2001 Annual Report for Colombia

COLOMBIA
Republic of Colombia
Head of state and government: Andrés Pastrana Arango
Capital: Santafé de Bogotá
Population: 42.3 million
Official language: Spanish
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
2000 treaty ratifications/signatures: Optional Protocol to the UN Children's Convention on the
involvement of children in armed conflict

The human rights crisis continued to deepen against a background of a spiralling armed conflict. The parties to the conflict intensified their military actions throughout the country in campaigns characterized by gross and systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The principal victims of political violence were civilians, particularly peasant farmers living in areas disputed between government forces and allied paramilitaries, and armed opposition groups. Human rights defenders, journalists, judicial officials, teachers, trade unionists and leaders of Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities were among those targeted. More than 4,000 people were victims of political killings, over 300 ''disappeared'', and an estimated 300,000 people were internally displaced. At least 1,500 people were kidnapped by armed opposition groups and paramilitary organizations; mass kidnaps of civilians continued. Torture - often involving mutilation - remained widespread, particularly as a prelude to murder by paramilitary groups. ''Death squad''-style killings continued in urban areas. Children suffered serious human rights violations particularly in the context of the armed conflict. New evidence emerged of continuing collusion between the armed forces and illegal paramilitary groups. Progress continued in a limited number of judicial investigations, but impunity for human rights abuses remained the norm.

Escalating conflict
Few areas of the country remained unaffected by the escalating conflict. The number and intensity of direct confrontations between the parties to the conflict increased. The principal victims continued to be civilians. The majority of killings were carried out by illegal paramilitary groups operating with the tacit or active support of the Colombian armed forces.
All parties to the conflict, including the Colombian armed forces, routinely breached their obligation to allow and facilitate access by humanitarian organizations to conflict areas to aid civilian communities under attack or caught in the crossfire, and to assist wounded combatants. In separate incidents, wounded combatants under the protection of the International Committee of the Red Cross were summarily executed by the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia, and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Peace process
Peace talks which began in 1999 between the government and the FARC continued in the demilitarized zone for much of the year, but no substantive agreement was reached. In November the FARC indefinitely suspended talks demanding that the government demonstrate greater and clearer efforts to combat paramilitary groups.
Despite the suspension of talks, in December the government extended until the end of January 2001 the demilitarization of five municipalities in Meta and Caquetá departments which remained under the de facto control of the FARC.
The fragility of the peace process was further underlined by the government's failure to implement peace proposals in the face of opposition from sectors of the armed forces and paramilitary groups. Efforts to begin peace talks with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), National Liberation Army, were systematically blocked by paramilitary-backed protests in the three municipalities in the central Magdalena Medio region which the government had agreed in April to demilitarize in order to facilitate talks. The designated area had not been demilitarized and formal talks had not begun by the end of the year.

Paramilitaries
Despite repeated government promises to dismantle paramilitary forces, no effective action was taken to curtail, much less to end, their widespread and systematic atrocities. In contrast to their declared aim to combat guerrilla forces, paramilitary actions continued to target the civilian population through massacres, torture, the destruction of communities and the displacement of the population.

In February, 200 paramilitary gunmen raided the village of El Salado, Bolívar department, killing 36 people, including a six-year-old child. Many victims were tied to a table in the village sports field and subjected to torture, including rape, before being stabbed or shot dead. Others were killed in the village church. During the three-day attack, military and police units stationed nearby made no effort to intervene. Instead, a Navy Infantry unit reportedly set up a roadblock on the access road to El Salado, thus preventing humanitarian organizations from reaching the village. Arrest warrants were issued against

11 paramilitary members, including AUC leader Carlos Castaño, in connection with the massacre. Marine Colonel Rodrigo Quiñones, commander of the Navy's 1st Brigade, was promoted to General while investigations into the possible criminal responsibility in connection with the massacre of troops under his command were still under way. Government investigations had previously linked General Quiñones to the murders of more than 50 people in Barrancabermeja, Santander department, in 1991 and 1992. However, the military justice system, which claimed jurisdiction in the case, dropped the charges.

Over 40 people were killed in November during an AUC attack on several fishing villages in the municipality of La Ciénaga, Magdalena department. A further 30 people reportedly ''disappeared''.

