[NYTr] Colombia: The Unforgiveable (NarcoNews)
 
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:40:04 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
NarcoNews - Nov 19, 2007
http://www.narconews.com/Issue47/article2884.html

The Unforgivable

As Colombiabs Uribe Lobbies the U.S. Congress for a Free Trade
Agreement, Attacks on Human Rights Defenders and Rural Communities Are
Increasing

By Laura Del Castillo
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

On November 10, Hillary Clinton expressed her opposition to the U.S.
signing a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, because, she said, the
history of violence against union leaders in that country concerns her.

Immediately, President Uribe threw a fit in front of the media, saying
that Clintonbs statements represented ban unforgivable lack of
understanding toward Colombia.b Uribe was convinced that he had the
Democratic party nearly in the palm of his hand after several of its
members were so delighted by the latest fantasy tour through Colombia
that the president (along with U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M.
GutiC)rrez) had organized for them, to demonstrate the bprogressb the
government has made on reducing violence.

To Uribe, just as unforgivable as Clintonbs words are the unionists who
keep holding their firm position against the Free Trade Agreement
(FTA), and the non-governmental organizations and human rights
activists who dare to denounce the crimes committed by the military and
financed by Plan Colombia, or the farce of the paramilitary
bdemobilization.b

Of course, a government that seems stuck in the middle ages, led by a
president that treats the country as his own personal fiefdom, has the
luxury of turning a blind eye when those bunforgivableb people are
threatened, attacked or murdered (unless they can somehow be silenced,
as in the case of the leaders of the Peasant-Farmer Association of the
Cimitarra River Valley, or ACVC, who are currently imprisoned).

The developments described below show that the efforts to show a better
image of the country b where bviolence has been reduced and human
rights are respectedb b seem to go hand in hand with impunity.

The Internal Enemies

Just earlier this month, unidentified men entered the offices of the
human rights group Reiniciar (Spanish for bstarting overb). Once
inside, they removed information from the computers, stole money and
took a case file for a forced disappearance the organization was
working on.

Reiniciar is an organization that works mostly through the legal
system, and since 1993 has been working the case of the infamous
bgenocideb of the Patriotic Union. More than 5,000 members and supports
of that left-wing party (which came out of the 1984 peace talks between
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the
government) were assassinated throughout the country beginning in 1986.
Virtually the entire party was wiped out, and during Uribebs two terms
the survivors and families of the victims that Reiniciar and other
groups support have been targeted as well.

These crimes b murder, forced disappearance, torture, displacement and
threats b were orchestrated from the highest circles of the countrybs
political elite, and carried out by members of the Colombian Army
working with rightwing paramilitary groups. For that reason, Reiniciar
has denounced the Colombian state for its responsibility in this
massacre to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Since 1997, when the case was heard, the IACHR has demanded that
Colombiabs government recognize its responsibility in these crimes,
provide reparation to their victims, and, of course, punish their
authors.

Because of this work, the organization has been a victim of constant
threats and attacks from paramilitary groups, which enjoy support from
certain sectors of the army and police, since its founding. Reports of
these attacks presented along with overwhelming evidence led the IACHR
to demand that the Colombian government provide Reiniciar with
heightened levels of protection. But given these latest events, it
would seem that this government-provided protection is ineffective and
merely a distraction.

In fact, Yolanda Becerra, director of the Popular Feminine Organization
(OFP in its Spanish initials), an organization that also counts with
these bprotective measuresb provided by the state, can attest to their
effectiveness. In the same week as the violent incursion into
Reiniciarbs offices, two men forced their way into her apartment.
bHijoeputa,b (bchild of a whoreb), they yelled at her while holding her
at gunpoint in her own home. bThe storybs over for you, you have 48
hours to leave. If you donbt webre going to wipe out your family.
Youbre not getting away from us.b

The OFP is a human rights organization based in the northeastern city
of Barrancabermeja, which has specialized for 35 years in helping women
victims of human rights violations from communities of the countrybs
surrounding Middle Magdalena region. Just like Reiniciar, it has
denounced numerous cases of assassinations, disappearances, threats and
other crimes committed by soldiers and paramilitaries. This part of the
country has been one of the great epicenters of far-right
paramilitarism.

