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AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

Date:	9 May 2003
Case Number:	gu0207_for
Victims:	Omar Bertoni Giron de Leon; Fredy Peccerelli; Bianka Irina Peccerelli Monterroso
Country:	Guatemala
Subject:	Continued Threats against Forensic Scientists in Guatemala
Issues:	Academic and scientific freedom; Harassment or intimidation
Type of alert:	Update
Related alerts:	21 March 2002; 16 May 2002; 14 September 2005; 13 January 2006

View the digitally signed version of this alert.

FACTS OF THE CASE:

There has been a recent increase in threats, intimidation, and attacks against anthropologists working with the Fundaci�n de Antropolog�a Forense de Guatemala (Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, FAFG) and their family members. FAFG has been working to exhume and identify bodies from massacre sites throughout Guatemala. In early 2002, several FAFG employees as well as forensic anthropologists working with the Centro de Antropolog�a Forense y Ciencias Aplicada (Center of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Sciences, CAFCA) were the subject of numerous attacks believed to be perpetrated by individuals who had ties to the military during Guatemala�s 35-year civil war.

These recent attacks happened over the last two months. On 28 April 2003, two unidentified men robbed Omar Bertoni Giron, an employee at FAFG. The men demanded his cell phone and threatened to kill him if he did not give it to them. Bertoni reported that the robbers asked him if he worked at FAFG. Similar thefts of cell phones occurred last year against other FAFG and CAFCA employees. The individuals whose numbers were stored on the cell phones began receiving threatening phone calls.

On 29 April 2003, Fredy Peccerelli, FAFG Director, reported to authorities that shots were fired at his house. No one was injured. Investigating police also discovered bullet holes in his neighbor�s house. Earlier that month, his home was burglarized and his passport and several FAFG documents were stolen. On that same day, 3 April, his sister and mother noticed two unidentified men watching the family house. When one of the family members confronted the men, they stated that they were members of the police and were investigating another house in the area. However, neither man produced official documentation and sped off after the Peccerelli family called the police.

In two separate incidents, Bianka Peccerelli Monterroso, Fredy Peccerelli�s sister, was harassed by unidentified men. On one occasion, her car was followed by two men in an unmarked car. They pulled up next to her car and drawing a gun, threatened to kill her if she did not pull over. She managed to drive away from the men without being harmed. On another occasion, three men followed her into a restaurant near her university and began threatening her and her friends. One of the men displayed the gun that he was carrying. Bianka was not physically harmed in either incident and filed reports with the police, the public prosecutor�s office, and the UN mission to Guatemala. Investigations on the attacks have not resulted in any positive identification of the men involved.

Since 1992, FAFG has carried out 191 exhumations of more than 2,000 victims of the Guatemalan military�s counter-insurgency campaign. FAFG is a non-governmental organization that functions in the absence of any official government exhumation program. Exhumations have played a critical role in providing forensic investigation teams with evidence to scientifically document massacres perpetrated by the Guatemalan military.

(Source of information for this case is Amnesty International.)

RELEVANT HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS

The Human Rights Defenders Declaration

Article 6(a): Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: To know, seek, obtain, receive and hold information about all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including having access to information as to how those rights and freedoms are given effect in domestic legislative, judicial or administrative systems.
Article 6(b): Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: As provided for in human rights and other applicable international instruments, freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms;
Article 9: To the same end, everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, inter alia: (c) To offer and provide professionally qualified legal assistance or other relevant advice and assistance in defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Article 6(c): Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send faxes, letters, or emails:

Calling on the authorities to guarantee the safety of FAFG employees and their families;
Urging the government to carry out an immediate and impartial investigation into the recent attacks against Fredy Peccerelli, Omar Bertoni Giron de Leon, and Bianka Irina Peccerelli Monterroso, and to bring those responsible to justice; and
Requesting that the government fulfill recommendations of the Comisi�n de Esclarecimiento Hist�rico (Historical Clarification Commission, CEH), which recommended creating a government-run exhumation project.
APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:
COPIES SENT TO:
Please send copies of your appeals, and any responses you may receive, or direct any questions you may have to Victoria Baxter, AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, 1200 New York Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20005; tel. 202-326-6797; email vbaxter@aaas.org; or fax 202-289-4950.

The keys to effective appeals are to be courteous and respectful, accurate and precise, impartial in approach, and as specific as possible regarding the alleged violation and the international human rights standards and instruments that apply to the situation. Reference to your scientific organization and professional affiliation is always helpful.

To ensure that appeals are current and credible, please do not continue to write appeals on this case after 90 days from the date of the posting unless an update has been issued.

To verify the contents of this alert and/or the electronic signature, please download the signed file for this alert along with the Program's PGP Public Key.

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