Mr. President. Victor Perera wrote an alarming article for the Nation magazine last week on the plight of Guatemalan Indian refugees. His account of this tragic persecution is based on personal observations and interviews of refugees in border camps in Chiapas. Mexico. where nearly 100.000 Indians are being kept. Perera graphically described the conditions he witnessed. including starvation. rampant disease. rape. and murder. He estimated that on average three infants die daily and as many as five adults succumb every week because of the lack of food and care. He noted: The picture that emerges from my experiences and from the interviews I conducted is appalling: aside from massacres and the systematic burning of villages. all of the conditions that forced the Indians to flee Guatemala are being reproduced in the camps. "Salt and soap are luxury items." Perera observed. "and at night the moans of starving children drown out the omnipresent jungle sounds." In Pereras opinion. "the Indians I saw in 1982 were better off than those who are refugees today." Mr. President. If Mr.
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