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RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Cooperation for Peace, Not War

Helda Martínez

BOGOTA, Dec 3 2007 (IPS) - "A state becomes a violator of human rights when it fails to guarantee, promote or defend them," said Argentine ambassador to Colombia Martín Balza during the Third International Conference on Colombia.

Balza was addressing the participants after the conclusions of a report presented by 500 representatives of human rights groups and other social organisations from around the country were read out during a plenary session of the conference held in the Colombian capital. The report documented selective killings, forced disappearance, forced displacement, paramilitary violence, neglect by the state, and widespread impunity.

The Nov. 29-Dec. 1 conference is a follow-up to the meetings held by the international community in 2003 in London and in Colombia’s Caribbean resort city of Cartagena in 2005.

In London in 2003, representatives of the right-wing Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe met with delegates of the United Nations, the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, the United States and Japan, who along with Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Chile created the G24 international conference process, of which Balza is now the president.

This year’s conference was political in nature, rather than a meeting of donors, as in the past, Antonio Madariaga, head of the non-governmental organisation Corporación Viva la Ciudadanía, told IPS.

"The current circumstances in the country require that we focus on the challenges and problems of democracy, the rights of victims, the struggle against inequity and exclusion, prospects in the fight against drugs, respect for human rights and the construction of peace," he added.

In the London Declaration adopted at the 2003 conference, the international community outlined guidelines for relations and cooperation with Colombia, while expressing deep concern about the humanitarian and human rights crisis in this country. It also urged the Colombian government to promptly implement U.N. human rights recommendations and to take effective action against impunity and collusion, especially with paramilitary groups.

In Cartagena, in 2005, the international community discussed the negotiations between the far-right paramilitary groups and the government, as well as the process of reinsertion of the demobilised paramilitaries.

"This year we advanced in terms of bolstering recognition of the legitimacy of the activities of civil society," said Madariaga during the conference, in which delegates of the G24, the United Nations, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Andean Development Corporation (the financial arm of the Andean Community trade bloc) took part.

In the conference, the Uribe administration was represented by Vice President Francisco Santos, the directors of the government’s human rights office, and officials from the programme for the reinsertion of former members of irregular armed groups and the president’s social action agency. The president himself also made an appearance.

The officials defended the government’s controversial "democratic security" policy, said 30,000 members of paramilitary groups had demobilised – a number that has been widely questioned, as prior to the negotiations the estimated number of members was much lower – pointed to an expansion of health and education coverage, and highlighted government spending aimed at strengthening the justice system, reducing unemployment and bolstering social inclusion.

But a representative of the Kankuamo indigenous community said the "statistics look very nice when they are not built on pain."

"Our community has shrunk by 47 percent in the last six years, as a result of the armed conflict. Eighty percent of those killed were victims of the paramilitaries," he told IPS, asking not to be identified by name.

"We don&#39t want the foreign debt to be paid with our land," said another indigenous delegate, a member of the Embera Katio community from the northwestern department (province) of Córdoba, where the Urrá I hydroelectric dam operates. The hydropower plant was built despite criticism of environmental damages and the expropriation of indigenous land, near the projected site of the Urrá II hydroelectric dam.

A local community leader from the department of Chocó, on the Pacific ocean, who was forced to flee to the north of the country, said his home region is "unliveable, and even if you wanted to return, you would have as a neighbour a demobilised paramilitary, and I tell you, I find that really frightening."

The Alianza, an umbrella group of 132 social organisations, human rights groups, associations of victims of forced displacement, environmentalists and cultural organisations, distributed copies of a report on the situation in Colombia.

This year, the human rights situation has been characterised by the re-arming of paramilitary groups, the emergence of new organised crime groups, and the responsibility of the security forces in killing civilians, says the Alianza’s report.

Human rights activists say the G24 international conference process has had a positive effect.

Gustavo Gallón, director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ), a human rights group that holds consultative status with the United Nations, told IPS that "the role of the G24 should be celebrated, because it takes note of the views of both sides, and to some extent influences the government to get it to tone down its approach and respect Colombian society."

Gallón said the rightwing Uribe administration’s "proud and triumphalist discourse could be disputed."

"For example, what about the 549 people killed during the paramilitary demobilisation process, as documented by the office of the U.N. high commissioner" for human rights? he asked.

"And if the paramilitaries numbered 12,000 at the start of the process, where did the 40,000 now reported by the government come from? If 30,000 demobilised, it means the paramilitary groups grew enormously under this government," said Gallón.

Andrea Lari and Mariano García of the U.S.-based Refugees International told IPS that on a visit to the city of Tumaco, in the southern department of Nariño, a week ago they found around 5,000 displaced families receiving no assistance whatsoever, living in subhuman conditions.

"We are talking to the government and the agencies so that they can begin providing assistance," said Lari.

"The humanitarian crisis and the large numbers of displaced persons have to be top priorities in the discussions between the Colombian government and the international community," said García.

"This is our fifth trip to Colombia in three years, and although some progress has been seen as a result of the Constitutional Court’s order that the displaced population must be given assistance, there has been no clear improvement," said Lari. "It is because of situations like this that the U.S. Congress is reviewing its policy towards Colombia."

Resident U.N. coordinator in Colombia Bruno Moro said he was pleased with the conference, which he said would help build dialogue.

"It&#39s obvious, of course, that Colombia’s problems cannot be fixed overnight, but there is hope, there is a path that can be followed," he remarked to IPS.

Argentine Ambassador Balza, a retired general, said that "with a good strategy, war can be won, but with a great strategy, peace can be achieved."