Wed, 29 Oct 1997 10:06:11
Subject: URGENTE MESSAGE FROM JOE MULLIGAN
Reply-to: lorena@cofadeh.sdnhon.org.hn
Priority: normal
Organization: Comitee de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras
NEWS RELEASE Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Oct. 29, 1997
EMBASSY VIGIL FOR FATHER CARNEY
BISHOP, PRIEST, AND RELATIVES INTEND TO STAY IN EMBASSY
IN NON-VIOLENT VIGIL TO AWAIT A SERIOUS RESPONSE
For more information, contact EPICA in Washington, DC, at:
(202) 332-0292. Or come to the entrance of the U.S. embassy in
Tegucigalpa.
******************************
On October 29 at 10 a.m. four persons, including Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, entered the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to keep an appointment for a meeting with the U.S. ambassador.
After discussing human rights issues, especially the case of U.S. citizen Father James Carney who "disappeared" in Honduras in 1983, the group presented a letter addressed to President Bill Clinton and a set of demands concerning what it considers the "insultingly inadequate and unhelpful" declassification of U.S. government documents concerning Father Carney and other disappeared persons in Honduras.
(Samples of the heavily excised pages are provided along with this news release.)
The visitors, who also include Mr. John Patrick Carney (Father Carney's brother), Sister Jean
Brenner of the Sisters of St. Inez (Father Carney's cousin), and Jesuit Father Joseph E. Mulligan,
announced that they will remain inside the embassy "in a peaceful, non-violent vigil" until they
receive a "serious response" from the U.S. government to their demands (also provided with this
news release).
"With regard to the CIA documents on Father James Carney and the Defense Department documents released to the Honduran government on March 4, 1997, and with regard to the CIA documents released on August 29, we DEMAND that the U.S. government explain to us, page by page, why paragraphs and indeed entire pages are blacked out," the group stated. "National security or personal impunity? Protection of informers or cover-up of those involved in the disappearance of Father Carney?"
The documents were released to the Honduran government in response to an official request
by Dr. Leo Valladares, the human- rights commissioner. Dr. Valladares, in a congressional
staff briefing in Washington on May 7, stated: "The response that I have received to date has
been disappointing. I have not received hardly any useful information. The majority of the
documents which they have given me are blacked out. It is important that this declassification
effort continue."
A May 30 New York Times editorial on "Opening Up C.I.A. History" noted that "many of the
documents the C.I.A. has made public over the years are meaningless because so much
information is blacked out." The editorial suggested that the U.S. face up to an evil era in its
history. The Honduras documents concerning Father Carney are meaningless since entire pages
are blacked out.
The group has asked that a U.S. Senator or Representative visit them in the embassy in order
to discuss their concerns and demands.
NEWS CONFERENCE TOMORROW, OCT. 30, 9 A.M. AT U.S. EMBASSY IN
TEGUCIGALPA. At this conference sample pages of another set of heavily excised CIA
documents (the ones released on August 29) will be shown, and a second statement by the
embassy vigilers will be read.
END OF NEWS RELEASE
****************
To Friends Concerned about Fr. Carney and the other Disappeared Persons in Honduras:
We would ask you to do the following:
1. Immediately call President Clinton--(202) 456-1111--and your U.S. Senators and Representative--Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121--to ask that they take our demands seriously;
2. Organize a vigil in front of your nearest Federal Building (or U.S. embassy in other countries) in solidarity with our Embassy Vigil for Father Carney; adopt our demands as your own and give voice to them to the public and media.
3. Sample support statement: "We support the demands made by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and others at the U.S. embassy in Honduras concerning the case of Father James Carney, a U.S. citizen who disappeared in that country in 1983. The U.S. government must respond more adequately to the official request by the Honduran government for documents regarding the case of Fr. Carney and other disappeared persons.
"In addition, the U.S. should offer whatever technical assistance may be necessary in order to find the remains of Fr. Carney."
END
-------------------------------------------------------------
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Oct. 29, 1997
President Bill Clinton
The White House
Washington, D.C.
Dear President Clinton:
We commend you for ordering the declassification and release of U.S. government
documents concerning violations of human rights in Honduras, including documents on U.S.
citizen Father James Carney who disappeared in Honduras in 1983.
However, we are outraged that the CIA and Defense Department have not adequately
complied with your order and have made a mockery of any intention to cooperate with the
Honduran system of justice.
We will remain indefinitely in the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in a peaceful
vigil, awaiting a serious response from the U.S. government to our demands (attached).
On March 4 the CIA and Defense Department released declassified (and heavily expurgated)
documents concerning Father James Carney. In summarizing its 38 documents, the CIA noted:
"The circumstances surrounding the death of Father James Carney, the Jesuit priest who
disappeared in 1983 while participating in a leftist incursion from Nicaragua, remain a mystery.
The case is of continuing interest because Father Carney was a U.S. citizen and because of
allegations that the U.S. military and/or the CIA were involved in his death. The CIA established
the Honduras Working Group to undertake a thorough review of the Agency's documents
pertinent to the Carney case."
