Honduras Continued to Kill Its Children Despite the Presidential
Promise
December 5th, 2002
Another 46 children and youth under the age of 23 were slaughtered in Honduras during the month of November despite a Presidential promise that more murders would not be accepted.
None of the 15 cases of murder of children by the police that were given to a specially formed child murder investigative unit of the Ministry of Public Security three months ago have been solved. During the same period another 159 children and youth were murdered. The list of cases to be investigated grows and grows as more children's lives are taken from them.
Tegucigalpa continues to be the murder capital of this Central American nation of barely 5 million people, with 59% (27) of the murders committed last month. San Pedro Sula, the second largest city, hosted 10 murders (22%). There were also murders of children and youth in Tela (11%) and Choluteca, Progreso, Santa Barbara and Puerto Cortes.
As in previous months, 90% of the killings were with guns and the rest with knives. More than 60% of the murderers are unknown where the cases have not been investigated sufficiently to identify the perpetrators. In the month of November, 37% (17) of the killings are attributed to gang members in what is an escalating social problem that the local authorities have been unable to control.
Forty-two (91%) of the November victims were males and four (9%) females and 59% were 18 years of age or younger. One of the young victims was a National Policeman but 70% of the children and youth were either students or unemployed.
The government's efforts to
stop the killings of children and youth have, to date, failed, commented
Bruce Harris, the Latin America Director for Casa Alianza, the largest
private service provider for street children in Central America. Whilst
there may be some
political will, the situation is seemingly out of control and children are the
victims.
Since January 1998, when Casa Alianza started keeping records, a total of 1,504 children and youth have been murdered. Less than 4% of the cases have reached the level of conviction. After the October 7th promise by Honduran President Ricardo Maduro to use whatever (State) resources are necessary to stop the killing of children, Casa Alianza requested a doubling of the number of police investigators from five to ten. The actual number of investigators has been reduced to just four.
In the meantime, Casa Alianza and CEJIL, the Center for Justice and International Law, are preparing more cases against the State of Honduras for the ongoing murders of children and youth. Two cases have already been accepted where six children and youth were murdered with the participation of the police. The crimes have never been sufficiently investigated in Honduras.
The only thing we are looking for is justice, concluded Harris.
For more information, please contact Casa Alianza Honduras at +504-237-1750 or Bruce Harris at +506-253-5439 <info@casa-alianza.org>
http://www.casa-alianza.org/EN/human-rights/torture-honduras/list.shtml
