Reply #4: Delegation finds human rights violations across Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

Delegation finds human rights violations across Honduras
Posted on August 27, 2009 by Dennis Sadowski

Hondurans participating in nonviolent demonstrations against the June 28 ouster of Manuel Zelaya as president of the poor Central American country are experiencing human rights violations — including intimidation, beatings and rape — by government security forces, a small delegation of Catholic religious leaders discovered during a recent fact-finding trip.

”We came away with a really deep concern about the level of repression, media control and serious human rights violations that are being perpetrated by official forces,” Marie Dennis, co-president of Pax Christi International, told Catholic News Service Aug. 26, a day after the four-member delegation of which she was a part returned to the U.S. following an eight-day visit.

“We heard a lot of stories about teachers and young people and people in all walks of life who have been caught in this backlash,” Dennis said.

Another delegation member, Jean Stokan, director of the Institute Justice Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, compared the current situation in Honduras to the one that existed during the height of El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s.

“People are afraid. There are horrific human rights abuses. None of this is getting reported because the reporters are getting beaten up,” Stokan told CNS.

More:
http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/delegation-finds-human-rights-violations-across-honduras/