Father Carney had worked in Honduras for eighteen years. His defense of human rights and his support of the farmers' organizing efforts resulted in his deportation in 1979. After working as a pastor in Nicaragua, he returned to Honduras in 1983 as a chaplain to an armed revolutionary column; the group was captured by the Honduran army, and Father Carney "was disappeared." Although officials presented his chalice and stole to his relatives, they never explained the circumstances of his death, suggesting only that he probably starved to death in the mountains. In 1987 a former officer of the Honduran army stated that he had heard from other soldiers that Carney had been thrown to his death from a helicopter.
His body has not been found, and the Honduran military officers responsible for his death
have not been identified. Whether any U.S. agents or officials were involved in his
disappearance remains an open question.
The most striking aspect of the CIA and Pentagon documents is the extraordinary amount of material which is blacked out-- proportionately more than in the larger amount of State Department documents previously released. The most glaring example is a Defense Department page entitled "Honduran Armed Forces--Human Rights and Corruption." After this title, the entire page is black.
Also among the Defense documents is a "biographic sketch" of Major General Gustavo
Adolfo Alvarez Martinez dated December 1983. Two of the 3 and 1/2 pages are over 50%
blacked out. Alvarez, trained in the Argentine military academy and in U.S. army courses, was
generally considered to be responsible as chief of the Honduran Armed Forces for innumerable
violations of human rights.
On August 29 the CIA released over 300 pages of previously classified documents concerning
Father Carney, four other disappeared persons, and one survivor of torture. Like the documents
released in March, these pages show that extraordinary amounts of material have been excised.
This denial of material by the CIA and Defense Department borders on obstruction of justice
and shows a complete lack of respect for the Honduran authorities who requested the
documents.
The CIA and Defense Department must be more cooperative in the Carney investigation and
must still release documents requested by the Honduran government in relation to General
Gustavo Alvarez and Battalion 3-16.
Sincerely yours,
Sister Jean Brenner
John Patrick Carney
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Father Joseph E. Mulligan, S.J.
ATTACHED: OUR DEMANDS
-------------------------------------------------------------------
EMBASSY VIGIL FOR FATHER CARNEY
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Oct. 29, 1997
DEMANDS
1. With regard to the CIA documents on Father James Carney and the Defense Department
documents released to the Honduran government on March 4, 1997, and with regard to the CIA
documents released on August 29, we DEMAND that the U.S. government explain to us, page
by page, why paragraphs and indeed entire pages are blacked out. National security or personal
impunity? Protection of informers or cover-up of those involved in the disappearance of Father
Carney?
2. We DEMAND that the unexpurgated originals of these documents be reviewed by President
Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the appropriate Senate and House committees,
and a representative group of the 51 members of Congress who signed a letter on May 13 to
President Clinton concerning declassification of documents on Honduras; these officials should
determine whether there is justification for covering up so much of this material. (The
congressional letter urged President Clinton to instruct the relevant agencies to expedite the
declassification and release the documents requested by Honduran Human Rights Commissioner
Dr. Leo Valladares.)
3. We DEMAND that the unexpurgated originals be reviewed by the U.S. Attorney General, the
Honduran Attorney General for Human Rights, and the Honduran Human Rights Commissioner
to determine whether the material may help to find Father Carney's remains and whether it may
help to identify U.S. and Honduran agents or officials (civilian or military) who may have been
responsible for Father Carney's disappearance.
4. In a June 13, 1997 letter to members of Congress, President Clinton stated that the CIA inspector general's report on CIA activities in Honduras "will be shared with the appropriate committees of Congress."
We DEMAND that this report be made public in its entirety and that the documents on which
it is based be shared with the U.S. Attorney General, the Honduran Attorney General for Human
Rights, and the Honduran Human Rights Commissioner.
5. We DEMAND that the U.S. government offer technical assistance to help the human righs officials of the Honduran government find the remains of Father Carney and identify those responsible for his disappearance. In a January 3, 1985 letter to a relative of Father Carney, the CIA public affairs director stated: "the Agency cannot be helpful because it was in no way involved in Father Carney's disappearance." The CIA's statement is both illogical and insufficient.
If Honduran and U.S. authorities marshall their forces to carry out a serious investigation and
an all-out search, Father Carney's remains should be found and identified within a relatively
short time.
***********************************
What do we want?
a. to find the remains of Father Carney in order to give him a Christian burial in Honduras, his beloved country;
b. to find out exactly what happened to him;
c. to identify those guilty of his disappearance and of the cover- up of the disappearance, whether Hondurans or U.S. citizens, whether civilians or military;
d. to charge those responsible for the crime and to bring them to trial in Honduras and/or in the
U.S.
*********************************************
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Comite de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)
BERTHA OLIVA DE NATIVI
Coordinadora General
lorena@cofadeh.sdnhon.org.hn
Tele(fax): (504) 379800
EPICA
1470 Irving St., NW
Washington, DC 20010
Tel: 202/332-0292
Fax: 202/332-1184
Email: epica@igc.apc.org
Web: www.igc.apc.org/epica