Carlos Rodríguez, Associate Director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists
I will cover six points to address the current situation of human rights in Colombia, and conclude with some thoughts about the policies of the Pastrana government. First, Colombia has the worst human rights situation in the western hemisphere. It is a complex situation, but it is not unclear, because responsibilities can be clearly established. Of the 3,500 victims of political and sociopolitical violence every year, approximately 25% result from guerrilla actions and about 75% are due to the actions of paramilitary groups and state agents. In the past three years, this 75% has held steady, but the share of the paramilitary groups has increased, as such acts by state agents have diminished. This is indicative of the nature of Colombia's dirty war. What we have in Colombia is a war of cowards: we who are unarmed are at greater risk of dying by gunfire and being killed than those who are armed. As the war against civilians is spreading, a larger number of human rights abuses can be attributed to paramilitary groups. The rise in special courses and human rights training delivered to the forces of public order may be having a dual effect: greater respect for the life of others, and so a concern not to be seen to be directly involved in abuses, yet also a correlate recourse to "intermediaries" and a dirty war to carry out the killings.
Second, we also have a grave humanitarian crisis in Colombia. None of the groups in confrontation--neither the guerrillas nor the state nor the paramilitary--respect humanitarian law. In the context of an internal armed conflict, humanitarian norms are designed mainly to protect the non-combatant, i.e. the wounded, the sick, the civilian population. Sympathizing with one or another of the factions should not make one a target. Yet in Colombia, we have seen the extermination of the Patriotic Union, a political party founded in 1985 to represent the FARC point of view in the political arena, and which came about from an agreement signed by the FARC and the Colombian government. These were killings of unarmed persons, for merely sympathizing with one side or the other.
Given this history, it is imperative that all sides in the conflict, as their first negotiating point, sign a humanitarian agreement, to be implemented during the negotiations and until the desired peace is achieved, highlighting the protection due all non-combatants, and establishing a verification mechanism that is credible, independent, impartial, experienced, and vested with authority.
Third, Colombia today has a high level of impunity. Official sources vary, citing 98%, 75%, or 68%, but all agree that the level of impunity is alarming; in matters of human rights, impunity is 100%. Since 1988 we have recorded 2,500 cases of forced disappearance. And yet no case has yet to be seen that penalizes a state agent for a forced disappearance. The causes of impunity are many and varied. There is no criminal justice policy, there are shortcomings in the investigative methods, there is a structural weakness in the judicial apparatus, which does not clearly distinguish between the investigative phase and the trial phase.
Yet two causes of impunity are not structural, but deliberate. One is the military criminal code. This cause is different from the others in that it is not the result of a structural weakness that might be fixed, but of a deliberate effort to produce impunity. Military criminal justice is neither independent, nor impartial, nor does it deserve to be called justice if measured against the international standards set out in Article 14 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and at Articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights. I will cite just one example, but this is a form of justice that always results in impunity. In November 1995, citizen Giacomo Turra was detained by a police patrol in the city of Cartagena; one hour later he was dead. A few days later, the Chief of Police, Gen. Serrano, stated that the police were innocent. The day before yesterday, a military court (consejo de guerra) headed by a police official who was the superior of the accused, but also a subordinate of Gen. Serrano, acquitted them of the crime. We have to ask ourselves: Could the opinion of his superior, Gen. Serrano, who had already declared them innocent, have had any influence on that military judge's thinking? Military justice is neither credible nor transparent, and therefore as we face a peace process, we need to provide ourselves with a judicial apparatus that will allow us to prevent impunity in the future and try to overcome the impunity of the past.
A second deliberate element of impunity is the faceless justice system. This is a form of justice that can only be characterized as barbarian. Having judges and witnesses whose identities are kept secret is a form of justice that provides no guarantees. This has been said and repeated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations, the Department of State. Many crimes such as terrorism, narcotrafficking, and rebellion come before these courts; but also, and primarily, it has been used to penalize social protest. Blowing up an airplane is a classic and horrible crime, but the crime of terrorism encompasses everything from exploding a bomb to the peaceful protest of workers seeking better salaries. This justice with no guarantees, instituted to protect judges and prosecutors against retaliation, has not even been effective in attaining this stated goal.
