April
1999April
1999Announcements
Summary of events in Colombia and Washington, D.C.
Timeline of recent developments in U.S.-Colombia relations
Excerpts from the 1998 U.S. State Department human rights report on Colombia, compiled by Laurie Freeman of the Washington Office on Latin America
A list of new resources including new links to the world wide web
PLEASE NOTE: The U.S./Colombia Coordinating Office is currently producing a calendar of events and activities to promote human rights, peace and justice in Colombia. The calendar will be updated and distributed on a bi-monthly basis. Please send me announcements of advocacy activities (letter writing campaigns, demonstrations), educational events (tours, conferences, seminars, forums, etc.), publications (including website activities), ongoing projects (research and other) in the United States and Colombia. We would like to include information on the sponsoring organization and intended audience, so please include this in the email. The calendar will help many groups in the United States and Colombia focus on proactive planning as well as suggest ideas as to how to coordinate activities. Please title the subject line of the email "Events for calendar". Thank you for your participation.
The Colombian government is scheduled to reconvene preliminary peace negotiations with Colombia's largest insurgent group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), on April 20, 1999. The Peace talks have been stalled since late January, when both sides failed to agree on an agenda or meeting place for future talks. Moreover, the FARC refused to
continue talks until the Colombian government agreed to combat right-wing paramilitary groups, who led an aggressive assault in January 1999, killing more than 140 civilians and threatening human rights defenders and those who work with non-governmental organization throughout Colombia.
Initiatives to get peace talks started with Colombia's second largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), stalled in early February. The ELN asked the Colombian administration to demilitarize a zone in Northern Colombia for the purpose of holding ELN peace talks. The
government demilitarized a region the size of Switzerland in Southern Colombia last December to hold peace talks with the FARC there. The Pastrana administration refused to meet this similar demand by the ELN. No future meetings have been announced.
Following the lull in negotiations, there was speculation that the insurgent groups, particularly the FARC, would use the time to solidify political agendas and bolster military strength. All armed actors have used this uncertain time to demonstrate force and attempt to gain the upper hand in the conflict. Violence has escalated dramatically, increasingly targeting civilians.
On April 12, ELN members hijacked an Avianca plane traveling from Bucaramanga to Bogota with 43 people on board. Ransoms have not been demanded for hostages of hijacked Avianca flight 9463. The ELN may have committed this act as a way to force the Pastrana government to meet its political demands, including the demilitarization of an area in the north.
This hijacking is considered the most dramatic guerrilla action since members of the M-19 guerrilla movement took over the Supreme Court in November 1985. The M-19 laid down their arms in 1990 and are now a political party.
FARC members kidnapped in late February and killed in early March, three U.S. citizens working for indigenous and environmental rights with the U'wa people in northern Colombia. The three U.S. citizens were Ingrid Washinawatok, Terence Freitas, and Lahe'ena'e Gay. Although it is still unclear, it appears that the FARC's top command did not order the killing of the three U.S. citizens leaving a number of unanswered questions, including how the killings will impact peace negotiations.
Carlos Castano, leader of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, Colombia's largest right-wing paramilitary group, has escalated his assault against civilians, human rights defenders, peace activists, international human rights and humanitarian workers, and church-based groups. In early April, paramilitaries attacked Comunidades de Paz, San Jose Apartado and San
Francisco de Asis which are displaced communities that have declared themselves neutral and unwilling to involve themselves with any armed actor. Castano has reissued threats against international workers including international humanitarian workers and those accompanying Colombian human rights defenders. Human rights defenders in Bogota as well as church activists working for peace have been threatened at their homes and work places. Right-wing paramilitary forces are rumored to be preparing a force of 2,500 men to enter the FARC-controlled region demilitarized in the south.
Meanwhile, the Colombian and international press seems to be increasingly skeptical and critical of the preliminary peace negotiations, putting pressure on the Pastrana administration to quickly reach agreement on formal peace talks in what will prove to be a long and difficult process.
