Observers: Ecuador's Truth Commission languishing due to lack of funds

Published: 2007-07-27

LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Observers have expressed concern that the Truth Commission to investigate human rights violations in Ecuador over the past 27 years is languishing due to a lack of government funding. The commission, appointed by President Rafael Correa in May, is getting lost amid preparations for Sept. 30 assembly elections to determine who will rewritie the country's constitution, observers said. The past several months have been marked by political battles between the president and opponents in Congress over plans for the assembly. "This is a delicate political moment, and it's a complex situation," said Maryknoll Sister Elsie Monge, a commission member who heads the independent Ecumenical Human Rights Commission in Quito. Once the commission receives funding and an office, it will have nine months to complete its investigations, with the possibility of a three-month extension, said Sister Elsie. She added that an earlier truth commission established in Ecuador in 1996 lasted just a couple of months before fading away because of lack of funding.

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