Military

DATE=11/13/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-269184

TITLE=CHIAPAS CLASH (L ONLY)

BYLINE=GREG FLAKUS

DATELINE=MEXICO CITY

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Complaints have been filed before the Mexican Human Rights Commission following a violent clash on Sunday between federal police and indigenous villagers in the southern state of Chiapas. As V-O-A's Greg Flakus reports from Mexico City, the incident has renewed tensions in the troubled region.

TEXT:

/// SOUND FROM CLASH ESTABLISH, THEN FADE UNDER ///

In televised reports from the scene, the federal police are seen retreating from a village under a barrage of rocks as they fire their weapons in the air. At least two agents of the Federal Preventive Police group suffered injuries. Three indigenous residents of the community were also injured.

The purpose of the operation was to locate members of rightwing paramilitary groups in the area and disarm them. In the end, the police confiscated only one pistol and the leader of the operation admitted it had been a failure.

The governor of Chiapas, Roberto Albores, agreed with that assessment.

/// ALBORES ACT - IN SPANISH - FADE UNDER ///

He says this was an operation ordered by the federal attorney general's office to locate supposedly armed groups but that it had failed. He says he greatly regrets this incident took place and that now, he, as governor, will have to work to restore peace in the local communities.

Spokesmen for some of the local indigenous communities say people reacted with anger to the intrusion by the heavily armed federal police because, they say, there are no armed groups there.

In recent years, Chiapas has been the scene of frequent clashes between rightist paramilitary groups and the mainly indigenous supporters of the leftist Zapatista guerrillas. The Zapatistas launched a brief uprising in January of 1994 and there has been a tense standoff in the mountainous region ever since.

This latest incident comes just a few weeks before Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox takes office. He has promised to resolve the conflict in Chiapas by honoring previous accords the Zapatistas signed with government negotiators, but there still has been no response from the guerrillas to that gesture. (Signed)

NEB/GF/JWH