Hereby we, Hondurans, would like to express our deep concern regarding the lack of actions of the European Union against the de facto regime in Honduras, which are of vital help to our peoples and to the restitution of President Manuel Zelaya. The way negotiations are currently conducted are of no or little help, as we wish to restore back our institutional order, human rights, and lives, which are all under serious threat.
The object of our letter is to have the European Commission take stronger sanctions against the Honduran de facto government by not legitimizing elections under a fraudulent and illegal regime.
Since the national elections are programmed to take place in November 2009 and the illegal coup regime is still there, Hondurans have vowed not to vote and to boycott the electoral process in a non-violent way (http://www.tiempo.hn/secciones/crisis-politica/3059-elecciones-incierto-antidoto-contra-la-crisis-socio-politica). The fact, that the Organization of American States(the final report of the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights is attached to this email and in the point 4. of their recommendations, they advise the international community to not recognize the result of elections held under the illegal regime, as well as any decision this government takes) is not acknowledging the outcome of the illegal presidential elections in Honduras - held under the de facto regime - is the kind of support Honduras needs. It places coercive pressure on the de facto government, who will most probably manipulate the elections - a circumstance, that should not be overlooked, it has happened before. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/america_latina/2009/09/090901_0013_zelaya_oea_jg.shtml)
What is not being perceived and understood is, that if elections take place, and the probabilities that these will be fraudulent are very high, then another president will be acknowledged by the international community, and this automatically represents the acceptance of the coup and will bring permanent instability and chaos to the country and region, adding to the immense polarization that already divides the nation.
If the coup is illegal, then the ouster of Zelaya is illegal, thus if the outcome of illegal elections taking place under an illegal regime is acknoweledged by, for instance the European Union, it means that Zelaya's ouster is accepted.
The only independent candidate, Carlos H. Reyes has been extensively diffamed by the majority of Honduran media, which is closely affiliated to persons involved in the coup. He has been harassed and even violently beaten(http://www.webcitation.org/5ijh7EsjY http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/2059) by members of the police, so we have the Nationalist Party and Liberal Party candidates being the strongest, who are by the way, supporting the coup.
Out of the remaining candidates, all of them support the coup, except César Ham, who is also accused by the same media of being supported by the FARC, a fact that already discredited him as not being reliable, even if these allegations are false. By the way, the only channels and radio stations reporting against the coup were recently product of chemicals, that set its transmitters on fire: http://www.elpatriotahn.com/l/content/lanzan-bombas-y-qu%C3%ADmicos-transmisores-de-radio-globo-y-canal-36
Another problematic point in not understanding the root of the problem is backing the San José Accord. At the beginning it was a good idea to depolarize the country, but since international Human Rights Organisations
- Human Rights Watch:http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/08/25/honduras-rights-report-shows-need-increased-international-pressure
- Amnesty International:http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/honduras-photos-and-testimony-protestors-shows-extent-police-violence-20
- Interamerican Commission of Human Rights: http://www.cidh.org/Comunicados/English/2009/60-09eng.Preliminary.Observations.htm
- COFADEH (Honduran Human Rights Comission inform is also attached to this email)
have confirmed the multiple abuses done by the defacto government(in fact it is not known how many Hondurans are disappeared, extrajudicially arrested, and dead, since the State Hospitals also report over 100 deaths suspected to be done by the military, since they were made by such bullets, amongst them women and children, not to mention hundreds of victims of political persecution and harassment, something confirmed already by judge Baltasar Garzón http://www.libertaddigital.com/mundo/garzon-aegura-que-ha-visto-maltratos-y-violaciones-de-derechos-humanos-en-honduras-1276368689/), this option should be obsolete and out-dated by now. Giving the members of the defacto regime amnesty, means to legalize their crimes against the Honduran population countering the government , giving a virtual license to these people to go on doing whatever they want, no matter if they violate the human rights of thousands of Hondurans. It might be effective in providing a short term and apparent solution, but it will cause a real struggle for Hondurans in the long term, since they will remain in place indefinitely in the Honduran society and political sphere and continue violating human rights.
Manuel Ollé, president of the Human Rights Association of Spain, who accompanied Garzón stated that "If amnesty is a warranty for the human rights violators, then it will be an international crime that will affect the whole international community".