A fourth consideration is the increase in paramilitary activity. These groups were created by the state in 1966, and encouraged, until the horrible massacre of a judicial commission in la Rochela in 1989 when then-president Barco realized the state had created a monster and pronounced them illegal. However, the groups persisted. More recently presidents Gaviria and Samper revived them by creating the CONVIVIR, and the present government has yet to adopt a position on them. The paramilitaries have always had a relationship with state agents. If we take one recent case, such as the May 16 incursion in BarrancabermejaCa city of 300,000 inhabitants, a major oil refinery, site of three military bases and one police station--where a paramilitary group entered and had the run of the city for some two hours, assassinating seven individuals and detaining 25 who remain disappeared to this day, with no policeman or soldier or any other military agent creating any trouble for the operation, even though the group and their trucks had to pass near military installations and there were gunshots that could have been heard. The question begs itself: Could there be complicity? Where were the soldiers and police? We have asked for an investigation, but one that is credible, independent, and impartial.
The fifth key feature of the Colombian situation is forced displacement. The total is one million displaced people--with nongovernmental organizations reporting 148,200 new displaced thus far this year, 350,000 in 1997, and 180,000 in 1996. Displacement violates an array of rights, including the right to work, to adequate housing, to education, to health, to food, and even the right to choose where to live in the national territory. The massive displacement of the recent year and a half can generally be attributed to the confrontation between armed groups, and primarily to paramilitary activity. Therefore, addressing the paramilitary problem also addresses the causes of displacement.
The attacks on human rights defenders is a sixth element, which will be addressed by my colleague Jael Quiroga. Let me simply say that ours is risky work in Colombia, risky for ourselves and for our families. But it is our wish and our decision to live in Colombia and exercise our profession there, and for this we demand that the state give us guarantees to enable us to stay.
As to President Pastrana's human rights policy: President Pastrana has been elected with great legitimacy and is recognized by the entire international community. He has been a guest of President Clinton, and the president of the Spanish government, Mr. Aznar, has already paid a visit--neither of which occurred with former President Samper. This means that President Pastrana is in a position to take certain measures with respect to human rights and he would likely have the support of the international community. However, to date, the government of President Pastrana has made pronouncements on the economy and on peace, but has made no statement about a policy on human rights.
There are some signs, however, that suggest that he might take the wrong path. General Millán, responsible for the brigade in Bucaramanga, was under investigation by the Attorney General's office for creating paramilitary groups. Gen. Millán requested a postponement in the matter. In the meantime, his superior, the army commander, requested that the investigation be turned over to him, as he considers paramilitary activity not a common crime but a military crime. We human rights groups asked the president to order a retraction from his subordinate, the Commander of the Army, calling on him to acknowledge the error and to state that the military courts do not have jurisdiction to judge the case, because paramilitary activity is a common crime. In so doing we are asking nothing extraordinary of President Pastrana, merely that he state a position congruent with what has been established by the Colombian Constitutional Court, which is the highest court in the land. We feel that to not comply with a judicial order constitutes a breach of the rule of law. Well, we have had no response from the president, he did not do as we requested, and a decision made yesterday is sending the case to the military criminal courts, with which, we feel, impunity is guaranteed.
In brief, we believe President Pastrana, in the area of human rights, should comply with international recommendations. There have been many assessments from both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations on the human rights situation and on what needs to be done. Forced disappearance needs to be criminalized. There needs to be a reform to the military justice system so that it does not take jurisdiction over violations of human rights. There needs to be a vetting of the forces of order of the state to remove from their ranks anyone with ties to paramilitary groups. The regional justice system needs to be abolished because it is a justice system with no guarantees. These recommendations have been made repeatedly since 1988 by all the international mechanisms for the protection of human rights. We believe this is the policy that should be embraced by President Pastrana. Most important, we believe this to be the sure path to peace.