Honduras interim gov't: OAS mission won't be fair

Honduras' coup-installed government said it does not expect to be judged fairly by an international panel that arrived Monday to investigate allegations of human rights abuses.

The visit by Inter-American Commission of Human Rights monitors comes a week after the interim government charged 24 supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya with sedition in an intensifying crackdown on protests that have sometimes turned violent.

Interim Deputy Foreign Minister Martha Alvarado said the government expects a biased assessment from the panel because it is a branch of the Organization of American Sttes, which has condemned the June 28 coup and is demanding Zelaya's reinstatement.

"We must be very careful not to have great expectation of their reports," Alvarado said at a news conference. "We have great reservations."

The monitors met Monday with members of the Supreme Court and will spend a eek meeting with other officials and civic organizations. The OAS also plans to send a delegation of foreign ministers from Western Hemisphere countries later this week in a bid to revive negotiations to end the crisis.

The interim government has arrested more than 100 pro-Zelaya protesters, warning it wil no longer tolerate street blockades and other disruptions. Most of those detained have been released, though two dozen were charged with sedition and damage to public property after violent protests.

Pro-Zelaya television and radio stations have complained about being yanked off the air in the days immeditely following the coup. Soldiers also briefly arrested several foreign journalists the day after the coup, including four from The Associated Press.

There also have been several attacks on media outlets that have been friendly to the interim government. Unknown assailants threw molotov cocktails at the offices of the newspaper El Heraldo early Saturday, setting fire to the entrance. Nobody was hurt.

Some 2,000 Zelaya supporters took to the streets Monday, marching peacefully through the capital with the ousted president's wife Xiomara Castro in the lead.

"The people will keep demonstrating. Hondurans have woken up," Castro said.

Interim President Roberto Micheletti has resisted weeks of diplomatic isolation and the suspension of millions of dollars in U.S. and European aid.

Although soldiers flew Zelaya into exile at gunpoint, Micheletti insists Congress legally removed the president from office for defying court orders that he drop efforts to change Honduras' constitution. Zelaya's opponents accuse him of intending to extend his rule by abolishing a ban on presidential re-elections, an allegation the ousted leader denies.

A delegation from the Micheletti government traveled to Washington on Monday, the second such trip by Honduran officials in a week.

"We will have private meetings - not secret ones - with everyone who is accredited by the OAS to try to make them understand what happened in Honduras, where the constitution and laws were respected," said Arturo Corrales of the negotiating team.