AFP
September 12, 2001

PUEBLA, Chiapas -- A Chiapas bishop asked the Tzotzile indigenous community in Los Altos de Chiapas to stop buying arms and to "bury" the ones they already have. In a religious ceremony held Saturday, San Cristobol bishop Felipe Arizmendi urged people "to end all attacks, to end the purchase of arms."

The only weapons the area needs -- located near the site of the 1997 Acteal massacre of 45 indigenous people by a local paramilitary group -- are "prayer, the word of God, love, faith, and fraternity," said the bishop.

Arizmendi spoke to an isolated community in the Chenalho' municipality, home to thousands of displaced indigenous people, many of whom support the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).

"What we need is unity, we must ignore religious and political differences," said Arizmendi. "We need to include the word of God in the peace process, we must unite in prayer."

Along with religious leaders from other faiths, the bishop held the ceremony in the region of Puebla in Chiapas to welcome the nine families -- a total of 333 people -- who returned to the area after being forced to leave after the 1997 massacre.

Puebla is an isolated community of 220 families that strongly support Mexico's former ruling party the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

The families that have recently returned to the area, members of the Las Abejas social organization, which holds strong links to the San Cristobal diocese, participated in the ceremony, along with the inhabitants of Puebla. The Zapatista followers refused to participate, arguing their safety cannot be guaranteed under the current political conditions.

Local Zapatista leader, Lorenzo Gutie'rrez Go'mez, told reporters no problems had been reported among the indigenous people who returned to the Puebla.

"We want peace and reconciliation, we do not want the events of the past -- murder and violence -- to happen again," he said.