Ecobreves – HONDURAS: No Justice for Murdered Ecologists

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Aug 11 2008 (IPS) - Environmental and human rights organizations in Honduras have sought measures from the Inter-American Human Rights court following the escape of three of the four policemen implicated in the murder of ecologists Heraldo Zúniga and Roger Iván Murillo. The measures are intended to protect witnesses and the family members of the victims, who were murdered Dec. 20, 2006, in the eastern department of Olancho, where the two men fought against illegal logging and the trafficking of timber. The three police officers escaped two weeks ago from a military site where they were being held after a court found them guilty a month ago, said Bertha Oliva, of the non-governmental Committee of the Families of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras.

“Nobody knows where they are, but there is fear among witnesses and the families because the police swore they would get revenge,” she said.