Updates on Colombia

Some excerpts from the Sept. 5, 2005 edition of Colombia This Week, produced by ABColombia Group:

• In a press statement,human rights NGOs from Antioquia denounce the increase in the number of children forcibly recruited by paramilitaries in the Comuna 13 in Medellin. In the statement, they urge the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights to provide provisional protection measures to the children in the area, adding that the mission of the Organisation of American States present in the city to monitor the demobilisation of the paramilitary groups has largely ignored their concerns.
• Colombian senators and congressmen not only snort cocaine, but are able to buy the drug in the country's Congress building, vice-president of the Senate Edgar Artunduaga has claimed. The accusations were made in a speech drawing attention to lax security on the premises of Congress. "Coming into this Congress we have pastry salesmen, shoe salesmen, astrologists and dealers of marijuana and cocaine”, said Senator Artunduaga. Mr Artunduaga's allegations are likely to lower the image of Congress still further in the eyes of ordinary Colombians. Many see it as a den of corruption following revelations that both drug traffickers and extreme rightwing paramilitaries have managed to buy off large numbers of politicians, The Guardian reports.
• The National Movement of Victims of State-sponsored Crime declare their support for the initiatives to negotiate an exchange of prisoners between the Colombian government and the FARC group.
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The popular perception in Colombia is that the government's peace and justice bill passed in July has allowed brutal paramilitaries to literally get away with murder. Neither peace nor justice has been served by the controversial legislation, say critics. As part of the de-mobilisation, the AUC leadership does not have to surrender its political, economic and drug-trafficking structures. This means more men can easily be hired should the need arise, BBC reports.
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• The Foundation for the Freedom of Press (FLIP) reports that Colombian journalist Alfredo Serrano has left the country. He was formally working for the Radio One station in the city of Barrancabermeja, and moved from the city under threat after denouncing the links between paramilitaries and local officials from the city. FLIP also observes that these threats are nothing new in Barrancabermeja, where various other journalists have been threatened and killed, adding that the oil city is one of the most dangerous places in Colombia for journalists.
• President Uribe personally confirms the latest incursion of the FARC group in the rural area of Valencia (Cordoba), formally a paramilitary controlled area. Initial reports by the communities affected were dismissed by Police General Jorge Daniel Castro who denied the presence of the FARC. The community reports the disappearances of four peasants and the displacement of 400 others by this armed group, El Tiempo reports.
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• Commemorating the UN international awareness day for the forcibly disappeared, the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) describes the Colombian law on justice and peace as an "implicit amnesty" that would result in "impunity". It also expressed alarm over "the lack of reporting of cases of disappearances at national and international levels," which is "largely due to the fear of reprisals by paramilitary armed groups." The WGEID endeavours to establish a channel of communication between the families and the governments concerned, to ensure that individual cases which families have brought to the Group’s attention are investigated with the objective of clarifying the whereabouts of disappeared persons.
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• Bogota-based NGO MINGA (Association for Alternative Social Promotion) reports the disappearance of 30 people in the rural area of El Carmen (Norte de Santander). According to the reports, paramilitaries from the Northern bloc, commanded by Jorge 40, (a negotiator in the talks between the Government and the AUC) carried out an incursion into the area, kidnapping a group of up to 30 people and moving them to the Pailitas municipality in Cesar. Several peasants were killed. Subsequently, some of the group were liberated, but many are still missing. No reports have been made by the authorities in the area. MINGA calls upon the Colombian authorities to find, free and protect the civilians who have been ‘disappeared’.
• An editorial in El Tiempo reports concern about Colombia's economic growth rate after the government released the latest figures. The current 4% growth does not match with the levels of growth in the rest of the Andean region, particularly at a ‘bonanza moment’. Experts have said that with less than 6% growth it will be very difficult for any government to reduce poverty or un-employment levels or to focus on reducing levels of social injustice as the way to promote growth.
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• In a report called: "Colombia-the Paramilitaries in Medellin: Demobilisation or Legalisation?, Amnesty International documents the "demobilisation" of the Bloque Cacique Nutibara - one of the AUC groups- in Medellin, which began to disarm in November 2003. The report found that the "paramilitaries continue to operate as a military force, to kill and threaten human rights defenders and local community activists, to recruit and to act jointly with the security forces." It also noted that "thousands of possible human rights abusers have already benefited from de facto amnesties under the law, while those responsible for backing and funding paramilitarism, including members of the security forces, are unlikely ever to be exposed and brought to justice." But the law asks the paramilitaries for nothing in return - those who refuse to tell the whole truth about human rights violations they have committed are still likely to enjoy all the benefits under the law."
• Members of NGOs met with the Secretary General of the OAS (Organisation of American States), Jose Insulza in the city of Medellin. He was informed about the increasing numbers of intra-urban displacement, forced recruitment and the violation of the cease-fire by paramilitary groups present in the city. According to the NGOs, ‘it is a worrying signal that the only problem he sees is the lack of resources in the field, what we think is that it is the lack of independence of the OAS mission and the failure to respect the victims’, said a member of the lawyer’s collective Corporacion Juridica Libertad.
• In a letter sent to Minister Carolina Barco, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights has ordered the Colombian Foreign Ministry to provide in two weeks a full report about the protection measures implemented by the Colombian government to guarantee the safety of civilians (particularly children) in Comuna 13 in Medellin. The letter expresses concern about the amount of complaints received by local NGOs in which individuals acting on behalf of reportedly demobilised paramilitary groups are actively recruiting children as informants, street vigilantes or prostitutes, El Colombiano reports.