Urgent Action
UA: 243/11 Index: AMR 34/008/2011 Issue Date: 11 August 2011
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 22 SEPTEMBER 2011.
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
Four staff members of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (Fundación de Antropología Forense Guatemala - FAFG) have received death threats. The threats occurred days after the end of a high profile trial in which former members of the Army were convicted of a 1982 massacre and sentenced to 6050 years in prison collectively. FAFG provided expert testimony for the trial. Amnesty believes their safety is at risk.
The director of FAFG, Freddy Peccerelli, received a hand written note in red ink on 8 August which said “Fundacion de Antropologia hijos de puta. Nos pagaran lentamente, cada uno de los 6050 años por ustedes los nuestros sufriran, ahora si no solo los vigilaremos los dejaremos como a los demas regados”. (“Sons of a bitch. You will pay us slowly, for each of the 6050 years that our people are going to suffer because of you, now we won’t simply watch you we will leave you battered like the rest.”.) The note also mentioned José Samuel Suasnavar, Leonel Estuardo Paiz and Omar Bertoni who are forensic experts at the FAFG and who gave evidence at the trial. The note went on stating “cuando menos sientan moriran.
Revolucionarios…su ADN no servira de nada. Sus familias pagaran ustedes seguiran”. (“When you least expect it you will die. Revolutionaries your DNA will be of no use. Your families will pay you will follow suit).
Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:
- Call on the authorities to order an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the threats made against FAFG staff, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice;
- Urge them to take immediate steps to provide full and appropriate protection to FAFG and its staff members in accordance with their wishes.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 22 SEPTEMBER 2011 TO:
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
Attorney General
Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey
Fiscal General de la República
Ministerio Público
15ª Avenida 15-16, Zona 1, Barrio Gerona
Ciudad de Guatemala,
GUATEMALA
Fax: +502 2411 9124
Salutation: Dear Attorney General / Estimada Sra. Fiscal General
Minister of the Interior
Lic. Carlos Menocal
Ministro de Gobernación
6ª Avenida 13-71, Zona 1,
Ciudad de Guatemala,
GUATEMALA
Fax: +502 2413 8658
Salutation: Dear Minister/Estimado Sr.Ministro
Copies to:
Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala
1ª Calle, 1-53
Zona 2
Guatemala City
01002
Guatemala
e-mail: fafg fafg.org
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
Ambassade de la République du Guatemala
Avenue Winston Churchill 185
1180 Bruxelles
eMail: guatemala skynet.be
eMail: embaguate.belgica skynet.be
eMail: embbelgica minex.gob.gt
Fax 02.344.64.99
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
On 2 August, a court in Guatemala City sentenced three former soldiers and an officer from an elite army unit to more than 6,000 years in prison for their role in a 1982 massacre. The massacre took place in Dos Erres, a village in the north of the country during the internal armed conflict. The ‘Kaibil’ elite army unit entered the Dos Erres hamlet in the northern department of Petén on 5 December 1982 and tortured and killed some 250 men, women and children over the course of three days before razing the village. Many of the women and girls were raped, and numerous villagers, including children, were thrown into the village well.
Forensic experts at FAFG, at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s office, presented forensic, archaeological and genetic tests on the case. See Amnesty International Press Release (http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/guatemalan-former-sol... )
FAFG has received numerous death threats since February 2002, documented in “Uncovering the Truth – The Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation” (http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR34/019/2008/en
Name: Freddy Peccerelli, José Samuel Suasnavar, Leonel Estuardo Paiz and Omar Bertoni
Gender m/f: All male
UA: 243/11 Index: AMR 34/008/2011 Issue Date: 11 August 2011
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