RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Keen Watch Follows Political Pressure

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Analysis by Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Jul 21 2003 (IPS) - No one needs to read between the lines to see the accent on human rights at the London meeting on international support for Colombia. The 11-paragraph statement includes as many as 16 references to human rights and humanitarian issues.

That means the concerns over the rights situation in Colombia is there to stay, and following that declaration of support civil society groups such as Amnesty International have decided to step up their vigil.

The human rights situation in Colombia is considered the poorest in Latin America. Extrajudicial executions, torture, forced disappearances, rights violations against children and indigenous peoples have reached epidemic proportions in recent years.

"We will carry on monitoring the situation, and look for more access to make sure that human rights are duly respected," Peter Drury from Amnesty International in London told IPS. And while the meeting of the support group expressed support for the Colombian government, Drury said Amnesty "still has many concerns."

Some of these concerns follow what he called an "ambiguity" in the statement issued at the end of the meeting last week. The statement contains enough warnings while expressing "strong political support for the Colombian government in its efforts to address threats to democracy, terrorism, illegal drugs, human rights and international humanitarian law violations and the serious humanitarian crisis."

What Amnesty sees as ambiguous, officials see as diplomatic. The sheer repetition of concerns for human rights comes as a strong warning to the Colombian government despite the scattered expressions of support. Compared to 16 references of concern over human rights and the humanitarian situation, the statement carries only six expressions of support to the Colombian government – five of them conditional on the government’s commitments to human rights and to improving the humanitarian situation.

And so while Colombian officials have waved the declaration as support for the government, Amnesty has seen in the document enough support for a concern over human rights, and an encouragement to monitor these even more closely than before.

A closer watch by independent groups was virtually built into the meeting. Representatives from Amnesty and other civil society groups sat in on a preparatory meeting. The role that Colombian civil society could play was acknowledged emphatically. The meeting declared it "welcomed and acknowledged the views of civil society which were presented by ABColombia and a representative of Colombian civil society."

The support for a role for civil society carries considerable international weight. Representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia itself, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Switzerland, the United States, the United Nations, the Andean Development Corporation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank all endorsed the joint declaration.

"We hope this will suggest that everyone is taking a stronger stance on human rights," Drury said. But there is reason to doubt the assurances made by Colombian representatives, he said.

"Over the last year this administration has been implementing policies contrary to such recommendations," Drury said. These polices are guaranteeing impunity to officials who should be accountable for violations, he said.

Amnesty is also concerned about the "reinvention of paramilitaries under a new guise," he said. "These policies blur the distinction between civilians and combatants, and lack a mechanism to regulate the paramilitaries."

The Amnesty concern relates to introduction of measures such as the right given to armed forces to detain individuals and raid homes without need for a judicial order.

There is some concern that giving aid to Colombia could be seen as a green light for the regime to carry on as before, Drury said. The concerns expressed still leave "a long way to go" in correcting the situation on the ground, he said.

But given that the concerns have been expressed – and strongly – Amnesty will now ask for "the presence of civil society in conflict zones, and for trade unions and others trying to express their concerns over human rights to have access and a say in the processes taking place," Drury said.

Amnesty and other groups also plan to use the attention to human rights in the declaration to raise new concern over military aid flows from the United States and also some other countries. Rights groups say recipients of such aid have been implicated in human rights abuses.

Several governments and international agencies who participated in the support meeting have also planned to set up their own monitoring systems in Colombia. The Colombian government has won some support for now; but it is being kept under closer watch than before.

The Uribe government and the paramilitary United Self-defence Units of Colombia (AUC) signed an agreement last week committing the paramilitaries to "demobilising all of their members, in a gradual process that will begin later this year, and will be finalised by December 31, 2005 at the latest."

The government promised to carry out "the actions necessary to reincorporate them into civilian life." According to local human rights groups, the paramilitaries have been responsible for more than 70 percent of the massacres of civilians during the civil war over the past decade.

The support group meeting in London made no concrete financial commitment to Plan Colombia, which the United States supports strongly. The plan requires 7.5 billion dollars, of which 3.5 billion dollars must come from the international community.

One of the main objectives of the plan is to reinforce, equip and train the Colombian army to fight drug trafficking.