Against this backdrop of uncertain preliminary peace negotiations and a deteriorating human rights situation, U.S. policy continues to be contradictory. Some U.S. policy makers have persisted in advocating greater militarization of the conflict. Members of Congress are narrowly focused on the drug war, including Rep. Gilman (R-NY), Sen. Dewine (R-OH), Rep. Burton (R-IN), Rep. Hastert (R-IL) and others have pressured the administration to increase aid to the Colombian police and military.
In October 1998, the U.S. Congress appropriated $280 million dollars to fight the drug war in Colombia.
In December, Defense Secretary Cohen announced U.S. support for the establishment of a joint counter-narcotics battalion with the Colombian Army made up of over 1,000 Colombian soldiers trained and equipped by the United States.
In March 1999, Senator Dewine introduced the Drug Free Century Act (S. 5). If this legislation passes, $1 billion in anti-narcotics aid will go to the Western Hemisphere over the next two years. This package includes further military assistance in addition to the aid already allocated to Colombia.
Yet, at the same time, the U.S. State Department has met with FARC leaders to encourage negotiations, and has issued strong condemnations of the deteriorating human rights situation in Colombia, urging the Colombian government to make progress on human rights.
Below is a timeline of these and other recent events in Colombia.
Three American activists working for indigenous rights with the U'wa people in Northern Colombia are killed after being kidnapped in late February. Their bodies are found in Venezuela, near the Colombian border. The abduction on February 25, was committed in the midst of stalled peace talks between the 34-year-old FARC rebels and the Colombian government. Government and international sources point to the FARC, Colombia's largest guerrilla movement, but no one takes responsibility.
Raúl Reyes, a top FARC commander, neither admitted to nor denied the FARC's role in killing the American activists. He did, however, express his condolences to the people of the United States and expressed his interest in continuing the peace process. The FARC announced its intention to hold an internal investigation into the death of the three kidnapped American activists.
While the U.S. and Colombian governmental officials remained convinced of the culpability of the FARC in the assassination of three American activists based on evidence of intercepted phone conversations, the U.S. press and other U.S. non-governmental groups remained unconvinced. They asserted that the killings were perpetrated by right-wing paramilitaries.
Colombia's largest rebel group, the FARC, admits to kidnapping and murdering the three abducted American activists whose bodies were found just inside Venezuela. A senior FARC commander says the killings were carried out without the approval of FARC superiors.
Colombian military officials discuss a potential aid package to equip a new 1,000 man U.S.-Colombian antidrug battalion. The aid package under consideration included eighteen military helicopters and 78 patrol boats. Aid and equipment to this anti-narcotics battalion is in addition to the $280 million dollars appropriated in the U.S. federal budget in October 1998. Colombia is now the third largest recipient of U.S. military assistance after Israel and Egypt.
Leaders of the paramilitary group, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, issue a public threat in Uraba warning all international personnel to leave Colombia and denouncing non-governmental organizations and peace communities, Comunidades de Paz, in the area.
Fifteen persons are reported massacred in the department of Choco. It is unclear who perpetrated the crimes. The International Red Cross is called in to investigate. This region, once a guerrilla strong-hold, has been taken over by right-wing paramilitaries in recent years.
President Pastrana retired two senior Army generals, General Fernando Millan and General Rito Alejo del Rio, accused of helping to form and support paramilitary groups that commit grave human rights abuses against civilians. Both officers are under investigation and could face criminal charges. Pastrana's initiative follows the urging of Colombian and international human rights groups as well as U.S. government officials and FARC leaders to take steps to professionalize the Colombian military and break its links to paramilitaries. The move may have a positive effect on the stalled peace talks.
Paez Indian leaders expressed discontent to the FARC, military, and government leaders about being drawn into the guerrilla-government conflict with FARC entry into their Ambalo reserve region. FARC's presence and recruitment of teenagers has made the community appear allied with the guerrillas, inviting reprisals.
Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Harold Koh, visits Colombia to attend a U.S.-sponsored peace and human rights conference in Medellin and to meet with President Pastrana. Koh gave very direct statements to the media and Colombian government that in order to achieve peace and democracy it must support the peace process, cut ties to the paramilitaries, address impunity, promote the rule of law, and protect human rights defenders.
Members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) shot down a U.S.-supplied police helicopter injuring nine people, including the regional police chief and two local journalists, in the department of Bolivar. The helicopter was supposedly on an anti-drug mission when hit by the guerrillas.
April 12 Members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) hijack Avianca Airlines Flight 9463. 43 people were on board including passengers and crew and one American citizen. The guerrilla group did not take responsibility. On April 13, six hostages were released to the International Red Cross for reasons of age or illness, including a three-month-old baby, followed by the release of three more hostages on April 15.
President Pastrana refuses to negotiate with ELN rebels who hijacked a Colombian airplane along with over 40 passengers and crew. The ELN may have hijacked the plane to demonstrate its power and try to force President Pastrana to pull security forces out of ELN-controlled territory in northern Colombia in order to hold peace talks as the government has done in the south with FARC guerrillas.
President Pastrana meets with Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez. Chavez reiterates his willingness to support peace negotiations but tells the press that he will not be involved in negotiating the release of hostages taken in the hijacking of Avianca flight 9463.
The National Liberation Army, or ELN, takes responsibility for hijacking flight 9463 and accuse the Colombian military of endangering the lives of the 32 hostages by attacking rebel units near where the hostages are being held.
This timeline was compiled with the help of Alexis Olans, intern at the U.S./Colombia Coordinating Office.
IN LIEU OF AN ANALYSIS, THE FOLLOWING ARE EXCERPTS FROM THE 1998 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE'S HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON COLOMBIA, COMPILED BY LAURIE FREEMAN OF THE WASHINGTON OFFICE ON LATIN AMERICA.
Human rights monitors were subject to a systematic campaign of intimidation, harassment, and violence. [M]any prominent human rights monitors worked under constant fear for their physical safety.
Paramilitary groups and--to a lesser extent--guerrillas attacked unarmed civilians suspected of loyalty to an opposing party in the conflict.
Credible allegations of cooperation with paramilitary groups, including instances of both silent support and direct collaboration by members of the armed forces, in particular the army, continued. There were tacit arrangements between local military commanders and paramilitary groups in some regions, and paramilitary groups operated freely in some areas that were under military control. The authorities assigned two senior officers with links to paramilitary groups to top leadership positions: Brigadier General Rito Alejo del Rio Rojas and Brigadier General Fernando Millan Perez.
On October 18, Vice President Gustavo Bell admitted that despite official policy, "some members of the armed forces have maintained some degree of links to paramilitary groups."
In some locations on a few occasions the army attacked and captured members of illegal paramilitary groups; in others members of the security forces collaborated with such groups, and several general officers were under investigation during the year for arming and sharing intelligence with such groups.
Some local army and police commanders tacitly tolerated--and sometimes aided and abetted--the activities of paramilitary groups&ldots;. At times, individual commanders and troops at local levels armed, coordinated actions with, or shared intelligence with paramilitary groups, although such behavior was less pervasive than in previous years. Some military commanders effectively afforded paramilitary groups protection by allowing them to establish their base camps in areas generally under military control.
In an October 13 ruling, the Attorney General's office "severely reprimanded" four officers and one noncommissioned officer for their roles in establishing, promoting, financing, and fomenting paramilitary groups, and for assisting members of these groups in entering the city of Barrancabermeja for the purpose of committing murder during 1993-94. The activities of these groups caused the deaths of at least 50 persons. Nonetheless, all five remained in uniform and on active duty at year's end.
