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Antimilitarists respond to targetting of civilians in Paraguay
Javier Garate
Antimilitarists in Paraguay have expressed concern at recent military operations targeting
predominantly poor, civilian populations and campesina organisations in rural areas.
On 25 March the Moviemiento de Objecion de Conciencia (MoC), Paraguay, issued a statement in which they
called for the punishment of the soldiers responsible for these abuses, adding "We demand that the government stops
wasting resources in these [military] institutions, and instead invest in effective policies to eradicate poverty."
Their comments come in response to current action taken by local military units in the San Pedro region which has
seen M16-wielding soldiers breaking into people's homes, arbitrarily detaining young men, and threatening to prevent local
ownership of land unless military service rules are complied with.
Routine violence
Local groups report that military units have been active in the region for the past eighteen months and state that
political repression of, and violence against, the rural population has become routine. In March two local human rights
activists were threatened by the military during their operations in the San Pedro area.
Last May Amnesty International reported that "members of peasant farmers' organisations and indigenous groups are
subjected to human rights violations in the context of disputes over land and social issues. There were continued reports
of the torture and illtreatment of army conscripts."
MoC Paraguay suggested that these recent episodes reveal the "real aim of the military units", saying that "the
growing militarisation of the countryside, with government control and repression, comes as a consequence of a lack of
real security policies ... We believe that security is about guaranteeing a better quality of life for the people."
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