Added to all this are complaints by Diana Teresa Sierra, a lawyer for
the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, that unknown men were
following her in BogotC!. Sierra represents the Afro-Colombian
communities of CurvaradC3 and JiguamiandC3, in the ChocC3 department, who
are suing soldiers and paramilitaries for human rights violations,
forced displacement, conspiracy and environmental crimes. She is also
working to resolve the murder of Afro-Colombian leader Orlando
Valencia, and is taking on the defense of leaders from these
communities who have been jailed on rebellion charges.

The bCleansingb of the Armed Forces

Jahel Quiroga, director of Reiniciar, did not hesitate to say that
sectors of the police and the military could be behind the robbery of
the groupbs office. She pointed out that the stolen file implicates
high-ranking military officers in the case of a bforced disappearanceb
of a prominent Patriotic Union member, and that in recent days the
FiscalC-a b Colombiabs justice department b announced that it will
re-open several of the most exemplary cases of the bgenocideb that have
been, until now, filed away.

bI believe that there is a kind of caution on the part of both
paramilitaries and state agents who are connected to the Patriotic
Union genocide,b said Quiroga to Narco News. bWhat I see is that the
decisions that the Inter-American Commission and Inter-American Court
on Human Rights are making have allowed cases to be re-opened that in
Colombia were already closed. The Inter-American Court is re-opening
these cases and beginning to link these state agents b who were
absolved by the Colombian justice system b to their crimes. And they
are frightened of that. Those who are legal [the military officers]
seem to me to be more concerned than those who are illegal [the
paramilitaries].b

Also, both Reiniciar and the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission
are part of the bColombia-Europe-United States Coordination,b a
coalition of human rights groups (also victims of all kinds of
attacks). This coalition presented a report one month ago to the IACHR
titled bExtrajudicial Executions Directly Attributable to the Public
Forces,b which rigorously reports the details a number of bfalse
positivesb that took place between June, 2006 and July, 2007.

For those unfamiliar with Colombian military jargon, the killing of a
guerrilla in combat is known as a bpositive.b And as you must know, the
more kills a soldier achieves in combat, the more promotions,
recognitions and decorations he receives. Throughout the history of
Colombiabs civil war, it has always been that way.

But in the fairytale of President Uribebs bdemocratic securityb policy,
the old ways have their own new peculiarities. President Uribe, in his
rush to demonstrate his governmentbs supposed effectiveness on security
to the public, has put pressure on the military to produce results,
which has ended up creating a new method of combat in the dirty war
going on in the countrybs rural areas: killing, disappearing and
torturing civilians, and then dressing them in guerrilla uniforms in
order to present them as bsubversives killed in combat.b

This practice has showed itself since the presidentbs bdemocratic
securityb policy began in 2002, the year he came to power. But,
according to the report, between June, 2006 and July or this year, the
trend intensified such that in that period there were 236 total cases
registered. The presidentbs home department of Antioquia was one of the
regions that saw the most such killings.

Why this increase? An international delegation that visited the country
in early October and interviewed a number of soldiers noted that the
government came up with the brilliant idea of awarding beconomic
bonusesb and brest leaveb to soldiers who kill guerrillas. And, as
facing the guerrillas is not so easy, any defenseless peasant can
become appetizing prey.

