AI is concerned for the safety of over a thousand Guatemalan refugees who returned to Guatemala on 9 December 1993 and for the safety of international human rights observers who accompanied them. The refugees are at present in a temporary encampment in Veracruz, El Quiche. They are not able to move to their former lands in the Ixcan Grande Cooperative because a military garrison is still located there, in breach of a promise made prior to their return to remove the military from the cooperative lands. Some government officials have apparently accused the refugees of involvement with the armed opposition and the international observers have been criticized in the Guatemalan press.
