GUATEMALA: Peace Accords are a Beginning, not an End

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Alicia Fraerman and Tito Drago

MADRID, Dec 11 1996 (IPS) - Guatemalan guerrilla leader Pablo Monsanto underlined Wednesday that the signing of a final peace accord on Dec. 29 will not be the end, but merely the beginning, of the long road to peace.

Monsanto heads the delegation of the National Guatemalan Revolutionary Unity (URNG) that with the Guatemalan government will sign here in Madrid on Thursday another “operational” accord — following those signed on Dec. 5 and 8 in Oslo and Stockholm, respectively — clearing the way for the home stretch to the final peace pact scheduled for Dec. 29 in Guatemala City.

The document to be signed Thursday, the content of which is currently being fine-tuned in Madrid, refers to the procedures to be followed for the reintegration of the rebel fighters into civilian life.

“The future stability of Guatemala depends on this accord,” Monsanto told IPS.

He stressed that sufficient support from the government and the international community is essential to the measures for the economic, political and social integration of the insurgents, to prevent the emergence of discontented groups.

The government and the international community must understand that peace is a process that begins on Dec. 29, and that it would be an error to see the signing of the peace treaty as a conclusion, said Monsanto. He added that he was confident that the government of President Alvaro Arzu understood that aspect.

What will go into effect on the 29th, he stressed, is the definitive “silence of the arms,” on which peace will begin to be built.

That will include the reintegration of the fighters, but as part of a process that must lay the foundations for full respect for human rights and basic liberties, economic and social development and equality for all citizens, he underscored.

Monsanto is the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), the organisation that launched the insurgent struggle on Nov. 3, 1960, when two army lieutenants — Turcios Lima and Yon Sosa — led an armed uprising by a group of soldiers.

The URNG — which will become a political party after the final peace deal is signed — is comprised of the FAR and the Revolutionary Army of the Poor (ERP), the Organisation of the People in Arms (ORPA) and the communist Guatemalan Labour Party (PGT).

The URNG has drawn up a list of 3,095 combatants who will hand in their arms and be reintegrated into civilian life. Added to that group of fighters will be a yet undetermined — but probably similar — number of clandestine collaborators with the guerrillas, according to rebel sources.

The reinsertion process will include financing with international cooperation funds for housing, jobs and study and training opportunities for former rebel fighters. The first contribution, 240 million dollars, was promised by the European Union (EU) after members of the government and the guerrillas met with EU Vice-President Manuel Marin.

The funds will be administered by a bipartite commission made up of representatives of the government and the URNG, with 105 million dollars going towards the reinsertion process. The rest will be earmarked for the financing of development programmes in areas affected by the 36-year civil war, which cost between 140,000 and 200,000 lives.

A survey carred out by the URNG among its members indicated that a majority expressed their interest in studying, training and actively participating in normal political life. Most of those who opted for work in the countryside said they would like to do so in a cooperative rather than individual manner.

A key change on the horizon is the possibility that the verification of compliance with the peace accords, of which the United Nations was to be in charge, could be put in the hands of the Organisation of American States (OAS), due to the veto China has threatened against the U.N. plan, sources close to the talks here in Madrid told IPS.

The announced veto of the U.N. plan, which the Security Council will discuss in January, is due to the rightist Guatemalan government’s close political, economic and commercial ties with Taiwan.

The tasks to be overseen by the United Nations — or the OAS as the case may be — are perhaps the most delicate aspects of the peace process, including the gathering of the rebels in eight camps in Guatemala, their demobilisation and the handing over of weapons.

After the final peace deal is signed, the U.N. peace-broker will have 20 days to present a working proposal to the Security Council. The rebels would have 15 days to provide the United Nations (or OAS) with the list of 3,095 combatants, who while still armed, uniformed and maintaining their command structures would gather in the eight camps. A six-km wide area off-limits to members of the Guatemalan armed forces is to be established around the camps.

No ceremony will accompany the handing in of arms, which will not be publicly destroyed, but dealt with later and elsewhere by the United Nations or OAS.

One of the most ticklish aspects of the talks was a government proposal for a general amnesty to cover both the rebels and the military.

The URNG rejected the proposal, which had triggered an outcry among human rights groups in Guatemala, which contend that members of the security forces who committed human rights violations such as torture, “disappearances” and murders must be tried and punished.

In the latest phase of the talks — which began in Madrid in 1987, with many stops and starts — the URNG achieved the promise that no amnesty would be applied to its members. What the government does with the members of the military is up to itself and parliament, the guerrilla negotiators said.

The rebels got an exhaustive list of all the articles of the Penal Code which cannot be applied to its members incorporated in the text of the peace accord. The list includes clauses that define murder, injury, kidnapping, assault and membership in illegal political parties, like the communist party.

The penal exemption will encompass crimes in which guerrillas could be implicated, committed during the armed conflict — Nov. 3, 1960 to Dec. 29 of this year.

Once the U.N. Security Council or the OAS approve the programme of demobilisation and reinsertion in mid-January, a 60-day timeframe will go into effect.

The disarmament and demobilisation will be broken down into three stages, with 33 percent of URNG fighters demobilised in each phase. During that time, the government and parliament are to adopt the legal and administrative measures to govern compliance with the peace treaty.

On Dec. 17, the Guatemalan parliament is set to approve a law that will determine the legal framework for the reinsertion, which the two sides have agreed will be neither an amnesty nor a pardon.

After parliament enacts the law, the Supreme Court will have a 14-day deadline to name a special judge who will enforce the reintegration measures. The URNG demanded that a special judge be named, on the argument that the democratisation of the legal system is still pending, and thus the rebel fighters must not be put under the jurisdiction of just any court.