Paramilitary groups increasingly made use of threats both to intimidate opponents and to raise money. Letters demanding payment of a "war tax" and a threat to mark the victim as a "military target" if he failed to pay were typical. Guerrilla groups also tortured and abused persons&ldots;, made use of threats, both to intimidate opponents and to raise money, and, like the paramilitary groups, sent letters demanding payments of a war tax, along with threats to make persons military targets.
There continued to be incidents of social cleansing--including attacks and killings--directed against individuals deemed socially undesirable, such as drug addicts, prostitutes, transvestites, beggars, and street children. Most of these incidents were attributed to police or paramilitary groups.
Throughout the country, paramilitary groups murdered, tortured, and threatened civilians suspected of sympathizing with guerrillas in an orchestrated campaign to terrorize them into fleeing their homes, thereby depriving guerrillas of civilian support.
Paramilitary groups continued to target and kill judicial and criminal investigative employees for their efforts to enforce the rule of law.
[S]ome paramilitary groups&ldots;are actually the paid private armies of narcotics traffickers or large landowners.
The guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the People's Liberation Army (EPL) continued to commit extrajudicial killings, often targeting noncombatants in a manner similar to that of paramilitary groups.
Kidnaping was an unambiguous, standing policy and major source of revenue for both the FARC and ELN.
[T]he armed forces and the police committed numerous, serious violations of human rights throughout the year.
Torture and abuse often occurred in connection with illegal detentions in the context of counterinsurgency operations.
In June the appellate court of the military judicial system confirmed the June 1997 decision...to exonerate retired General Yanine Diaz of all charges related to formation and activities of paramilitary groups. Yanine Diaz, the highest-ranking military officer ever detained on human rights charges, was first ordered to be arrested in 1996 by the Prosecutor General on various charges, including several related to the 1987 massacre of 19 local merchants in the Magdalena Medio region. Long suspected of being a patron of paramilitary groups, Yanine Diaz was accused of implementing a strategy to have paramilitary groups carry out counterguerrilla activities that the army was prohibited from doing in the Magdalena Medio region in the 1980's. Despite the Government's attempts to bring him to justice in the civilian court system, the military prevailed, continuing the tradition of impunity for all but the lowest-ranking members of the security forces.
In cases where military officers were tried, convicted, and sentenced for human rights violations, they generally did not serve out prison terms and in some cases remained on active military duty.
According to military sources, local commanders typically preferred to transfer or discharge soldiers accused of serious human rights violations, rather than initiate court martial proceedings.
On May 4, more than 200 paramilitary members entered the town of Puerto Alvira, Meta department, and murdered between 12 and 22 local residents whom they suspected of being guerrilla sympathizers or collaborators. A definitive death toll was not available, as the bodies were disposed of in a nearby river. The attackers also destroyed much of the town's infrastructure. At the insistence of the attackers, hundreds of persons subsequently fled from the town. Some of the attackers allegedly identified themselves to town residents as the perpetrators of the 1997 massacre at Mapiripan. United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (ACCU) leader Carlos Castano publicly had declared Puerto Alvira a military objective in September 1997. The human rights Ombudsman criticized the Government for not heeding his January call for protection of the town. The Defense Minister subsequently responded that not enough troops had been available for permanent deployment to protect all threatened towns. A preliminary investigation by the Prosecutor General's office was underway at year's end, but no developments were reported.
On May 16, 40 to 50 heavily armed members of the AUSAC paramilitary organization entered the town of Barrancabermeja, Santander department, and rounded up young adults whom they suspected of sympathizing with the ELN. They killed 11 persons and dumped their bodies in the streets, and kidnapped another 25 persons. On June 3, a court convicted two detained Santander department former mayors, who had been arrested in 1992, of complicity in paramilitary violence. Possibly in retaliation for these convictions, the paramilitary group announced on June 4 that the 25 hostages had been "tried" as guerrilla supporters, "convicted," executed, and their bodies burned. The Prosecutor General's office was investigating 10 army and police members for complicity in the attack at year's end, and 1 of the ten, army Corporal Rodrigo Perez Perez, had been detained on suspicion of having participated directly in the attack. Politically motivated killings and related unrest continued in Barrancabermeja at a very high rate throughout the year. AUSAC paramilitary leader Guillermo Cristancho Acosta, who publicly admitted having ordered the killings, had not been detained at year's end.
