16 e) Witness Axel Mejía Paíz, a sociologist. He lives in Guatemala. He has worked for Asociación Casa Alianza for fifteen years; at Casa Alianza, he is the Coordinator of the Missing Children Program, and he is therefore associated with the Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de la Niñez Desaparecida (CNBND), set up on June 21, 2001. The Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de la Niñez Desaparecida carries out actions to document, seek and find children missing from the time of the armed conflict. It does this by means of five main work areas: investigation, psychosocial support, legal affairs, advocacy, and social communication. He believes that the next of kin are the main protagonists in these processes. At various meetings, he has urged the State to provide access to information from all files on children who were placed in orphanages or institutions that functioned during the armed conflict, as well as any files the army may have on children who were captured and taken to military institutions. However, he has received no positive response. Since 90% of the disappearances of children were conducted by the army, 90% of the documented cases cannot yet be solved. The Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de la Niñez Desaparecida has managed to document close to 1000 cases of missing children throughout the country, including 10 different ethnic groups, and 90% of these cases involve Mayan indigenous population. About 120 of those 1000 cases have been solved, and families were reunited in 80 of them. This means that children who were separated from their family 20 or 22 years ago have managed to see their parents again. The Report of the Historical Elucidation Committee [Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico] states that there were 600 massacres in which children were captured and taken to military centers, orphanages or State Institutions that fostered adoptions. The number of adoptions grew in Guatemala from 1979 to 1984. Estimates are that roughly 4,500 to 5,000 children disappeared during the armed conflict in Guatemala. The REMHI Report recorded the case of Marco Antonio Molina Theissen and the Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de la Niñez Desaparecida also documented it and undertook investigative actions by preparing a search map that defined three sources for basic information. The first was the orphanages, where the investigation has already been carried out but was fruitless. It has not been feasible to exhaust the other two sources of information, because the State has not provided access to the information that might exist in the Quetzaltenango military zone and it has not been possible to analyze whatever information the Estado Mayor Presidencial [Military Intelligence Unit] might have. Based on information obtained documenting Marco Antonio Molina Theissen´s case, they reached the conclusion that it was a military intelligence practice directed against leaders but also against members of families linked to social activities or who expressed their disagreement with the policies of the State, with the aim of paralyzing, harming and affecting the family. Marco Antonio Molina Theissen was the most vulnerable member of the family because he was the youngest, because he was a child, and because he was the only boy. The Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de la Niñez Desaparecida has documented this practice with respect to five families. These families were harmed by the kidnapping

Seleccionar párrafo de destino3

Conectar a un párrafo
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Añadir a la tabla de contenidos