Dokument #1290280
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
The project director at the National
Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors (NISBCO)
in Washington provided the information that follows to the DIRB in
a telephone interview on 12 June 1997. During a stay in Honduras in
1995, the project director had worked on educational projects
related to military service. The NISBCO is currently preparing a
detailed report on military service in Latin America.
At the present time, the risk facing a
former soldier who deserted from the Honduran army in 1992 would be
negligible. NISBCO has not recently received any complaints from
Honduran conscientious objectors. Even though the Honduran Congress
has not yet adopted in second reading the bill on voluntary
military service, as proposed in the constitutional reform of 1994,
the compulsory conscription of a Honduran army deserter is
improbable even if he were a minor in 1992. The Honduran army is
now calling for volunteers and in January 1997, it launched a
recruitment campaign that relies on good salaries and good working
conditions to attract new recruits. For more information on this
recruitment campaign, please consult the attached article by
IPS.
However, a deserter could be subjected to
bad treatment if identified during an arrest, or detention for
questioning, or through a national registration system. Congress is
currently studying the bill on the national registration system and
it is anticipated that it will be adopted before the end of this
year.However, a specialist on Honduras, a professor of political
science at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, stated in a
telephone interview on 13 June 1997 that such a registration system
would be used for electoral purposes and would not be used to find
deserters since the current level of recruitment is low. The
Honduran army only numbers about 3,000 soldiers in the whole of the
country. He added that a deserter returning to Honduras today would
only have problems with the authorities if he had a criminal
record.
An assistant to the military attaché
at the Embassy of Honduras in Washington said in a telephone
interview on 12 June 1997 that the army was not attempting to trace
deserters in a systematic manner because of their considerable
numbers. Like the project director at NISBCO and the political
science professor, she stated that deserters who return to Honduras
today, including minor deserters, would not be prosecuted.
The project director at NISBCO and the
assistant to the military attaché confirmed that between
1990 and 1993, recruits would have received military cards (tarjeta
militar) for purposes of identification. The assistant to the
military attaché added that the colour of the cards varied
from one army corps to another. According to the assistant, the
card bears the official title of the army and the signature of
military authorities.
As to the existence of a military base
situated some forty kilometres from the city of San Pedro Sula, the
assistant to the military attaché stated that there were
several of them and that supplementary details about the base in
question would be necessary in order to respond to the
question.
For more information on the new law on
voluntary military service, please consult the letter sent by fax
from NISBCO and attached to Response to Information Request
HND25568.F of 12 November 1996.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Embassy of Honduras, Washington. 12 June
1997. Telephone interview with the assistant to the military
attaché.
Dickinson College, Carlisle,
Pennsylvania. 13 June 1997. Telephone interview with a professor of
political science specializing on Honduras.
National Interreligious Service Board
for Conscientious Objectors (NISBCO), Washington. 12 June 1997.
Telephone interview with the program director.
Attachment
Inter Press Service (IPS). 21 January
1997. Thelma Mejia. "Honduras: The Army Wants You!" (NEXIS)
Additional Sources Consulted
Country file: Honduras. 1996-1997.
Amnesty International country file.
1996-1997.
Central America Newspak [Austin, Texas].
1997.
Central America Report [Guatemala City].
1996-1997.
Foreign Broadcast Information Services
(FBIS). Quotidien.
Latinamerica Press [Lima]. 1994.
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