Guatemala News: Human Rights

UN: Scant improvement on human rights

Guatemala City, May 27 (Reuters) - Guatemala is struggling to recover from a 36-year civil war and has done little to halt human rights abuses or punish past offenders, including government officials, a U.N. official said on Saturday.

"There has been no significant progress in combating impunity or eliminating clandestine groups," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said during a visit to the Central American country.

"Human rights defenders and justice operators in particular remain subject to ongoing threats, harassment and, in some cases, fatal attacks," she told reporters.

Arbour was in Guatemala to assess the human rights situation 10 years after the signing of U.N.-backed peace accords that ended fighting between leftist guerrillas and government security forces.

The civil war in Guatemala claimed the lives of over 200,000 mostly Mayan Indians, the majority killed by government commanded troops, according to a U.N. truth commission.

Arbour, a Canadian judge and a former prosecutor for international war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, said a lack of prosecution of high-level Guatemalan officials responsible for massacres has encouraged a current crime wave sweeping the country.

"Where impunity is the rule for past violations, it should come as no surprise that it also prevails for current crimes," she said. "This has led to Guatemala earning the dubious distinction of being one of the most violent countries in the region."

Murder rose 60 percent from 2001 to 2005, to about 40 homicides per every 100,000 people, said Arbour, citing Guatemala's human rights ombudsman.

Tags: Guatemala, U.N., Human Rights, Violence, News