Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 10 July 2018

Anonymous bones of civil war dead laid to rest

By RODRIGO ABD bones that could not be one of the Kakchikel artists
SONIA PEREZ D identified have now been involved in the project.
Associated Press interred at the forest loca- A place is also reserved
SAN JUAN COMALAPA, tion of the former camp, for renowned U.S. anthro-
Guatemala (AP) — In this with three of the mass pologist Clyde Snow, who
small rural town, the anon- graves left open in a nod to worked on disappearanc-
ymous remains of some of historical memory. es in Guatemala before his
the tens of thousands who On a recent day a truck own death in 2014.
disappeared during Gua- rolled past with 172 coffins “He asked in his will for his re-
temala’s long and bloody strapped to the flatbed. mains to rest here in Coma-
civil war can finally rest in They were smaller than nor- lapa,” said Rosalina Tuyuc,
peace. mal coffins, containing just who lost her husband and
Women from the village collections of bones rath- father and came to lead
of San Juan Comalapa, er than whole skeletons. a national organization of
about 50 miles (80 kilome- Women in colorful em- Kakchikel widows demand-
ters) west of Guatemala broidered skirts and white ing justice.
City, spent years saving shawls carried bouquets of In this June 20, 2018 photo, a cargo truck transports the remains According to the United
money and raising dona- flowers in a solemn proces- of 172 unidentified people, exhumed from what once a military Nations, about 200,000
tions to buy a plot of land sion behind the truck. base in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala. people were killed and
where an army camp once Marivel Yolanda Rucuch Associated Press 45,000 more disappeared
stood. During the 1960- held aloft portraits of her had put grass and flower ite plaque engraved with during Guatemala’s 36-
1996 conflict, people from father, Juan Rucuch, and petals on the cement floor names of the missing. year civil war. About 97
across the country were aunt, Virgilia Quina, who of a community center as Colorful murals tell the story percent of the victims died
abducted and brought disappeared decades they blessed the coffins of what happened here, as at the hands of the army
here by soldiers, then were ago, allegedly at the hands with prayers and incense. revealed to the women in and paramilitary groups.
tortured, killed and buried of soldiers. Prudencia At the final resting place, dreams and interpreted by For the anonymous bones
in mass graves. Machan, whose daughter surrounded by lush trees artists hired to give their vi- interred in San Juan Coma-
Since 2003, forensic anthro- went missing in 1981, wept and brush, lies a home — or sions form. lapa on the National Day
pologists have dug up at profusely, deepening the “nimajay” in the Kakchikel It is through art that “we Against Forced Disappear-
least 220 individual remains wrinkles on her 76-year-old indigenous language — can reclaim the victims’ ance, a genetic database
in the town, but only about face. where painted blue crosses existence” and educate holds their information in
a quarter of those could be The previous night, in the adorn the wall. Next to the young people born after case relatives can be lo-
matched to relatives. Those center of town, women mausoleum lies a gran- the war, said Uriela Cumes, cated in the future.q

More protests in Haiti as unrest continues over fuel prices

By EVENS SANON ment building but were the International Monetary
Associated Press turned back by police. Pro- Fund to modernize the
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) testers also set fire to a tax economy.
— Protesters clashed with office in the Tabarre area The Haitian government
police Monday in the Hai- of the capital. canceled the increase
tian capital while a general Public Security Secretary amid protests that left sev-
strike kept most people at Ronsard Saint Cyr and lead- eral people dead and
home across the country ers of the House of Depu- prompted airlines to can-
in a fourth day of unrest ties and Senate called for cel flights to the impover-
sparked by a now-rescind- an end to the protests and ished country.
ed government plan to to the general strike. Flights have resumed, al-
raise fuel prices in the im- Protests erupted Friday lowing people who had
poverished nation. hours before the govern- been stuck in Haiti over the
Burned cars parked outside a burned and looted Delimart Demonstrators linked to ment-set price of fuel was weekend, including groups
complex after 2 days of protests against planned hike in fuel various opposition factions to rise by up to 50 percent, of U.S. missionaries, to leave
prices in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, July 8, 2018. marched on the parlia- part of a plan endorsed by the country.q
Associated Press