Support Letter to Protect Human Rights In ColombiaSince, 2000, the United States Congress has required the Secretary of State to certify that Colombia is making progress on a number of human rights criteria before U.S. security assistance can be disbursed. At present, the law requires that “certification” apply to the last 25 percent of U.S. security assistance to Colombia (approximately $70-80 million). Two such certifications generally occur annually covering approximately 12.5 percent of the security assistance. The criteria used to judge Colombia’s human rights practices include:
In recent years various communities located in the Urabá region of Northwestern Colombia have reported on going and serious human rights violations by the 17th Brigade of the Colombian Armed Forces functioning in the region. Civilians in these conflict zones have increasingly been drawn into the conflict against their will as guerrilla, government forces, and paramilitaries demand their support and collaboration. Giving support to one side in the hostilities, however unwillingly, is frequently followed by reprisals from the other side. To ensure that they can stand aside from the conflict, some communities have organized themselves in recent years to demand that the parties to the conflict respect their right not to take sides. The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó was formed in 1997 for those exact reasons and after various attacks against its civilian population. Despite the over 160 killings that have taken place in the community since 1997, armed groups implicated in the cases have enjoyed virtual impunity. For example, a recent report from the community in December 2005 recounted how paramilitaries approached a member of the peace community at the bus terminal in the municipal capital of Apartadó, saying, “I want to warn you because I knew you years ago, you and your family should leave San Josesito because at the end of the year we are planning an incursion to carry out a massacre. . . we are negotiating with the police and army so that they are not implicated and we can enter and leave freely. . .” San Josesito is the name of the displacement camp that the civilian population displaced to after the Colombian government set up a police post in the village center of San José de Apartadó in April 2005 causing widespread fear of a retaliatory attack by the FARC, Colombia’s oldest guerrilla group. Despite the police presence, 2 peace community leaders have been killed in the region since the February 2005 massacre. Likewise, numerous Afro-descendant communities such as the Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basins located off the Atrato River have sought to secure title over land on which their communities have lived for many years. Despite securing land titles these communities have received repeated death threats from paramilitaries and the security forces. Soldiers of the 17th Brigade have reportedly warned communities to expect paramilitary raids and paramilitaries have attempted to force the Afro-descendants to grow African Palm plantations, a cash crop used in products ranging from cooking oil to soap and one that destroys the earth’s capacity to cultivate other crops. On October 24, 2005 the body of Orlando Valencia, who was standing for election to be a legal representative for one of the Afro-descendant communities in the department of Chocó, was found. He had reportedly been abducted by army-backed paramilitaries on 15 October and had been shot in the forehead. According to forensic investigations of the body, Orlando had probably been killed and thrown into the river by the paramilitaries who abducted him several days before his body was found. According to recent reports, in January and February of 2006 paramilitary groups operating around the Cacarica River Basin of the Rio Sucio in Chocó made various threats towards the Zona Humanitaria Nueva Vida , New Life Humanitarian Zone of the River Basin. The Zona Humanitaria Nueva Vida is one of two civilian communities set up by local people as a means of asserting their right as civilians not to be drawn into the ongoing conflict. Reports suggest that raids on the humanitarian zones would probably be launched from a paramilitary base known to be in existence in the La Balsa area of the Cacarica River Basin. In recent years Amnesty International has received numerous reports of the presence of this paramilitary base. Its presence has repeatedly been reported to the authorities. However, no action appears to have been taken by the security forces to confront these paramilitaries. The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó and the communities of the Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basins have been issued “Provisional Measures” by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) calling on the Colombian authorities to guarantee the safety of these communities. Read more about the human rights situation in Colombia. » |
1. Colombia’s armed forces are suspending members who have been alleged to have committed human rights violations.