E/CN.4/2003/90/Add.2 page 7 “[…] The armed confrontation left a large number of children orphaned and abandoned, especially among the Mayan population, who saw their families destroyed and the possibility of living a normal childhood within the norms of their culture lost. “[There was] massive and indiscriminate aggression directed against [indigenous] communities independent of their actual involvement in the guerrilla movement and with a clear indifference to their status as a non-combatant civilian population. The massacres, scorched-earth operations, forced disappearances and executions of Mayan authorities, leaders and spiritual guides were not only an attempt to destroy the social base of the guerrillas, but above all to destroy the cultural values that ensured cohesion and collective action in Mayan communities. “[…] CEH also concludes that the undeniable existence of racism expressed repeatedly by the State as a doctrine of superiority is a basic explanatory factor for the indiscriminate nature and particular brutality with which military operations were carried out against hundreds of Mayan communities in the west and north-west of the country, especially between 1981 and 1983, when more than half the massacres and scorched-earth operations occurred. “A high proportion of the human rights violations known to CEH and committed by the Army of security forces were perpetrated publicly and with extreme brutality, especially in the Mayan communities of the country’s interior.” 9. For the reasons set out above and others indicated in detail in its report, CEH concluded that genocide had been committed against the indigenous peoples of the country. The present human rights situation of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala cannot be understood without reference to this historical background. II. HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 10. At present, indigenous people account for over half the total population of Guatemala, or some 6 million persons.2 The Agreement on Identity and Rights of Indigenous People, signed in 1995, acknowledges that the Guatemalan nation is multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual in nature, and that the indigenous peoples include the Maya, Garífuna and Xinca peoples.3 The latter make up over 75 per cent of the population in 4 of the country’s 21 departments, and between half and three quarters in a further 6 departments. There are areas of high indigenous concentration and others with a mestizo majority. 11. One of the issues of greatest current concern is the close link between ethnic origin and poverty; the departments in which there is the highest concentration of indigenous people are also those which experience the greatest poverty and extreme poverty.4 Those who are poor and destitute in Guatemala live predominantly in the rural areas, engage mainly in farming, are mostly illiterate, have school attendance levels below the national average, have no access to basic services and suffer various degrees of marginalization and social exclusion. Indigenous