Article: Racism and Inequality

UN mission to Guatemala signs off with warning about racism and inequality

UN News Centre – Guatemala has taken great strides forward since the 1996 peace accords ended decades of civil conflict but it is still beset by corruption, crime and a deep-seated legacy of racism and social inequality, the United Nations peace-building mission to the Central American nation says in its final report before it is wound up.

In a report to the General Assembly on the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the political process has matured to the point where Guatemala should now be able to deal peacefully with all of its unresolved issues. State-sponsored human rights abuses have stopped, the military has been reduced and brought under closer control, and democratic and peaceful elections have been held.

MINUGUA is slated to close in December after 10 years of support in Guatemala, where peace accords were signed in 1996 to end a long-running civil war between the Government and rebel groups. UN agencies will continue to operate in the field.

Guatemala has "laid a firmer foundation on which to construct a better future," according to the report.

But Mr. Annan warns that Guatemala still faces entrenched problems when MINUGUA leaves, especially what he described as "the previously taboo topics of racism and discrimination" against the country's indigenous population - the Mayan, Xinca and Garifuna peoples. A historical commission, for example, found that 83 per cent of people killed during the armed conflict were Mayan.

Despite growing public debate, the Secretary-General says that since 1996 there have been few substantial improvements or efforts to eradicate the barriers that exist. An attempt in 1999 to alter Guatemala's constitution to declare it a multicultural State failed, while rural areas with a predominantly indigenous population still lack many basic services.

The report recommends that multicultural programmes be set up to make Guatemalans more aware of racism and discrimination, and it also calls for bilingual education to be expanded and better funded.

The issues of ethnic division are part of a broader problem of vast social inequality, the report states, calling it "a moral affront and an obstacle to development."

"If left to fester, these problems could be ingredients for social conflict, stunted economic development and the corrosion of democratic governance," Mr. Annan warns.

He also criticizes the slow pace of reparations for victims of human rights violations during the civil war, observing that many of the people responsible for the crimes have not yet been punished.

The report calls for tax reform so that the Guatemalan Government has enough revenue to adequately fund health, education, security and justice services.

In 10 years of operation from 1995 through until this year, MINUGUA's budgets totalled $209.7 million. At its peak in 1999 there were 531 staff in the Mission, comprising civilian police, military observers, and international and local officials.