Brussels, 26/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 24 April, the Spanish Presidency made the following declaration on behalf of the EU:
"On 26 April 2002 it will be four years to the day since the brutal murder of Bishop Gerardi, co-ordinator of the Recovery of Historic Memory (REMHI) report documenting human rights violations committed during Guatemala's internal conflict. On that anniversary the EU wishes to honour the memory of Bishop Gerardi. It welcomes the holding of the initial trial, but regrets that the crime has not yet been fully cleared up and that not all of the culprits, including the murder's instigators, have been brought to justice. The EU will be keeping a particularly close watch on the appeal proceedings, which it hopes to see open shortly, as scheduled. At the same time, the EU would reiterate to the Guatemalan State its concern at the persistent intimidation, threats and aggressions continuing to be suffered by members of human rights organisations, journalists and law officers. Over the last two months, too, threats have been received by members of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) and the Centre for Forensic Anthropology and Applied Sciences (CAFCA) as well as by members of the Catholic Church, including the priest at Santa Cruz del Quiché, Rigoberto Pérez, and Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini and Father Juan J. Aldaz of San Marcos Diocese, and an arson attack carried out on a parish church in Nebaj. All those recent occurrences are directly related to the work of those concerned or their support for efforts to establish the truth of past events or to exhume remains. March 2002 also brought the murder of Jorge A. Rosal Zea, a Patriotic Party militant. In view of the nature of the crime and the victim's membership of a political party, that incident needs to be effectively investigated. However, the EU wishes to express its satisfaction at the convening of the Government's Security and Human Rights Cabinet and its offer to work with human rights organisations, in co-ordination with the judiciary, in order to have the issue seriously addressed. The EU again calls on the Guatemalan State to show, by its deeds, its resolve to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for such human rights violations and to put a stop to the impunity with which they continue to be committed. The EU would point out that the cessation of human rights violations, the proper administration of justice and national reconciliation were conditions set by the EU for future co-operation with Guatemala, at the last meeting of the Contact Group for the country (Washington, February 2002). The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the EU, the associated countries Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, and EFTA countries Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the EEA, align themselves with this declaration."