HONDURAS-HUMAN RIGHTS: Clemency for Military Officers?

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 13 1995 (IPS) - The Honduras government, seeking to counter rumours it has struck a “deal” allowing military officers to escape prosecution for human rights violations and drug trafficking, insists it will not influence judicial proceedings.

President Carlos Roberto Reina said he would reject any petition for pardon from officers or soldiers accused of human rights violations during the previous decade or of crimes associated with drug trafficking.

Honduras had no precedent for giving pardons, he said. “The Honduran justice system does not allow for clemency. In this regard, it is very wise,” the President declared.

Roberto Reina’s declaration effectively meant the rejection of a petition from Armed Forces Commander Gen. Luis Alonso Discua seeking pardon for a colonel sentenced to 21 years in prison for drug trafficking.

Discua had also sought to prevent 10 retired and active-duty officers from being tried on charges of causing the “disappearance” of 10 political opposition leaders, in 1982.

Three of these officers are fugitives from justice. The civil authorities have complained of getting little cooperation from the armed forces in trying to find them.

The armed forces commander insists that the colonel found guilty of drug trafficking was given an “excessive” sentence. He said the judicial proceedings against the officers amounted to a “persecution” of the army that its members would not “tolerate.”

Discua said the officers accused of rights violations enjoyed the unanimous support of the armed forces and their appearance before a court of law would not be permitted as long as justice remained “politicized.”

But Reina said that military officers should respect the law, act responsibly, and let the judicial process determine whether those accused of crimes should be absolved or not.

Ramon Custodio, president of the Honduras Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (Codeh), declared that Reina’s rejection of clemency was “a hard blow” for the armed forces.

The Chief Executive “was right to hew to the law because there will be justice in this country for these military gentlemen, whether they believe it and want it or not,” Custodio remarked.

Custodio revealed that Discua himself was among those to be brought to justice. The general was accused of directing the so- called “death squad 3-16,” a paramilitary group believed to have executed 184 people without trial during the 1980s.

Reina’s renunciation of clemency comes at a time of strong rumors about “negotiations” between high government and military officials regarding the issue of human rights violations.

Tegucigalpa’s Radio America asserted that a dialogue between representatives of the three branches of state power – the attorney general’s office, the military and the Catholic Church – began two weeks ago.

The negotiators were alleged to have discussed raising a monument to commemorate the disappeared, paying indemnification to their families, and finding ways to allow accused officers to seek protection from prosecution under an amnesty law passed five years ago.

But representatives from the attorney general’s office and the judiciary denied this report and declared that justice was not subject to negotiation.

Liduvina Hernandez, representing the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared-Detained, dismissed the possibility that such as negotiation was in the works because Reina “is a man committed to the defense of human rights.”

“I don’t believe these things, but no high-level negotiation would stop us in any case from demanding justice. We want to believe that this is a rumor, nothing more,” she said.