Information on this specific subject could not be found among the sources currently available to the DIRB in Ottawa.

For information on the penalities to which army deserters were subject prior to 1994, please consult the attached Response to Information Request GTM13644.E 15 April 1993, which contains references to armed forces deserters.

Also attached please find several reports published in 1993 providing information on the fate of individuals who refused to serve in the Civil Defence Patrols (Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil) (PAC). The PACs were set up in 1982 by the military government as one component of the military's counter-insurgency strategy (Amnesty International May 1993, 9). According to the Country Reports 1993, even though service in the PAC is voluntary, "army officers, military commissioners, and PAC leaders often pressure[d] men in area of conflict to become PAC members," and those who refused to serve "were killed or suffered other abuses" (1994, 452).

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB 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. Please find attached the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Amnesty International. May 1993. Guatemala: Impunity -A Question of Political Will (AI Index: AMR 34/17/93). London: Amnesty International Publications.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1993. 1994. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.

Attachments

Amnesty International. May 1993. Guatemala: Impunity A Question of Political Will (AI Index: AMR 34/17/93). London: Amnesty International Publications. p. 9.

. March 1993. Guatemala: Written Statement by Amnesty International to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (AI Index: AMR 34/08/93). London: Amnesty International Publications, pp. 1-2.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1993. 1994. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, p. 452.

Documentation, Information and Research Branch (DIRB), Immigration and Refugee Board, Ottawa. 15 April 1993. Response to Information Request GTM13644.

Guatemala Human Rights Update [Washington, DC]. 22 December 1993. No. 25. "Campesinos Opposed to PACs Threatened," p. 3.

. 17 September 1993. Vol. 18. "Bous who did Not Patrol disappear," p. 4.

. 23 July 1993. Vol. 14. "PAc Members to Be Tried for Spirano's Death," p. 2.

. 27 May 1993. Vol. 10. "Men Renouncing PACs and Family of Murdered CERJ Member Threatened," p. 6.

US Committee for Refugees (USCR). February 1993. El Retorno: Guatemalans' Risky Repatriation Begins. Washington, DC: USCR, p. 14.

Additional Sources Consulted

Critique: Review of the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Yearly.

Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch World Report. Yearly.

Documentation-Réfugiés [Paris]. Weekly.

News From Americas Watch [New York]. Monthly.

Latin America Update [Washington]. Monthly.

Latin America Press [Lima]. Weekly.

Latin American Newsletters [London]. Monthly.

NACLA Report on the Americas. Monthly.

Problèmes d'Amérique latine. Quarterly.

On-line search and oral sources.