29 The displaced population in Guatemala was a consequence of the armed domestic conflict. The displaced and refugee population fled their place of origin out of fear of losing their lives, due to ideological, political, religious or ethnic persecution. During the 1980s, the first civilian government established a special committee for refugees, the Comisión Especial de Atención a Refugiados (CEAR) and in 1987 a decision was reached for CEAR to also address the needs of returning citizens and displaced persons. CEAR’s relationship with Myrna Mack Chang was in connection with her research on internally displaced persons. Staff members of the Committee accompanied her on her visits to the area known as the Ixil Triangle. The Army controlled those visits. CEAR proposed to AVANCSO that they conduct a study to define the profile of the displaced population. Myrna Mack Chang’s work made evident the presence of the military and the role played by the army with respect to the issue of displaced persons. b. Sworn statement AVANCSO18 by Clara Arenas Bianchi, founder of Myrna Mack Chang was a member of the board of directors of the Asociación para el Avance de las Ciencias Sociales (AVANCSO), through which she carried out a study on internally displaced persons and coordinated it when she obtained funding from Georgetown University. Myrna Mack Chang focused her work specifically on institutional policies regarding internally displaced persons. In addressing the issue of internally displaced persons, Myrna and her team entered into a reality unknown to Guatemalans who were unaware that almost a million persons had been displaced as a consequence of the domestic strife. She worked intensely in the area of Alta Verapaz, especially in the municipalities of Cobán and Quiché, in a highly militarized context, as the Army received them in the communities, which were subject to a strict control of their population, deeming them to be insurgents. At that time, the Army had launched scorched earth policies. Myrna and her team always went before the civil and military authorities to explain their presence in the towns and to request information. At the United Nations International Conference on Central American Refugees, the draft of the report on the research carried out by Myrna was widely distributed, and it was then that the existence of a segment of displaced population was formally recognized. Her work offered a typology of displaced persons taking into account the forms and destination of their displacement, an assessment of the material and psychological conditions of the persons who returned to the militarized zones, and a proposal on minimum conditions required for a viable process of return and integration, and she even proposed demilitarization of the area. Thus, she made information on an unknown segment of the population available to the public, raising questions on the 18 She rendered her statement before a notary public on January 16, 2003, on the importance of and the difficulties faced by Myrna Mack Chang when she conducted an academic research study on displaced persons and the threats and intimidations suffered by the staff of the Asociación para el Avance de las Ciencias Sociales (AVANCSO) and other background pertaining to the object and purpose of the application.