Massacre
Call to Action Targets World Bank New York, May 12, 2000 – This month’s WITNESS RIGHTS ALERT feature, "A Massacre Remembered," features Jesus Tecu Osorio, one of the sole survivors to the Rio Negro massacre in Guatemala on March 13, 1982. The feature, narrated by REM musician Michael Stipe, highlights Jesus’ efforts to preserve the culture of the Maya Achi people as they cope with the horrors of the massacres they suffered in the 1980s. Last month, a report by the Guatemalan Truth Commission found that what occurred in the Guatemalan province of Rabinal was genocide of the Maya Achi people, according to article 11 of the UN Convention of Genocide. The video feature is linked to an "Act Now" calling on the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank to compensate former residents of Rio Negro who were affected by the construction of the Chixoy Dam in the early 1980’s. "WITNESS Rights Alert" (http://www.witness.org) is a bi-weekly series of human rights videos introduced by celebrities and produced by advocates from around the world. The site, which was awarded "The Best of the Net" by About.com, receives up to 15,000 hits daily. This month’s second feature, "In the Name of Safety," is introduced by musician Laurie Anderson. The video, produced by WITNESS partners at ASK in Bangladesh, features the practice of "Safe Custody" in Bangladesh whereby women and children can be ordered into custody -- although they have committed no crime -- to ensure their safety. Additional stories introduced by Peter Gabriel, Tim Robbins, Lou Reed, Angelique Kidjo and others on "WITNESS Rights Alert" include the New York City Police Watch’s "The Day After Diallo," Global Survival Network’s undercover investigation into the Russia Mafia and the trafficking of women for forced prostitution, and "Children of War," which tells of 250,000 children worldwide engaged in military conflict, as porters, spies, sex slaves and soldiers. Founded in 1992 by Gabriel in partnership with Human Rights First and the Reebok Foundation, WITNESS has provided 125 human rights groups in 47 countries with video cameras and helped them to expose the crimes, right the wrongs, and end impunity for human rights violators. WITNESS, a program of Human Rights First, advances human rights through the use of video and related communications technologies. |
