US embassy cable - 04GUATEMALA3241

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 003241 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, MASS, SNAR, ASEC, GT 
SUBJECT: GUATEMALA: MILITARY CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
REF: GUATEMALA 479 
 
1.  (U) Summary:  The Guatemalan Ministry of Defense and the 
U.S Southern Command co-sponsored a December 7-10 conference 
in Antigua, Guatemala, to develop an action plan for the 
regional Human Rights Initiative (HRI) Consensus Document. 
Civilians worked alongside military officers to design a plan 
to systematize the Guatemalan military's observation of human 
rights in four key areas:  civil-military relations; training 
and education; the human rights doctrine; and internal 
controls to prevent abuses.  This initiation is off to such a 
good start, we are exploring how we might stand up a similar 
program for the police.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (U) The HRI, which has been sponsored by SOUTHCOM since 
1997, began with military officers from 33 countries and 
human rights NGOs working together to develop a regional 
model for military human rights programs, contained in the 
&Consensus Document.8  Currently, SOUTHCOM provides support 
to the armed forces of those nations whose Ministries of 
Defense have decided to implement the Consensus Document. 
During an initial visit to Guatemala in February, SOUTHCOM 
and the OAS affiliated, San Jose-based Center for Education 
and Training for Human Rights (CECADH) pushed for 
implementation of the Consensus Agreement in Guatemala 
(reftel).  The Guatemalan Defense Ministry and SOUTHCOM 
signed the Consensus Document on October 13 and scheduled the 
December 7-10 conference to develop a detailed working plan 
for implementation of the ideals encompassed by the agreement. 
 
3. (U) Following opening remarks by the Ambassador and 
Guatemalan Vice President Stein, the conference began with 
the division of military and civil society attendees into 
working groups to hammer out meaningful performance goals and 
plans of action, as well as timelines for achieving each 
target outlined.  Participants worked on four major issues: 
improving civil-military relations and interaction; training 
and educating the military on international principles of 
human rights and international humanitarian law; developing a 
human rights doctrine; and establishing internal controls to 
prevent future human rights abuses.  The sixty conference 
participants included military officers from the Army, Navy, 
and Air Force, and representatives from COPREDEH (President's 
Commission on Human Rights), the Mack Foundation, and the 
Human Ombudsman's Office (PDH). 
 
4.  (U) Among numerous goals, the Guatemalan Defense Ministry 
committed to the following: 
 
--- to implement regulations to assure that human rights 
violations are promptly reported to civil authorities; 
 
--- to provide appropriate civil institutions full access to 
military documents and personnel files in investigations of 
human rights violations and to create an electronic database 
of such information to facilitate those investigations; 
 
--- to hold workshops to provide human rights training and 
analyze cases of previous human rights violations and correct 
procedures; 
 
--- to revise all military manuals and print 10,000 booklets 
with an updated human rights doctrine 
 
--- to create a website to disseminate the human rights 
doctrine to all levels of military; 
 
--- and to create a database to register military personnel 
convicted of human rights abuses. 
 
5.  (U) Comment:  As the Ambassador noted in his remarks, 
human rights require constant vigilance.  Though the 
Guatemalan military had a long history of disregard for human 
rights, the Defense Ministry's willingness to sign the 
Consensus Document, open the door further to civilian 
involvement, and work to develop clear guidelines for 
adherence to principles of human rights and international 
humanitarian law, signals another step in the right 
direction. 
 
6.  (SBU) Comment Continued:  Currently, we observe far more 
human rights abuses and common crime committed by the 
National Civil Police (PNC) than the military.  In fact, 
there have been no known human rights abuses committed by 
military in recent years.  Several PNC officers in attendance 
at the conference expressed interest to MILGP Commander in 
implementing the same type of training and internal controls 
that were developed during the SOUTHCOM event, a prospect we 
are exploring. 
HAMILTON