International team to probe conditions in Chiapas

A team of more than two-hundred observers from Europe, Canada and Nicaragua has started a week-long visit to the Mexican state of Chiapas.

The team plans to monitor the state of human rights in Chiapas, where Zapatista rebels began an insurrection four years ago, demanding economic and political emancipation of Indian communes.

The monitors will look into the fate of some eleven-thousand refugees from the fighting between the Zapatistas and the Mexican army.

It will also visit a village where suspected pro-government gunmen killedforty-five pro-rebel Indians last December.

The mission has no official status, but will issue a report which will be made public internationally.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service