HONDURAS: Church would Support Amnesty for Kidnappers

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 1 1995 (IPS) - The Catholic and Evangelical churches in Honduras appear ready to support the military’s plea that an amnesty be granted to those responsible for “disappearances” of political opponents, human rights groups charged last week.

Archbishop Oscar Andres Rodriguez of the Honduran Catholic Church, together with several evangelicals, proposed this week to take the case of people kidnapped and believed killed to “Convergence,” a forum of lawyers and representantives of civil society, created three weeks ago.

The forum, of which Rodriguez is a member, tries solve the country’s main economic, political and social problems.

The proposal of Catholics and Evangelicals coincides with the one made last week by Luis Alonso Discua, commander in chief of the Army, who asked for reconciliation and forgiveness regarding the “disappeared”. In essence, he was seeking some form of amnesty for those believed to have committed kidnapping crimes.

Evangelical pastor Evelio Reyes expressed a similar sentiment, observing that “only forgiveness can make the driest of lands bloom. Very often justice without forgiveness brings revenge.”

Reyes said: “We mus not fight evil with evil, but defeat it with good, because to love and to forgive our enemies is fundamental to evangelism.”

Archbishop Rodriguez added that “reconciliation between enemies must come first in order to achieve inner peace within ourselves, with our families, with God and nature.”

The church’s position in support of the Army – which refuses to indict those officers involved in the disappearances and other human rights violations – has caused an uproar among human rights groups.

The outrage was heightened by the recent announcement that corpses of presumed missing people would be exhumed, and some 10 army officers tried in connection with their disappearance.

Bertha Oliva, of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained- Disappeared in Honduras (Cofadeh), said that she was “surprised” by the position of the religious groups since missing people cannot be forgotten “just because of someone’s whim.”

“I am indeed amazed by their suggestion but let me point out that if one forgives in the way they propose, how do we know who we are forgiving?”

“People must know who they are forgive and why. I say this because many atrocities were committed against humanity in the name of God, and we will continue to witness torture and slaughter unless exemplary punishment is applied,” she said.

Ramon Custodio, president of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (Codeh), told IPS that there was a palpable effort underway to divide the population on the question of the disappeared which would play right into the hands of the military who want the issue to be forgotten.

“The military fears going to trial,” he said, “and they want to take the case of the missing people to the government-created National Convergence Project, to obtain society’s pardon.”

Reliable sources estimate that if the Convergence finally accepted the concept of forgiveness for the disappearances as requested by the army, it could open the way for negotiations on the subject of an indemnity for the relatives of the victims in exchange of a suspension of the trials.

But human rights groups would probably not go along with any such deal since they already have pending requests for indemnifications for families of the disappeared before the Organization of American States (OEA).

In any case, according to Honduran President Carlos Roberto Reina, the Convergence will not be defining anything regarding the disappeared since “there is a judicial process which must be followed.”

Reina sustained that even if the mechanism created by his administration encourages tolerance, there are rules that “cannot be violated, and those are mainly legal.”

But the military still resists going to trial. It has adopted a strategy of “forget and forgive”. This is supported by the country’s two most influential religious bodies.

During the 1980s, political violence resulted in the forced disappearance of 184 people.

An official report makes clear that these violations were committed by the army, with the complicity of Argentine advisors and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The representant of the governmental Commission for Human Rights, said Sep. 23 he had obtained from U.S. files new documents that explain the role of the Honduran military in the extrajudicial executions.