From G.SCHNEPEL@GAIA.comlink.apc.orgFri Mar 17 22:20:51 1995 Date: 16 Mar 1995 03:00:26 From: G.SCHNEPEL@GAIA.comlink.apc.org Reply to: "Moderator of conference susag.news" To: Recipients of conference Subject: IFOAM Chiapas Resolution This is from IFOAM International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements D-66636 Theley Germany Please support this resolution. Print it out, add your personal address and signature and send it as a letter or fax to the following adress: His Exellence Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos de Mexico Residencia Oficial de Los Pinos Mexico D.F. MEXICO Declaration to the Mexican Government and to the public opinion in general Your Excellence, as IFOAM, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, representing 500 member organisations from 100 countries all over the world, together in Frankfurt, Germany, for the International Fair of Organic Products, we want to call upon your attention and that of the public in general. As it is of public knowledge the Mexican economy is in a very shaky position since December 1994. This new situation has created and is creating political and social unrest, built upon ongoing imbalance within the Mexican society, which favours a few new rich, without taking consideration of the rights of the masses. In order to regain international and national credibility your Government uses measures of repression against those social groupings which have heen most oppressed: small Indian farmers commmunities and organizations. Whereby human rights are violated. Within this we have to denounce what happened to ISMAM (Indigenas de la Sierra Madre de Motozintla), Chiapas, an organization producing organic coffee which is a member of IFOAM: - the murder of Hipolito Hernandez, member of ISMAM, Motozintla, Chiapas, - the attack on the organizations accountant Reina Diaz de Leon, - the unlawful detention of ISMAM's president We denounce these violations and call on the authorities to clarify the above mentioned cases. We urgently demand the authorities to respect human rights in order to create conditions wherein these rights are honoured and which allow fair and social trade in the world market of the products of the groups affected (as coffee, honey and other organic products). We urge the Government and the leaders of the EZLN (Ejercito Zapatista de la Liberacion Nacional) to begin as soon as possible an honest dialogue on solving social, political and economic issues, as we demand, and create a peace with justice in Chiapas and other Indian areas in Mexico. Yours faithfully, Herve La Prairie IFOAM President Bernward Geier Secretary General of IFOAM Gerd Nickoleit European Fair Trade Association ************************************************************* (Replace or add your address and signature here. Thank you for supporting the resolution; please let us know, when you did so.) Elba Rivera & Gerd Schnepel g.schnepel@gaia.comlink.apc.org 100023.2125@compuserve.com gschnepel@gn.apc.org H_y_p_e_r_B_r_i_e_f_k_a_s_t_e_n