MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Mexico's human rights watchdog said on
                  Wednesday that troops abused the human rights of suspected rebels who were
                  sleeping in a village school in an operation two years ago in which 11 people
                  died.

                  The National Human Rights Commission (CNBV) recommended that the armed
                  forces launch an investigation into the bloodbath, which took place in June 1998
                  when hundreds of soldiers attacked around 15 guerrillas near the village of El
                  Charco, in the southern state of Guerrero.

                  It also urged the military to instruct its members that operations aimed at public
                  security must not infringe human rights, and especially not the rights of
                  indigenous populations, the CNBV said in a statement.

                  The dead were suspected members of the Marxist Popular Revolutionary Army
                  (EPR), or of a later offshoot called the People's Insurgent Revolutionary Army
                  (EPRI). Troops also arrested 27 villagers after the battle.

                  The EPR emerged suddenly in Guerrero state in June 1996 at a rally to
                  commemorate the first anniversary of a massacre at Aguas Blancas, where state
                  agents killed 17 peasant activists. The EPRI appeared on the scene about a year
                  later.

                  The military said at the time that the battle near El Charco, around 170 miles (275
                  km) south of Mexico City, happened after a patrol surprised the rebels sleeping
                  in a school. Rights groups say the size of the military force and the high death
                  count suggested it was a planned operation.

                     Copyright 2000 Reuters.