By Thelma Mejía
TEGUCIGALPA, May 13 1997 (IPS)

Representatives of some 3,000 indigenous people of Honduras evicted from the area around the government headquarters, said the battle had only just begun, and refused to leave the capital without both land and justice.

The violent military intervention Tuesday forced the demonstrators to move out to the football stadium in the marginal “Las Brisas” area of the capital.

Heavily armed soldiers evicted the native protesters with batons and water cannon. One woman, recovering from a gall bladder operation, was dragged across the ground and abused by soldiers who entered a Red Cross station.

This woman, Carmela, had been taking part in the 108-people strong hunger strike in support of the demands.

Salvador Zuniga, one of the main indigenous leaders said his group had been ousted as it ruined “the aesthetic surroundings of the Government Headquarters and national court buildings.”

“Minister of Culture, Sport and the Arts, Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle said our presence in the area created a bad impression, smelled worse saying we would start an epidemic in Tegucigalpa,” said Zuniga.

He said this action had shown the Carlos Reina administration had “torn off its humanist mask, for dialogue had not been exhausted.”

According to the indigenous “pilgrims,” the assault was carried out while they were studying the latest State proposal for the provision of land and to investigate the murder of two Chorti ethnic leaders a month ago.”

The government proposed the immediate handing over of 2,000 of the 20,000 hectares of land demanded by the pilgrims, and a census of the indigenous people of the western region of Copan, in order to grant land titles to the Chortis.

Representatives of the indigenous groups warned a press conference the eviction did not mean the movement had been defeated. “On the contrary, the battle has barely begun,” he said.

He also explained in a communique that they had been ready to accept the authorities’ proposal that they “go home,” when “the government began the eviction, taking us by surprise.”

The indigenous people called for dialogue to be reestablished, with mediation from the Catholic Church, the State Human Rights Commission and the non governmental Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Honduras.

They also called for the destitution of Minister Fasquelle and his exclusion from the negotiating table, considering him “arrogant” and believing him to have been behind the military action.

Meanwhile, the minister himself, said he was sorry the eviction had come about, but added the protest “was damaging the public interest.”

The dialogue was not making headway due to the “intransigence” of the indigenous people, “who showed they were not keen on negotiating,” he said.

“I can assure the government offered everything possible,” he said, even accepting the group of national and international guarantors for the agreement suggested by the indigenous people. He added one of the Human Rights Commission could back his statements if he was not believed.

The indigenous people responded peacefully to the military attack, which was widely criticised by ethnic bodies throughout Central America, with protests organised outside the Honduran embassies of the region.

In Honduras, the six million strong population include some 600,000 indigenous people. They are distributed in seven groups throughout the country, except for the east.

The groups have been organised for the last three years, when they started a series of marches on the capital in a quest for land, justice and respect for their human rights.

The Carlos Reina government has listened to their requests, but apparently, the five marches on the capital have now “tired” the authorities.

Nearly 62,000 hecatares of land were handed over to the indigenous people by the National Agrarian Institute, “something no one had ever done before, and we are ready to help as far as we are able,” said Francisco Funes, sub director of the State agency.

The indigenous people have now announced another mass march on Tegucigalpa, as a show of strength and their will to fight. They warned they were prepared to march “with no return,” prefering to die of hunger in the capital than remain ignored in the mountains.

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