Yesterday, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo inaugurated the previously-announced Truth Commission to investigate the events surrounding last June’s military coup which removed from power President Manuel Zelaya, who is currently exiled in the Dominican Republic. (Read Honduran government press releases here and here.) The establishment of such a commission was a condition of Zelaya’s exit from the national stage and a campaign promise of President Lobo. The Commission will be composed of five individuals and is expected to deliver its report within eight months.
The Commission has the backing of the United States and Organization of American States, but is questioned by some States and civil society organizations as lacking adequate investigative authority and ignoring the question of human rights abuses committed in the wake of the coup.
In the view of non-governmental organization CEJIL, the nascent Commission has serious legal flaws, in that its objective is limited to ‘clarifying the events before and after June 28, 2009 in order to identify the acts which gave rise to the crisis situation and provide Honduran society with the knowledge necessary to avoid the repetition of such events in the future‘, the investigatory process excludes victims and civil society, the Commission was created by a presidential decree which lacks the binding force of law, the other branches of government are not asked to provide information to the Commission, and the Honduran government itself has not designated funds for the Commission’s operation. [CEJIL]
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has reported that, in the months following the coup, the de facto authorities illegally detained thousands of people, used disproportionate force which resulted in several deaths, and highly restricted the flow of information and freedom of expression, adding :
Violations of the right to life, humane treatment, freedom of association, personal liberty, judicial guarantees, freedom of expression, political rights, the rights of women and the rights of minority groups were exacerbated by the absence of a legitimate government capable of processing complaints, investigating facts, punishing those responsible, and making reparations to victims.
(report here). Such abuses will apparently not be investigated by the newly-composed Truth Commission.
[AFP, BBC, IPS, La Tribuna]