AN ESTIMATED 2,000 TO 3,000 CITIZENS DIED IN POLITICAL AND OTHER EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS IN 1998
In cases in which the perpetrator was identified credibly, from January through September 1998:
Government forces responsible for at least 21 extrajudicial killings
(Center for Research and Popular Education, CINEP)
THERE WERE AN ESTIMATED 112 MASSACRES FROM JANUARY THROUGH NOVEMBER 1998 (Permanent Human Rights Committee, CPDH)
SOME 308,000 PERSONS WERE FORCIBLY DISPLACED FROM THEIR HOMES BY VIOLENCE DURING 1998
Government forces responsible for 6 percent
THE TOTAL NUMBER OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED CITIZENS FROM 1995 TO 1998 PROBABLY EXCEEDED 750,000 (Advisory Committee for Human Rights and Displacements, CODHES)
THERE WERE 2,216 KIDNAPINGS IN 1998
1,799 financially motivated
(Pais Libre)
"Human Costs of America's Arms Sales," a documentary by the Center for Defense Information.
The United States is still the world's number one arms dealer and most client countries have bad records on human rights. Governments in Indonesia, Colombia, and Turkey rely on U.S. military weaponry rather than genuine political reform to remain in power. If you would like to purchase a copy, please contact: Center for Defense Information 1-800-234-3334.
Discounted Cost $19.00
"Human Costs of America's Arms Sales," a documentary
by the Center for Defense Information.
The United States is still the world's number one arms dealer and
most client countries have bad records on human rights. Governments
in Indonesia, Colombia, and Turkey rely on U.S. military weaponry
rather than genuine political reform to remain in power. If you would
like to purchase a copy, please contact: Center for Defense
Information 1-800-234-3334. Discounted Cost $19.00.
Colombia Update: "Peace Process: Light at the end of the tunnel?" Winter 1999. Publication of the Colombia Human Rights Committee. To receive a copy, please contact Alison Giffen 202-232-8090, agiffen@igc.org.
"Just the Facts: A Summary of a civilian's guide to U.S. military assistance to Latin America," an International Policy Report of the Center for International Policy. To purchase a copy, please contact Adam Isacson, CIP, 202-232-3317, isacson@ciponline.org.
War Without Quarter: Colombia and International Humanitarian Law
Contact: Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org, or HRW 350 Fifth
Avenue 34th Fl., New York, NY 10118-3299
"Boletin Informativo, Numero 5, Edicion Especial,"
Coordinacion Colombia Europa.
This is the latest update on the activities of the Coordinacion. The
Boletin includes articles on human rights defendors. This issue
focuses on those who have lost their lives.
Contact: Alison Giffen, U.S./Colombia Coordinating Office, tel:
202-232-8090, fax: 202-232-8092 email: agiffen@igc.org
The U.S. State Department released its annual human rights report on Colombia in late February. It can be found in English and Spanish
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States has published its 1999 human rights report on Colombia: http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Colom99en/table%20of%20contents.htm
Human Rights Watch has recently updated its web page to include the 1999 country report: http://www.hrw.org/hrw/worldreport99/americas/colombia.html
For updated information on U.S. security and military assistance to Colombia visit "Just the Facts, a civilian's guide to U.S. defense and security assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean" http://www.ciponline.org/facts
You can also visit the Colombia Support Network's webpage for advocacy activities: http://www.igc.apc.org/csn/
Alison Giffen
Director
U.S./Colombia Coordinating Office
Phone: 202-232-8090
Fax: 202-232-8092
Suite 200 1630 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington D.C. 20009
agiffen@igc.org
