CRC Travels to Honduras

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> CRC Travels to Honduras

> Story Three

February 16, 2011 ? The death threat came at the
end of work day this January in a text message
sent to the Association for a More Just Society human rights attorney.

The text told the lawyer to "stop sticking your nose where you shouldn't  ?"

Two other attorneys had received similar threats
in weeks previous and one had been kidnapped for
a few hours and pointedly threatened. Scary as
this is, such threats have been for AJS part of
the process of doing God?s work of justice in the world.

An example of the difficulties: In 2006, gunmen
riding a motorcycle shot and killed an AJS
attorney as he was driving in his pick-up truck
on the way to court. This murder was the first
time in years that a human rights advocate had
been murdered in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Many
people witnessed the killing, but few were
willing to testify to what they had seen.

Writing about the most recent threats, Abe Huyser
Honig, operations manager for AJS, says: "We are
concerned that these threats are continuing, and
hope Honduras' Attorney General's Office will act
swiftly to identify those responsible for the threats.

"We do feel good about the fact that we now have
very good security measures in place, including
more bodyguards, better security cameras, and a
new full-time coordinator of security?thanks in
large part to generous donations given by eight CRC congregations this wint er."

In many ways, the killing of the AJS attorney,
Dionisio Diaz Garcia, drew international
attention to AJS and highlighted for many
churches and human rights organizations the
difficult and sometimes frightening work that the
group, which is supported by the Christian Reformed Church, had been doing.

"At times we are afraid," says Kurt Ver Beek, the
co-founder of AJS and a Calvin College sociology
professor who had worked previously for the
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee.

"Several days after Dionisio was killed, I was
also followed by people on a motorcycle who were
trying to kill me," says Carlos Hernandez, who,
along with Ver Beek and others, founded and helps run AJS.

Later, after Hernandez told others what had

happened, one person said: "That's ridiculous.
They want to kill you for doing good."

Indeed, that is what was happening. The

organization that Ver Beek and Hernadnez helped
to found does involve itself in a range of cases,
involving labor rights, land rights, and peace
and justice, which sometimes means helping police
find criminals and put them behind bars for their crimes.

For their efforts, AJS has won praise from

organizations worldwide, but they have also run
into serious security problems. Clearly, say
supporters of AJS, some of the work touches raw
nerves, causing violent reactions.

"Even though it gets scary sometimes, we have to
keep going. God gives us the strength to keep
going," says Ver Beek. "We feel called to be
doing what we?re doing. It feels like we are where we?re supposed to be ."

Of all the social justice work in which they are
engaged, labor rights are often the most
difficult and the most dangerous, largely because
in these instances they are seeking justice for
the poor who have been in one way or another exploited by the well-to-do.

"We're trying to do the heavy lifting, and we?re
going to keep getting threats because, in some
cases, we are taking on the pocketbooks of people," says Ver Beek.

Diaz had been working on a case involving

security guards who had been forced to put in
excruciatingly long hours for little pay by
several private security companies, including a
company called SETECH, one of the largest
employers of security guards in the country.

"There are over 200 private security companies in
Honduras employing some 40,000 security guards.
They are, for the most part, unregulated.
Security guards are among the worst-paid and
worst-treated employees in the formal sector of
the Honduran labor market," according to information on the AJS website.

Thanks to Díaz's efforts AJS succeeded in opening
dialogs with the owners of several of security
companies. But this was not the case with the
companies Delta Security Services and Service y
Seguridad Técnica de Honduras (SETECH).

Both of these companies refused to cooperate. But
Díaz pressed on with his legal actions, until he was killed in December 2 006.

The assassination drew a widespread outcry for
the Honduran Government to investigate the case
and bring the killers to justice. The Christian
Reformed Church was among the many groups that
wrote letters, calling attention to the case and
asking for legal authorities to take action.

"We were extremely gratified that the prosecutors
were able to bring at least part of that case to
a conclusion," said Peter Vander Meulen, director
of the CRC?s Office of Social Justice.

> After much effort, the alleged killers were
> brought to trial and eventually convicted.

While the assassins were caught are now in

prison, the actual "intellectual authors" of the
case, have not been brought to justice.

In the case involving the "intellectual authors"
in the killing of Dionisio, legal history would
be made in Honduras if these people are brought
to trial and convicted. Rarely have high-ranking
people who have masterminded and paid for a
murder ever been brought to court, let alone
convicted of being involved in a case such as this.

Ver Beek attended a court session last year at
which owners of the security firm SETECH were to
appear. Although Ver Beek hoped SETECH would be
punished in some way for failing to show up, the judge continued the case.

As he walked away from court, he saw it as a
minor victory that the security company officials
didn?t appear. But he also realized that there
was still much work ? that in many ways is
informed by and arises out of their Christian faith -- to be done.

"We believe that to be Christian is to promote
justice by making the government work properly,"
says Ver Beek. "But we don't take an antagonistic
approach. We work alongside the prosecutors and
the police. We don't need to be best friends with
the government, but we do need to be respected."

Ver Beek says he is inspired by the Bible verse 1
John: 4:18. ?There is no fear in love, but
perfect love drives out fear.? This often means
relying heavily on the love Christ has for his
people as they go about their business.

"We see ourselves as being brave Christians

dedicated to making Honduras? system of laws and
government work properly," says Hernandez,
formerly board chair of AJS and for many years an
activist and educator in the poverty-stricken,
crime-ridden Tegucigalpa neighborhood of Nueva Suyapa.

Being brave and being Christian are not

necessarily words that commonly go together.
Often, says Ver Beek, when we think of Jesus, we
think of Christ who told people to turn the other
cheek when they are being abused. But then there
is the Christ who used whips to chase the money changers out of the temple.

Being brave is not easy, and sometimes taking on
powerful interests ? as in the case of the ones
who paid to have Dionisio executed ? is very dangerous.

With so many death threats and then the

kidnapping in the recent case, AJS is proceeding
very carefully. It has an intricate security
system in place, including body guards supplied
by the government to AJS workers.

AJS officials say they believe that true social
justice means challenging those who are in the
highest echelons of power and are oppressing the poor.

Officials for the Attorney General?s Office say
that lawyers for AJS have often done
investigations and located witnesses who are
willing to testify in cases. They say that they
feel confident that when they are faced with
tough cases, they can call up AJS to help out.
Cases have ranged from murders, robberies and
rapes to child trafficking to abuse at a home for elderly people.

AJS, in the end, is a social justice organization
unlike many other Christian groups doing relief,
evangelistic and development work in parts of the
world. Spurred by the Christian faith, the group
? despite the dangers ? take seriously the words
of Paul, in Chapter 13 of his letter to the
Romans, in which he makes the point that God says
government is his servant, to which people are to
give respect, but government also has responsibilities.

"The implicit assumption in everything that AJS
does is that it is the task of government to
establish justice by instituting a system of just
laws, by enforcing those laws and by securing
justice when those laws are violated," writes
Nicholas  Wolterstorff, a retired philosopher
from Yale University, in the July 27, 2010 issue of Christian Century.

"Given this assumption, AJS does three things :
it stands alongside the victims and defends their
cause, it holds government officials responsible
for enforcing the laws and finding and punishing
violators, and it assists the officials in
carrying out this task." For more information on
the case involving Dionisio Diaz Garcia, visit: Dionisio

> ?by Chris Meehan, CRC Communications

> --
> Chris Meehan
> News & Media Manager
> Christian Reformed Church in North America
> 1-616-224-0849