The report had not even been published yet when the president b
ironically enough, during a ceremony commemorating two years of the
bjustice and peaceb law that demobilized the major paramilitary armies
b broke out the big verbal guns to attack the organizations that had
been reporting these crimes for months.

bNow the guerrillas have a new strategy,b he said. bEvery time a
guerrilla goes down, they immediately mobilize their spokespeople here
and overseas to say that it was an extra-judicial execution. But the
Armed Forces have taken every precaution to not give others the
opportunity to portray their members as working in collusion with
paramilitary groups.b

To this unsupported accusation of guerrilla collaboration must be added
one that several organizations in Barrancabermeja received in a
printed, unsigned text on October 18: bWe remind you that the little
priest of the Roux [referring to Jesuit priest Francisco De La Roux,
who leads the Program for Development and Peace in the Middle
Magdalena] and the guerrilla Yolanda Becerra used their influence in
BogotC! to remove an Army major and a captain of the Nueva Granada
battalion from their posts, for having made public the arrest warrants
for leaders of the ACVC, those bandits and narco-guerrillas who were
captured last month in Barranca.b (In a public communiquC), the OFP
insists that Becerra simply made one call to a government human rights
office to ask where the ACVC leaders were being held).

This all shows that the president and his supporters have more than
enough reasons to be furious with these organizations, as they are
publicizing the abuses committed by Uribebs most prized treasure: his
military. And at risk is the biggest prize that the United States has
every given this country: Plan Colombia.

In fact, one of the recommendations of the International Observation
Mission on Extrajudicial Executions to the international community was
to freeze military aid to Colombia as long as these attacks against the
civilian population keep occurring.

No wonder the president and his friends have now truly lost their
temper.

The Motives of the bParasb

It should be remembered that Reiniciar also accompanies indigenous and
rural communities whose members have been victims of human rights
abuses by paramilitaries, often backed by members the army. These
communities include the EmberC!-ChamC- of the Caldas department, and the
WayuC: community in La Guajira, in the extreme north of the country.

Reiniciar represents a great number of members of these ethnic groups
in their claims before the IACHR, and has requested protection for them
from the threats they face, especially from paramilitaries. They have
also accompanied specific members of these communities, who have
courageously decided to confront the big paramilitary bosses to demand
the return of their lands, as well as explanations for their missing or
killed family members.

So it is very possible that behind these recent events could be
demobilized paramilitaries who have come to form part of the new groups
that are being called bemergent gangs,b who are so open-minded that
they allow drug traffickers and common criminals among their ranks.

And as it has been well proven that the paramilitary bosses continue
directing things from prison, it could well be that they have charged
their bboysb with intimidating victims who might have evidence against
them, as well as organizations that support them. The Popular Feminine
Organizationbs Ana Teresa Rueda suspects such bboysb of being behind
the attack on Yolanda Becerra in her house.

bWe couldnbt say exactly who the authors of this crime were,b said
Rueda, bbut here in Barranca, the armed presence is that of the
demobilized paramilitaries and the public forces, to none of whom it is
convenient that an organization like ours, constantly denouncing their
crimes, exists.b

And it wouldnbt be surprising, considering that during a hunt for
common graves where several people the paramilitaries had killed in the
rural areas around Barrancabermeja were supposed to be buried, a former
paramilitary commander told government officials and reporters that the
enemies of the bjustice and peaceb process were bthose hijoeputas
Yolanda Becerra and David Ravelo.b (Ravelo is the general secretary of
the prominent local human rights group CREDHOS).

Immediately after this, the OFP sent a request to Vice President
Francisco Santos (whose office handles human rights issues) to ask him
to increase government protection for Yolanda Becerra, as she had been
personally fingered by a paramilitary commander. But Rueda says that
the group has still not gotten a response.

And one doesnbt need to be a chronic pessimist to realize that,
unfortunately, nothing will happen now either, and that the state wonbt
respond to these new incidents, because at heart it knows that this is
a good strategy to shut up those who tarnish the good image of this
wonderland, or those who dare to show what is there is behind the
mirror.

And that is simply unforgivable, kind readers, here, in this country
where the paramilitary bosses, backed by the bjustice and peaceb law,
dare to lecture their victims on the importance of forgiving and
forgetting.

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