In spite of the efforts of the European Union and the United States of America of supporting the San José Accord, the de facto government has repeatedly and strongly rejected some of the points in several occassions already, amongst them, the restitution of President Zelaya, which is the basic and vital point(most recent was today, amongst many others: http://www.tiempo.hn/secciones/crisis-politica/3151-propuestas-no-contemplan-restituir-a-manuel-zelaya-).
Some days ago, the de facto government made a new proposal published by the Washington Post(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/28/AR2009082800027.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082704483.html), called the "Crisis Plan", which rejects the San José Accord, and instead proposes a negotition of their own, which is based on already failed efforts of Micheletti announcing his retirement, if Zelaya retires as well. We must take a fact in consideration which is that, while Micheletti has proposed already in a couple of occassions his resignation, under the condition that Zelaya resigns as well, his government announced at the start of the Coup d'ètat that Zelaya had already resigned(from coup supporter press, La Prensa: http://www.laprensahn.com/Apertura/Ediciones/2009/06/29/Noticias/Zelaya-fue-separado-por-decreto-del-Congreso and La Tribuna: http://www.latribuna.hn/web2.0/?p=14265).
But this involves a third party, which will be the new constitutional leader according to our law. This person is the President of the Supreme Court, Jorge Rivera, who was chosen by Micheletti himself (http://www.laprensa.hn/Ediciones/2009/01/26/Noticias/Honduras-Juramentan-nueva-Corte-Suprema) , as he announced his new Board in the Ministries, in the Supreme Court, and ousted, persecuted all the ones who were in favor of the fourth ballot. So as you may well see, this presidential succession will be very biased and basically means a continuation of the Micheletti regime, until the new illegal elections take place and the favoured candidate, the product of a fraudulent electoral process, takes the seat in February 2010. Mr. Rivera made a statement recently to the press, assuring that "Zelaya was preparing a coup" (http://ar.news.yahoo.com/s/22072009/59/n-world-1154012-zelaya-preparaba-golpe.html)
A government that claims that Zelaya intended to emulate Chávez, because of the country's affiliation to ALBA, cannot claim they didn't do the same themselves, since they, as parlamentaries, impossible to be carried out by Zelaya i.e. the judicial power alone, were the ones to ratify it. In fact they stated officially Honduras won't resign the ALBA treaty: http://tiempo.hn/secciones/crisis-politica/3055-honduras-no-debe-salirse-de-la-alba
The sanctions should be towards the Micheletti government, not against the people of Honduras. For instance, if the European Parliament is considering revoking visas to all Honduras, I think the best point to start is revoking the visas of the de facto government.
Many points are being missed in the international evaluation of the crisis, as mentioned above. The current context of Latin America is being ignored: The South and Central American continent is mostly governed by "leftists" - legalizing a coup might make other countries vulnerable, as they see the example the international community gave in supporting coups and this will only lead to the destabilization and chaos in Latin America leading us back to the dark 80's coup era and a cold war. Here is a PRELIMINARY REPORT REGARDING THE COUP D’ETAT:
http://quotha.net/docs/honduras/9.1.09.Informe_ingles.pdf
Additionally, I would like to mention the presence in Germany of Mr. Ramón Custodio, commissionate of Human Rights in Honduras, who claimed the military were using gummy bullets(El Heraldo, also supporting the Coup: http://www.heraldohn.com/Pa%C3%ADs/Ediciones/2009/07/07/Noticias/Comisionado-afirma-que-militares-tenian-balas-de-goma), after the first(Isis Obed Murillo's) official death occurred. Mr. Custodio, as a human rights ombudsman is expected to be politically impartial, but USA revoked visa to him as well, since he has lied(http://www.latribuna.hn/web2.0/?p=16415 and is a supporter of the coup d'État. The responsible of his presence in Germany was made through an invitation by the representant of the FDP foundation Naumann, whose leader also justifies the Coup(http://www.fian.de/fian/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=654).
I hope dearly, that this is not what anyone wants to support. I hope, that the people taking decisions inform themselves intensively and are aware of all the implications. I hope, those people - YOU - want to change things for the better and not just follow any political, economical forces in the world that favor or support incidents like the one happening in Honduras. People are not numbers or statistics, so please take a clear stance, that shows, that this is what you think as well as, like you have previously stated, what happened in Honduras in June 28th, 2009 was a Coup d'ètat through the illegal ouster of President Manuel Zelaya, who must be restituted.
Thank you very much for your attention and for granting us the opportunity to present this petition in the name of Hondurans,
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