Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 10, 1994, Winnipeg, Manitoba A4 Winnipeg free january 1994 world uprising a scream of desperation economic abuses behind mayans rebellion byte Robberson to Washington Post Mexico Alonzo Gomez a mayan Indian opened the door to his Dir floor Shack by shoving aside two then welcomed his american visitors through the Gap in his on the overhang above his head was a duct to catch Rainwater from the without he the Only source of water for his wife and child was a Creek several Hundred Yards Down a Steep incline passable Only by recalling unfulfilled government promises of potable water and bet Ter economic a poor Lay Catholic in a poor comm said it was not difficult to understand the desperation that drove hundreds of mayan indians Here in the Southern state of Chiapas take up arms last week and declare Revo Lution against president Carlos Sali Nas de Salinas has worked feverishly since 1988 to reverse Mexico image As a impoverished country unworthy of International his crowning achieve ment toward that goal was the 1 Start of the North american free Trade which Salinas sold to his people As the ticket to eco nomic but overnight the Zap Atista rebel timed to coincide with Naf tas shattered mexi cos image of rising Prosperity and Drew the worlds attention to a Darker Side of life Here in which the Gap Between Rich and poor is with poor Southern Indi ans hit by dwindling Job and income they Are fighting for Gomez said of the Zap Atista National liberation a previously unknown group consisting almost entirely of mayan indians that seized towns and villages All around this Mountain Hamlet on according to Gomez and others interviewed around the the Zap Atastas appear to consist largely of mayans of the to Zettal and possibly Tzotzis the two largest Indig Enous populations in no body knows for because they have worn ski masks and bandanas in but their physical features have been characteristic of who is a to Zettal nod ded in agreement when asked if Vil lagers Felt a sense of Pride for what the rebels had there is some their cause is under said economic combined with a history of human rights abuses and appear to be the main forces that drove the specialists on Mexico Large mayan which consists of at least 20 tribes and numbers More than people in say the lawyers and legislators who Fine tuned Taftas provisions last year appeared to have overlooked the hazards the Accord poses for poor villages like indians such As Gomez share a deep fear not just of Short term financial disco but of economic App a mayan Indian prays yesterday during a mass for peace in san Cristobal de Las a City briefly held last week by weekend bombings stir fears by forcing Mexico to phase out subsidies on the main Cash crops Here sugar and Coffee Taftas negotiators have Cut off vital sources of support for indigenous a peasant Corn Farmer who declined to give his said a Typ ical farm with barely exceeds a indians interviewed along the path of violence sown by the Zap Atastas say they see no Way of Mak ing ends meet without governmental and the Prospect of Worsen ing economic conditions is causing people like Gomez to risk govern ment retaliation by stating their sympathy for the rebel cultural anthropologists specializing in Chiapas indigenous groups say the rebellion is the result of fear and frustration Over the Central governments years of i see this revolt As a sort of scream of said Cul Tural anthropologist Gary Gossen at the state University of new York in there have been a lot of Inci dents where the underlying pres sures were voiced and not listened to by the said june an american anthropologist who studies the to Zettal the basis of their life is being threatened by economic she said indians Are feeling a growing sense of helplessness As lands their tribes have Farmed without ownership for centuries Are seized by cattle ranch ers and exploration teams from the National Oil froma Reuters Bishop under fire s a photo Ruiz denies involvement in byte Robberson the Washington Post an Cristobal de Las Mexico i a steadily progressing Battle Between peasant revolutionaries and the mexican military has provoked a harsh backlash against the Catholic which the government accuses of fomenting unrest and encouraging an armed uprising Here in the Southern state of As in the civil War in Al Salvador in the the Church finds itself immersed in political controversy sparked by the local resurgence of liberation a controversial doctrine that encourages the poor and dispossessed to struggle for Justice and end their passive acceptance of oppression and in scene of a revolt by mayan Indian Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruiz has become the target of government Wrath because he allegedly advocated protest marches and other acts of civil disobedience before the new years Day uprising by the Zap Atista National liberation president Carlos Salinas de Gortariz government has said the Zap Atista unknown before the has been trained and armed by no indigenous professionals of violence who include a foreign Little evidence has surfaced to Back the governments stopping Short of identifying Ruiz by an Interior ministry report on Friday said rebels have been supported by certain ideologues and religious acting from distinct at the base of the Zap Atista recruitment the report is a Large group of Radical Lay ministers trained in ruins whom the government accused of working in the Countryside and pressuring entire families into becoming new members of their violent cultural anthropologists say the Catholic Church exercises a particularly Strong influence Over this deeply impoverished particularly among the mayan indians who comprise nearly 30 per cent of the ruins they extends far beyond his own even protestant evangelical leaders cite him As a hero of their own social but the controversy surrounding Ruiz has caused even the Vatican to raise last it threatened to remove him from his diocese because of his alleged support of Radical indigenous late mexican Media reported that the a Patistas have called on Ruiz and Nobel peace prize recipient Rigoberta a quiche Indian of Guatemala and an Indian human rights to mediate an end to the and Ruiz has but the government has not accepted Ruiz As a mediator and has said the rebels must jesting bomber taunts Germany by Clive Freeman Deutsche Presse