by Allanah Leahy –EM TV World News
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Jordan Prince, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein called for soldiers in Mexico to answer to the disappearance of 43 students.
The students disappeared in Mexico’s south-western city of Iguala in September last year, but international experts have since described government investigations as deeply flawed.
Previous investigations into the mass disappearance of 43 male students only came up with more questions, including why access to the soldiers allegedly present at the time of the disappearance, has been denied.
A recommendation to investigate these soldiers was put forward by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, or IGIE, but was rejected by Mexico’s Defence Minister, Salvador Cienfuegos.
“It is important that the government acts decisively on the IGIE’s recommendations, including its insistence that the authorities reverse their decision not to allow experts to interview members of the 27th infantry battalion, who were allegedly present on the scene when some of the attacks took place,” said Prince al-Hussein.
The Mexican government said boys, from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, were almost certainly dead, after clashing with corrupt police officers who handed them over to a local drug gang. 80 suspects have been arrested over the disappearance, 44 of which were policemen.
Gang violence in Mexico has resulted in around 100,000 deaths since 2007. Prince al-Hussein said many other issues continue to plague Mexican society.
“Many of the issues raised by my predecessor four years ago remain of concern and many of the people I have spoken to painted a very bleak and consistent picture of a society that is wracked by high levels of insecurity, disappearances and killings, continuing harassment of human rights defenders and journalists, violence against women and terribly abuses of migrants and refugees transiting the country on their way to the United States,” said the high commissioner.
Prince al-Hussein it is not an option for a great country like Mexico to ignore abysmal human rights records, and urged politicians and officials for better protection of its citizens, as well as migrants and refugees.
