MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The Mexican attorney general's office announced the
                  creation of a special unit to investigate armed civilian groups in Chiapas similar
                  to, but not including the one blamed for the massacre of 45 indigenous people in
                  1997.

                  The unit will not investigate the Zapatista rebel group that staged a brief uprising
                  in 1994 in the name of Indian rights, Jose Luis Ramos, a prosecutor with the
                  attorney general's office, said Monday. Other officials already are in charge of
                  monitoring the Zapatistas.

                  The new entity will replace a special division of the attorney general's office that
                  has concluded its investigation into the 1997 massacre of 45 Indians in the
                  Chiapas village of Acteal.

                  Although the investigation is complete, authorities continue to receive complaints
                  about the presence of armed civilian groups in Chiapas.

                  Citizens and nongovernmental organizations have complained that the armed
                  groups are, in fact, paramilitary, pro-government groups trying to quell guerrilla
                  activity and restrain rebel supporters.

                  The government has insisted it has no link to the armed groups and has moved to
                  prosecute individuals possessing weapons that are prohibited for non-military
                  use.

                  "The idea of the new unit is to attack the historical factors that have provoked
                  confrontations in the state," including ideological and religious differences and
                  land-ownership disputes, Ramos said.

                  Since the 1994 Zapatista uprising, scores of people have been killed in clashes
                  between rebels or rebel supporters and armed, pro-government squads. Peace
                  talks between the rebels and the government are at a stalemate.

                  On December 22, 1997, an armed group gunned down 21 women, 15 children
                  and nine men in Acteal, a village in Chiapas that was sympathetic to the Zapatista
                  rebels.

                  The perpetrators were Indians from neighboring villages who supported the
                  ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and allegedly received some of their
                  weapons from the Mexican army and police.

                  All together, 102 people -- including the soldiers and policemen accused of aiding
                  the killers or failing to stop the massacre -- have been arrested. At least 20 of the
                  alleged perpetrators were sentenced to 35 years in prison.

                  But residents also have alleged that 87 Indians were falsely accused of
                  participating in the massacre. And on February 18, Asma Jahangir, the U.N.
                  expert on summary and arbitrary executions, said authorities handling the case
                  were guilty of "serious omissions and neglect."

                   Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.