WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Several Christian leaders in the United States are calling on the current government of Honduras to restore civil liberties suspended in an escalating political crisis in the Central American nation.

The heads of several Protestant and Catholic social-justice organizations joined other American religious leaders in calling on the government of de facto President Roberto Micheletti to restore civil liberties curtailed with a Sept. 26 decree.

“We are greatly concerned about the Micheletti government’s decision to suspend constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties,” said a Sept. 28 statement under the auspices of the Latin America Working Group.

The statement also voiced concerns about violations of human rights and freedom of expression since President Manuel Zelaya returned to Honduras on Sept. 21.

The leaders called on the government "to immediately cease excessive use of force by police and military directed at peaceful protestors; arbitrary detentions; and harassment, surveillance and attacks against human rights defenders." They also objected to restrictions on freedom of expression and "actions to cut off power to, occupy and close media outlets.”

Signers of the statement included representatives of the United Church of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and several Catholic organizations.

Zelaya was ousted June 28 in a bloodless coup by Micheletti supporters, who argued that the president was attempting to change the Honduran Constitution to allow himself another term in office. Presidential elections in Honduras are currently scheduled for late November. The United States and most other governments in the Western Hemisphere have denounced Micheletti’s action as an unlawful seizure of power from a duly-elected government.

Zelaya, who had been in exile in neighboring Costa Rica since he was forced out of office at gunpoint, returned to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa Sept. 21. He has been holed up in the Brazilian Embassy there.

Zelaya’s return and attendant demonstrations caused Micheletti to issue a Sept. 26 decree suspending or abridging many core civil liberties, including the freedom of the press, the right to assemble and due-process rights.

Micheletti shut down newspapers and broadcasters he deemed pro-Zelaya, although he backed off of some of those closures Sept. 26 after an international outcry. However, as of Oct. 1, news reports continued to indicate ongoing civil-liberties violations in Tegucigalpa and elsewhere in Honduras.

The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, an organization of Catholic nuns, also issued a report Sept. 28 echoing the Latin America Working Group’s letter. It was based on the findings of a five-member Sisters of Mercy delegation who visited the nation Aug. 18-25.

“We heard multiple reports of horrific human rights violations inflicted by Honduran military and police forces upon ordinary people peacefully exercising basic rights guaranteed by the Honduran Constitution and the [U.N.] Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the report said. “These abuses, including beatings, rape, harassment and intimidation, arbitrary arrest, disappearances and even death, were well documented by the Honduran Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared (COFADEH) and in recent reports from Amnesty International and by the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission, also present in Honduras while we were there.”

The Sisters of Mercy noted the coup and subsequent unrest had revealed deep divisions in the nation’s Catholic community, as well as divisions between anti-coup Catholics and evangelical supporters of the coup.

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This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.

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