Agenter the past two years a highly unpredictable blackmailer has made German police look foolish As he has repeatedly eluded Mere mention of his name causes policemen to but despite a Bent for planting bombs in City stores and blackmailing owners into paying huge Many germans cant help chuckling Over his Dagobert is his phantom name taken from the German equivalent of Walt Disney famous cartoon Uncle Scrooge and its from those comic Book stories that police experts believe the blackmailer derives his roguish inspiration and who he really is remains a Dagobert first made headlines when he launched a Campaign of terror against the German department store in threatening bomb attacks if they didst meet his demands for million deutschmark about the first Karstadt bomb attack in Hamburg occurred on the night of june Karstadt executives signalled their willingness to meet Dagoberto Ransom police used a Money bag adorned with a picture of the crotchety Duck captioned Duck tales for the Money but the Crook called it since the Hamburg Dagobert has staged bomb attacks in Hanover and the latest occurred in a Karstadt store in Berlin in Early a bomb ripped the roof off a store elevator during Busy Christmas customers escaped police suspect it May have been Dagobert who tricked the Kauf Haus Des westerns berlins biggest department into handing him in 1988 following bomb police have negotiated 20 Money transfers with the blackmailer in the past 18 months of which have ended in a failure to apprehend last october Berlin police placed what they said was a Ransom sum in a crate fitted with bugging at Midnight sounds were heard coming from the crate seeing nobody police took no hiding in a had tackled the crate from below when he found it was full of shredded paper instead of had made a Hasty late last a Berlin policeman came close to arresting but Fate played an unkind hand he slipped on a pile of dog droppings and letting go of the notorious surrender their arms before any talks can part of the governments reluctance stems from its stated belief that the Church was an instigator of the the Bishops defenders say he is being made a Scapegoat by a Central government caught by Surprise and embarrassed by an uprising that has shattered Mexico International image of rising Prosperity and ruins supporters already Are comparing him to salvadoran archbishop Oscar Arnulfo an architect of liberation theology who was assassinated by righting militants in yesterday in his Ruiz repeated his condemnation of violence and lamented the loss of life on All sides during the despite his denial of involvement in the Ruiz referred to the a Patistas As our rebel Brethren because of an accumulation of had reached their limit of tolerance and decided to fight he also condemned the widely reported acts of discrimination and human rights abuses against the saying the cause of today violence can be understood without looking for external in news conferences and written Ruiz has said the uprising is the result of chronic oppression and discrimination against Indian Mexico City Security forces patrolled parts of Mexico City yesterday after a series of bombings raised fears in Dian rebels were carrying through on a Promise to spread their uprising beyond the four bombs exploded saturday in and around the and one blast damaged Acapulco City one woman was on three blasts rocked electrical Tow ers in nearby the who say they Are fight ing for the rights of poor mayan Rose up 1 and took Over a number of towns in Mexico southernmost there were no reports of new fighting but in the rebel held town of Guadalupe rebels were holding about 90 Doc tors and medical workers captive in a Remote regional witnesses in Mexico Security forces patrolled Public buildings and the International As Well As the main Entrance of a military base in the suburb of foreign affairs officials Are scheduled to meet today in Ottawa to discuss whether to Issue travel advisories to canadians vacationing in we dont want a situation where one of our canadians gets said Lily a spokes woman for the journalist targets escape As gunmen attack Anc officials by Rick Lyman Johannesburg hidden gunmen firing from a migrant workers Hostel turned a peace tour led by Anc Secretary general Cyril ram Phosa yester Day afternoon into a 40minute gun Battle that left two dead and at least three others witnesses said ram Phosa and communist party chief Joe Slovon had just emerged from their motor Cade and had begun to walk through a Burntout Row of Homes in Vio Lenc plagued Kat Lehong just outside when automatic weapons fire erupted from nearby hostels dominated by the rival inkatha Freedom ramp hosts Large Security Force pushed both him and Slovon to the then quickly hustled them away in waiting heavily armed supporters of the african National Congress returned the dozens of journalists who had come to witness the tour also dropped to the ground or tried to run for shelter be Hind a nearby Row of Abdul a freelance photographer on assignment for the associated was fatally shot in the Back As he ran through a two other journalists for the state controlled broadcast service were police later said they killed one unidentified township resident and arrested three others while confiscating automatic it was in South african police Load body of township resident after yesterdays assassination Clear yesterday night whether the four men had been among the Origi Nal assailants or were an support ing township residents who had risen in response to the a police spokesman yesterday night said the men had been arrested on the which suggests they were not Hostel police have been accused in the past of being very slow to respond to Inci dents of violence emanating from they As they did again last that it is too danger Ous to do police promised to raid the Hostel sometime in the but Anc president Nelson Mandela said the pledge was not he demanded a meeting with South Africa president de Klerk to discuss the there is no excuse for the police not doing their Mandela said during a television interview after the the police should not allow any people to fire at innocent the so called peace tour of four Sites in the troubled townships in the area known As the East about 20 Kilometres Southeast of Johan had been intended to High Light the almost daily carnage that has turned the area into the most violent in South ;