Mr. Chairman,

  The most heinous of all crimes is that of forced disappearance. In many of the areas of  the world in which state repression is prevalent, forced disappearance has been, and continues to be, used as a tool by the state in order to sow fear into the general public and to silence those in opposition. These acts of forced disappearance, coupled with the tortures and human degradation that accompany them, as well as the suffering and misery endured by the victim's relatives, must be clearly and loudly condemned by all of us if , as we claim, we are truly struggling to end human rights violations in this world of ours.

  Mr. Chairman,

  Now I wish to draw your attention to the impunity which continues topermeate life in Guatemala. There is a newly created organisation called HIJOS, the initials standing for, in English, "Children for Identity and Justice and Against Forgetting and Impunity. HIJOS means children, in this case, the children of the disappeared, who have joined together under the courageous leadership of Ms. Wendy Mendez who, as a young child, lost her own mother, disappeared by the Guatemalan security forces in March of 1984.
 
These children and young adults are demanding to know the truth as to the fate of their disappeared parents, and they are attempting to bring the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes to justice. But these young persons themselves, in particular Ms. Mendez, are now receiving death threats, being continually followed and intimidated by armed men in unmarked cars, very likely by the some of the same individuals responsible for the more than 45,000 disappeared Guatemalan men, women and children.

  Mr. Chairman,

  Another clear example of how this impunity persists relates to the brutal murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi two years ago, and the total inability of the Guatemalan judicial system to bring the perpetrators to justice. The intimidation of, and the
death threats received by, the judiciary, are just the tip of the iceberg. Were just this one case allowed to be prosecuted, those implicated would be many of those presently in power, including many of those newly elected, the trail once again leading to the higher echelons of the Guatemalan government. They cannot permit the truth to be exposed. It is for this reason that impunity thrives, due to the clear lack of will on the part of the Guatemalan government to expose its tainted involvement in this crime for fear of light being shed upon the tens of thousands of crimes committed against the Guatemalan people during the 36 years of brutal internal armed conflict.

  Mr. Chairman,

  I strongly recommend that the recent report of the special rapporteur, Mr.ParamCoomaraswamy, be given extraordinary attention and consideration, especially those recommendations relating to the judiciary, for, without the ability to examine and prosecute the past crimes of Guatemala's sad history, the impunity and the extreme suffering of the Guatemalan people will shamefully be permitted to continue.

  Mr. Chairman,

  In Chiapas, Mexico, the paramilitary groups are continuing to increase in number and strength, and the Mexican government, rather than disarming these paramilitary groups, continues to train and arm them, clearly as part of their so-called counter-insurgency strategy. But in the meantime, the innocent people of Chiapas continue to suffer torture,
rape, arbitrary detention, and forced disappearances at the hands of these paramilitary groups as well as at the hands of the Mexican military and police forces. I find this to be rather obscene in the light of what the Mexican government claims,
especially here in this chamber, to allegedly be doing in order to alleviate the strife, poverty and misery affecting their own people

Mr. Chairman,

In Columbia, a very similar situation is happening wherein, under the blatantly false guise of a quote-unquote "drug war", the Columbian government, backed by the United States government, is conducting a similar form of genocide against
indigenous and other Columbian peoples. This repression is being proliferated in order that the multinational corporations and the Columbian oligarchy can gain access to the natural resources, oil in particular, and to the land, land upon which these indigenous and other peoples have always depended for their meagre survival. Government-backed paramilitary
groups threaten, torture, rape and disappear those who try to organise for better working and living conditions, those who try to affect positive change so that they and their children may crawl out of the abject poverty, hunger and misery to which we allow them to be relegated.

  Mr. Chairman,

  We must not permit this to continue.

  Mr. Chairman,

  Finally, I now wish to draw your attention to a situation which we have ignored for over 52 years. The highly volatile situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir has affected the Kashmiri common man and his family so much so, that, life, as you and I have known it, has never existed for their last three generations. Over the years, particularly over the last decade, Kashmiris have seen countless deaths and endless suffering. We strongly advise the governments of Pakistan and India to adopt a responsible and positive attitude by immediately embarking upon the path of sincere and constructive dialogue,
with the full involvement and participation of the Kashmiri people and their leadership, for it is ultimately the fate of the Kashmiri people that is at stake here.

  I also wish to recommend that the UN High Commissioner create a special commission to investigate the recent massacre in the north of Kashmir, in a place called Anantnag, in which both 39 Sikhs and so far 27 Muslims were mercilessly assassinated, to assure that this kind of atrocity does not go unacknowledged.

  I thank you, Mr. Chairman.