Missing Mexican students's kin to approach international fora

Mexico City, Jan 29 (IANS/EFE) Disappointed by what they consider to be an attempt by the Mexican government to prematurely close the investigation into the disappearance of 43 students, the parents of the victims are getting ready to take their fight to international fora.

A delegation of the parents of the students who went missing Sep 26 in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero will travel to Geneva Saturday to lodge a complaint against Mexico with the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.

The spokesperson of the families, Felipe de la Cruz told a local radio channel that the delegation would comprise two parents of victims and a lawyer from the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre.

"We won't take this lying down," said de la Cruz, after the announcement by the Mexican attorney general Tuesday that the evidence and testimony "scientifically" and "fully" proved that all 43 of the students were killed and burnt by members of organised crime groups.

On Wednesday, the families held a press conference to repudiate the official announcement.

"We will not permit them to close the investigations with only the statements of the murderers," added de la Cruz.

Meanwhile, the lawyer representing the students' families, Vidulfo Rosales from the Tlachinollan Centre said that the complaint against the Mexican government before the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances would be made early February.

"Mexico has an international responsibility with regard to human rights and will have to be reviewed by international human rights bodies," he said.

The lawyer said that Attorney General Jesus Murillo's decision to present the conclusions only "a few days" before the arrival of experts from the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) to provide technical assistance in the investigation of the case was a "serious" lapse.

The attorney general's office must carry out an extensive and thorough investigation to "learn the truth about the facts", said Rosales, who attributed the "hurry" to close the case with still many points left to be clarified to political motives.

On Wednesday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights announced that Mexico would be reviewed for the first time by the Committee on Enforced Disappearances in a meeting that would take place in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb 2-13.

The Committee, which monitors the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, will hold a dialogue with a delegation from the Mexican government Feb 2-3.

Meanwhile, IACHR president Luis Raul Gonzalez said Wednesday that the case of the missing students was not a closed file because there was "a lot of action to be taken".

The IACHR considered "the file open and will carry out its own investigation in the field of human rights violations", he stressed.

Acknowledging that there were still many things left to be clarified, Murillo himself said Wednesday that the case was not closed as they were yet to issue six arrest warrants, integrate several investigations and charge officials for the forced disappearance.

--IANS/EFE

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