Children missing in Guatemalan civil war reunited with parents
Thousands of children are believed to have been kidnapped or given out
for
adoption during the 36-year civil war, in which 200,000 Guatemalans and
died and
which ended with 1996 peace accords.
At least 5,000 remain missing, and several activist groups are trying to
reunite
families.
"The search for children who disappeared is beginning to yield fruit,"
said Marco
Garavito, director of the civic group All Together for Search and Reunion.
Eight-year-old Jose Cedillo Raymundo got separated from his family in 1982
when
the members of his village fled advancing army troops.
But in August, with the help of the government's National Commission on
the
Search for The Missing, Jose was found living with an adoptive family near
his
home town of Ixchil, in central Guatemala.
On November 11, Jose with reunited with his mother, Feliciana, in the Quiche
Maya Indian town of Nebaj, about 75 miles (120 kms) northwest of Guatemala
City.
"They held a traditional Maya ceremony of asking forgiveness," said Garavito,
"At
the end , Jose approached his mother, showed her his newborn daughter and
the
two of them broke into tears and hugged each other," Garavito said.
Julia Choc Lopez, a Quiche Indian, was five years old when she was snatched
in
1982 in the village of Uspatan by a paramilitary patrol participating in
a government
counterinsurgency campaign against leftist rebels.
One of the patrol members adopted her into his Kekchi family. But last
month, Julia
met her real father for the first time: Tomas Choc, 54.
In 2000, 2000, Tomas Choc went to authorities looking for his daughter,
and on
October 28, they finally met.
"We have to do this, to heal the deep wounds caused by the war," Garavito said.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.