[child-rights] Honduras: Two years on and killing of children continues

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL-PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AMR 37/008/2004 (Public)
6 September 2004

Despite the creation of the Special Unit for the Investigation of Violent
Deaths of Children two years ago, the killers of children in Honduras
continue to get away with murder, said Amnesty International today, as it
relaunched its world-wide campaign calling on the Honduran government to
stop impunity.

Since February 2003, nearly 700 more children and youths have been
murdered or extrajudicially executed in the country.

While the Special Unit has made some progress in investigating a small
number of cases, it continues to fall far short of its stated objectives.
Since its creation it has only looked at just 400 of the over 2,300 cases
of assassinations of children and youths which have occurred since January
1998. Only 88 cases were forwarded to the Attorney General's Office, and
just three have resulted in a conviction. Despite the fact that the
government have admitted that police officers have been involved in many
of the killings, only two policemen have so far been convicted.

Promises made by the government have also failed to materialise. Despite
the announcement last year of the establishment of a National Witness
Protection Plan for judicial proceedings, to date no adequate mechanism
has been established. Protection of witnesses is of paramount importance
as they can be intimidated to prevent them from providing testimony
against perpetrators.

Sara Sauceda Flores' son, 16 year-old Darwin, was arrested and beaten by a
police officer in February 2002, held for two days and released. One day
later his body was found with signs that he had been summarily executed.
She has been intimidated and threatened after filing complaints against
the two officers she believes murdered her son. No one has been brought to
justice for his killing.

"Thousands of children in Honduras face a similar fate to Darwin. The
Honduran authorities must comply with its obligations to prevent and
punish killings of children and youths in the country, and to protect
witnesses.  It is critical that both the Special Unit and Attorney
General's Office are given sufficient resources and independence to do
this and that for the government to appoint ad-hoc judges to work
specifically on these cases.  The future of the country depends on it,"
said Amnesty International.

For more information, see Honduras: Zero Tolerance for Impunity:
Extrajudicial executions of children and youths since 1998:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR370012003



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