E/CN.4/2003/90/Add.2 page 11 misappropriation of communal and public land in various regions. This phenomenon was reported to be particularly acute in the area known as the Northern Transversal Strip, one of the main areas of confrontation during the armed conflict, from which many indigenous communities were displaced and where large estates were formed which are currently owned by former members of the armed forces. The Special Rapporteur has received many complaints on this matter. 24. The picture set out above is exacerbated by the fact that the laws and institutions for land titling, property registration and maintenance of the register of agricultural land are inadequate and ineffective, giving rise to a high level of legal uncertainty and many conflicts relating to boundaries and land tenure. 25. The Agreement on Identity and Rights mentions the need to guarantee the land rights of the indigenous peoples, including: regularization of the land tenure of the indigenous communities; recognition and guaranteeing of the rights of indigenous people to use and administer their land and resources; restitution of communal land and compensation for dispossession; acquisition of land for the development of the indigenous communities; and legal protection for the rights of indigenous communities (sect. IV, F). MINUGUA has pointed out that all these commitments had to be rescheduled owing to lack of compliance.16 Various Xinca communities in the department of Santa Rosa presented documentation to the Special Rapporteur concerning action allegedly taken by landowners with the support of local municipal authorities to dispossess them of their communal land. The indigenous peoples from the north, east and north-east of Guatemala, meeting in El Estor, Izabal, gave the Special Rapporteur a report describing the present situation, noting that “land tenure and the conflicts arising from it constitute one of the most important current issues in the departments of Alta Verapaz, Petén, Chiquimula and Izabal, in particular because they give rise to serious social conflicts. The conflict stems not only from the shortage of land and lack of access to land for thousands of families, but, fundamentally, from the unreliability of the judicial system and the fact that it is almost impossible to authenticate, register or regularize land tenure status”. 26. The situation of land and forests belonging to indigenous communities which were not regularized at the proper time is particularly critical. These areas were affected during the armed conflict by such factors as the breakdown of forms of indigenous social organization and the fact that the traditional indigenous authorities lost the ability to conserve them, regulate their use and resolve conflicts among community members and between them and third parties. In contrast, the landowners, protected by various laws and by the State authorities, took possession of indigenous land, and these and other attacks damaged and weakened the organic indigenous structure of many communities, as the CEH report has pointed out. The mechanisms used to expropriate the land of indigenous communities enjoy protection based on confused and inadequate legislation, which always results in punishment for a problem which is of social