[HNA] COFADEH update

[Simon Rios]

*“STATISTICS AND FACES OF THE REPRESSION” - VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN
THE CONTEXT OF THE COUP D’ÉTAT IN HONDURAS
*By Bertha Oliva, General Coordinator of COFADEH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras -
October 22, 2009

[Thanks to Quixote Center www.quixote.org and Rights Action for distributing
this information from COFADEH]

I am a veteran human rights defender.   As I prepared the second human
rights report since the coup in Honduras, “Statistics and Faces of the
Repression - Violations of Human Rights in the context of the coup d’état,”
I have felt profound distress.  Perhaps because I had begun to think that
during the long process of the last decades, we had made some small advances
in the area of human rights.

Perhaps it is because I look to the past in order to see the future, and to
evaluate and to value the present - that today, over 100 days since the
fateful coup on June 28th, I realize that something has shaken the Committee
of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras, COFADEH to the
core, and nothing is the same.  Immediately after the coup we knew that we
had regressed 25 – 30 years, maybe more.

As the impact of the blow set in, we realized that we are now in the midst
of a modern Military Coup d’état in the 21st Century.  Unfortunately, we are
well versed in the effects of military dictators and we understood that what
we were witnessing was not an isolated act but an entire strategy to seize
and hold power for the long term; in other words, the dictatorship intends
to stay in the Region.

We realized that if such an offense could be committed against the person
who holds the highest office in the country, what would happen to the rest
of the population.  We began to prepare ourselves. The military dictatorship
wasted no time.

Today, just as in the past, we are the depository for tears, anguish, pain
and hopelessness.

The military dictatorship that we live under today is very similar to that
of the decade of the 1980s, however, there is an important difference.
During the 1980s, those who repressed the people hid their faces and their
names. Today, those who repress the people have names, faces and uniforms:
“blue-green – olive and white.”

In our second human rights report we have focused our concerns on the
actions that the X Battalion, based in Marcala (La Paz), has carried out
against members of the throughout the zone, including the region of
Colomoncagua.  Similar levels of persecution are also being suffered by
people in the Department of Santa Barbara on the part of authorities of the
de facto regime in this Department.

Another of our primary concerns is the strategy employed by the military
dictatorship against teachers in the country which includes illegal and
arbitrary retention of salaries, profiling, legal suits brought against them
by the Public Ministry, persecution, illegal detentions and even
assassination.

With indignation and pain we must condemn and repudiate the persecution
unleashed on the youth of our country.  To some we have had to say, “until
we meet again in another country” in order to prevent them becoming victims
of kidnapping, torture and assassination…And to other young people we have
said, “goodbye, we will meet again in the next world.”

Based on proof and documentation in our possession, we affirm to the world
that we are living a situation of NATIONAL EMERGENCY in Honduras.  We appeal
to the International Community to stay vigilant and observant in order to
assume the challenge of bringing those who perpetrate crimes against
humanity to justice.

Bertha Oliva de Nativi, General Coordinator
COFADEH - Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, #1301, AP 1243,
mail at cofadeh.org, www.cofadeh.org
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