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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Urgent- Honduran coffee growers attacked |
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by a concerned fair trader
(No verified email address) |
16 Aug 2002
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take action to support coffee workers who were attacked for asking for aid |
FROM THE GLOBAL EXCHANGE MAILING LIST:
Dear Fair Traders,
We are writing to you today with an urgent and important request to support more than 500 Honduran coffee growers who were arrested and 24 who were injured on Tuesday en route to demand government aid for their ailing industry. As you know, coffee farmers around the world are facing poverty and starvation. Being arrested and attacked while trying to demonstrate peacefully is unacceptable!
Please call or write to the Honduran embassy NOW to demand that the Honduran government:
1) Undertake a full investigation to determine why the blockade was instituted and whether it was indeed a violation of the farmers¹ rights of expression, peaceful assembly, and movement within their country.
2) Undertake a full investigation of the police¹s actions to determine whether they were warranted, and then censure police staff as necessary.
3) Undertake a full investigation to determine whether the arrests were warranted and ensure that every farmer receives a fair and impartial trial with valid charges.
4) Promptly provide Honduran coffee farmers with the loans as promised: totaling $20 million and bearing no interest.
5) Ensure that the rights to peaceful expression are preserved in Honduras
Below you will find a sample letter/fax, phone call ³talking points², contact information for the Honduran embassy and consulate, and a Reuters article on the situation. Please also email Global Exchange to let us know
you took action: fairtrade (at) globalexchange.org.
Thanks!
1. SAMPLE LETTER/FAX
Embassy of Honduras
3007 Tilden Street, NW
Suite 4M
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 966-9751
E-mail: embassy (at) hondurasemb.org
Embassies outside of the US are listed at http://www.hondurasemb.org/home.htm
Dear Ambassador,
I am writing to express my concern that more than 500 Honduran coffee growers were arrested and 24 were injured on 13 August in El Zamorano, and to ask that you ensure that this situation is handled with justice. The coffee farmers, representing over 110,000 coffee growers in Honduras, were en route to Tegucigalpa to demand that the government make good on promises of $20 million in interest-free loans to Honduran coffee growers.
The farmers, traveling by bus, were blockaded by police in El Zamorano. As the farmers attempted to get through the blockade, they were violently attacked with tear gas. The police have alleged that the farmers threw rocks at them, but this has not been substantiated.
I am concerned for three main reasons. First, as you must know, coffee farmers are in the midst of a severe crisis, facing dire poverty, starvation, and loss of their lands. They are in desperate need of the financial assistance promised by your government. Second, the actions of the Honduran authorities violated rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified by the government of Honduras. The blockade set up by the police violated the farmers¹ rights of expression Article 19), peaceful assembly (Article 20), and movement within their country (Article 13). The government¹s retraction of the promised interest-free loans would violate the farmers¹ right to an adequate standard of living (Article 25). Third, it is not yet clear whether the strong actions taken by the police were warranted and whether the Arrests were
appropriate. Until this is determined, we cannot be sure that the farmers¹ rights regarding inhuman/degrading punishment (Article 5) and arbitrary arrest (Article 9) have been upheld as specified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As such, I am asking that the Honduran government take the following actions:
1) Undertake a full investigation to determine why the blockade was instituted and whether it was indeed a violation of the farmers¹ rights of expression, peaceful assembly, and movement within their country.
2) Undertake a full investigation of the police¹s actions to determine whether they were warranted, and then censure police staff as necessary.
3) Undertake a full investigation to determine whether the arrests were warranted and ensure that every farmer receives a fair and impartial trial with valid charges.
4) Promptly provide Honduran coffee farmers with the loans as promised: totaling $20 million and bearing no interest. Reinstating the loans would allow the government to support the right to an adequate standard of living.
5) Ensure that the rights to peaceful expression arE preserved in Honduras.
I await a reply regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
2. PHONE CALL ³TALKING POINTS²:
CALL (202) 966-7702 in the US
Embassies outside of the US are listed at
http://www.hondurasemb.org/home.htm
ASK to speak to the ambassador
TELL the ambassador/consul that you are concerned that:
€ More than 500 Honduran coffee growers were arrested and 24 were injured on August 13 in El Zamorano, en route to Tegucigalpa to demand that the government make good on promises of $20 million in interest-free loans to Honduran coffee growers.
€ Coffee farmers are in the midst of a severe crisis, facing dire poverty, starvation, and loss of their lands. They are desperately in need of the financial assistance promised by the Honduran government.
€ The blockade and arrests violate several rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was ratified by the Honduran government. The blockade set up by the police violated the farmers¹ rights of expression (Article 19), peaceful assembly (Article20), and movement within their country (Article13). The government¹s retraction of the promised loans would violate the farmers¹ right to an adequate standard of living (Article 25). Reinstating the loans would allow the government to support this right.
€ It is not yet clear whether the strong actions taken by the police were warranted and whether the arrests were appropriate. Until this is determined, we cannot be sure that the farmers rights regarding inhuman/degrading punishment (Article 5) and arbitrary arrest (Article 9) have been upheld as specified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
DEMAND that the Honduran government take the following actions:
1) Undertake a full investigation to determine why the blockade was instituted and whether it was indeed a violation of the farmers¹ rights of expression, peaceful assembly, and movement within their country.
2) Undertake a full investigation of the police¹s actions to determine whether they were warranted, and then censure police staff as necessary.
3) Undertake a full investigation to determine whether the arrests were warranted and ensure that every farmer receives a fair and impartial trial with valid charges.
4) Promptly provide Honduran coffee farmers with the loans as promised: totaling $20 million and bearing no interest.
5) Ensure that the rights to peaceful expression are preserved in Honduras.
* Please ask that you are sent a reply regarding this matter.
3. ARTICLE
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Honduran police arrest hundreds of coffee growers
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Aug 13 (Reuters) - More than 500 Honduran coffee growers were arrested and 24 were injured on Tuesday after clashing with police on their way to a protest to demand government aid for their ailing industry.
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The police used tear gas and a water cannon to subdue demonstrators, and three coffee leaders were among those arrested in the incident in El Zamorano, 16 miles (25 km) north of the capital Tegucigalpa, police spokesman Danilo Orellana told Reuters. The protesters were in buses on
their way to the capital to take part in the demonstration.
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"After we stopped their caravan the coffee growers blocked the highway with vehicles and began to throw rocks and stones at the police. The police had to respond energetically to break up the highway blockage," Orellana said.
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Honduras, like all of Central America, is deep in a coffee crisis. A worldwide coffee glut has pushed international prices down to the point that many growers cannot afford to harvest their beans. There are 110,000 coffee growers in Honduras and they are demanding that the government of
President Ricardo Maduro make good on promises of $20 million in loans to the coffee sector's 65,000 growers. The growers say the loans would add up to $6 for each 100-pound (46-kg) sack of coffee for farmers, which would allow them to make enough to harvest.
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Coffee growers said they are also protesting because the government wants to add a 3 percent interest rate to $40 million in previous loans that were interest free. "We are going through a crisis and we're not going to accept ... that the $40 million they loaned us interest free suddenly has a 3 percent interest," said Jose Saavedra, leader of the National Coffee Growers Association(Anacafe).
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Finance Minister Arturo Alvarado told journalists that "given the financial situation the country is in, we cannot hand out loans without charging a minimum amount of interest."
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Despite the crisis, Honduran coffee exports have not fallen much this year. Honduras exported 3.06 million 46-kg bags (or quintals) of coffee between Oct. 1, the first day of the 2001/2002 harvest and Aug. 2, down just slightly from the same period of the previous coffee cycle.
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