Honduras: Ban renews support for reconciliation moves after last year’s coup

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today assured Honduran President Porfirio Lobo of United Nations support for his efforts to promote the rule of law, protect human rights and fight impunity in the Central American country, which was shaken by the ouster of his predecessor last year.

In a meeting on the margins of the new General Assembly session, the two men discussed the recently established Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by former Guatemalan vice president Eduardo Stein, which Mr. Lobo set up to investigate events leading up to the June 2009 coup which ousted President José Manuel Zelaya seven months before the end of his term.

At the time of its inauguration in May Mr. Ban praised the commission as “an important first step” toward binding the wounds opened by the ouster.

“We encourage all of those in leadership in Honduras to take a sensitive, comprehensive and sustained approach to the task ahead,” he said then. “Truth-telling is a necessary but not sufficient basis for reconciliation.

“Bringing the Honduran nation together will also require sustained efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, promote respect for human rights, and provide social and economic opportunity for all Hondurans.”