Peace and Environment News* December 2000-January 2001
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Peace and Environment News * December 2000-January 2001 |
by Carole Sauvé
The Guatemala Solidarity Committee of Ottawa (GUASCO) was officially launched in September 1999. It developed out of the Project Accompaniment Committee of Ottawa (PACO), which trained volunteers to accompany refugees returning to Guatemala. PACO came to an end in Spring 1999, when its parent national organization, Project Accompaniment, folded.
GUASCO organizes public education campaigns on Guatemalan social justice issues. In the last year the group has sponsored several events profiling front-line defenders of human rights in Guatemala. Judge Henry Monroy, the magistrate who took on the high-profile homicide case of Monsignor Gerardi and who subsequently sought refuge in Canada following death threats, spoke last year about the reigning culture of impunity in Guatemala.
In October, we hosted a meeting with Aura Elena Farfan, president of the Association of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared (FAMDEGUA), who was in Ottawa during her Canada tour. The Association has fought for nearly half a century for justice for the families of the tens of thousands of Guatemalans "disappeared" since the US-backed coup of 1954.
In November, Gabriela Santos, a forensic anthropologist with the Archbishop's Office for Human Rights (ODHA), spoke to the group about her active participation in the exhumation of victims of the civil war.
GUASCO is affiliated to the Guatemala-Canada Solidarity Network (GCSN), a country-wide network of volunteer, community and church-based groups, formed in March 1999. The GCSN works to find ways for Canadians and Guatemalans to work together to achieve societies of peace, justice and equality.
The GCSN is currently working to strengthen the Peace Accords, which were officially signed by both the Guatemalan government and the rebel forces in 1996. The organization gives solidarity support for the peace building initiatives of Guatemalan popular organizations, through sharing and dissemination of information, lobbying, and organizing Guatemala-Canada delegations and tours. The GCSN consists of local committees and grassroots organizations, and is divided into five regions: British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic.
GUASCO is currently recruiting candidates to accompany communities in Guatemala that launched an official lawsuit last May against former general Lucas Garcias for crimes against humanity committed under his regime at the height of the civil war, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Volunteers will act as human rights observers for a minimum of three months in one of the ten communities that have participated in the lawsuit.
To join GUASCO or to inquire about accompaniment, you are invited to attend one of our monthly meetings that take place every third Tuesday of the month at the Friends Meeting House, 91A 4th Ave.
For information, call 237-1549, or visit our Website at www.gcsn.org/.
Carole Sauvé is a member of the steering committee of GUASCO.
Converted May 14, 2001 - Lg
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