The government again failed to set up the specialist military units to combat paramilitary groups which it had repeatedly promised. The armed forces failed to attack or dismantle paramilitary bases, the majority of which were located in close proximity to army and police bases.

Armed forces

Six children aged between six and 15 on a school outing were shot dead by the army in August. Several others were seriously injured. An army patrol opened fire on the school party in Pueblorrico, Antioquia department, allegedly in the belief that they were guerrilla fighters. Fourteen soldiers were under investigation by a military court at the end of the year. None was arrested.

Collusion between the Colombian security forces, particularly the army, and paramilitary groups continued and, indeed, strengthened. Instances of collaboration included the sharing of intelligence information, the transfer of prisoners, the provision of ammunition by the armed forces to the paramilitary, and joint patrols and military operations in which serious human rights violations were committed.

A wide-ranging pattern of collusion between the national police, the army and paramilitary forces in the area of Puerto Asís, Putumayo department, was revealed to the authorities by a member of the national police and the local human rights ombudsman. According to their sworn testimonies, paramilitary groups consorted openly with army personnel and police in the town of Puerto Asís. On the outskirts of the town they maintained a base, where people who had been abducted were taken to be tortured and killed. The base was only a few hundred metres from the headquarters of the army's 24th Brigade and a base of the 25th Battalion. Army officers held regular meetings with paramilitary leaders in the base.

In September, President Pastrana, by decree law, delegated to the armed forces command discretionary presidential powers to dismiss offending armed forces personnel. This paved the way for the dismissal in October of 89 officers and 299 lower-ranking members of the armed forces. No details were released of the names of those dismissed or the causes. However, it was believed that fewer than 50 involved human rights offences. None of those dismissed was brought to justice and senior members of the armed forces implicated in human rights violations, by action or omission, continued in service. In December, the Minister of Defence acknowledged that 50 of the dismissed army officers had joined the AUC.

Armed opposition groups
Violations of international humanitarian law by armed opposition groups increased significantly. Several hundred people,including scores of civilians, were deliberately and arbitrarily killed by armed opposition groups. In many cases the killings appeared to be reprisal or punishment killings of alleged military or paramilitary collaborators. Those killed included judicial officials, local politicians and journalists who were targeted because they were investigating guerrilla abuses or opposed their policies.

Eighteen-year-old Irish national Tristan James Murray was killed with his Colombian friend, Javier Nova, by FARC urban militia in July. The two youths were beheaded after being captured in the town of Icononzo, Tolima department.

The FARC and the ELN carried out numerous disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks on military targets which caused significant civilian casualties. Police and military bases in scores of towns and villages were attacked, frequently with loss of civilian life. Some communities were attacked successively by paramilitary and armed opposition groups. FARC combatants reportedly summarily executed seriously wounded soldiers and police.
Further reports emerged of serious violations of international humanitarian law by the FARC in the demilitarized area. There were also credible reports that people, including children, kidnapped by the FARC had been taken to the demilitarized area.

In July the Attorney General said he had evidence that three-year-old Andrés Felipe Suarez was being held in the FARC-controlled demilitarized zone. Andrés Felipe Suarez had been kidnapped in April. Although a senior FARC commander pledged to investigate the allegation, the whereabouts of the child remained unknown at the end of the year. No independent investigation of the allegations of abuses within the demilitarized area was permitted by the FARC.

Children as young as 13 continued to be recruited by the FARC.

Kidnapping
Kidnapping and hostage-taking reached unprecedented levels. Of a reported 3,000 cases, more than half were believed to have been carried out by armed opposition groups and paramilitary organizations. Children accounted for 200 of the victims.

In September the ELN abducted more than 50 people from roadside restaurants outside the southern city of Cali. While most were eventually released, two hostages died as a result of injuries they sustained in captivity and one died because of lack of adequate medical treatment for an ulcer.
In October, AUC paramilitary forces abducted six congressional representatives to protest about the debate in Congress of a government proposal to exchange FARC political prisoners for soldiers and police held captive by the FARC. The representatives were released following a meeting - described by the government as ''humanitarian'' - between AUC commanders and the Interior Minister.

Plan Colombia
A controversial aid package, known as Plan Colombia, was presented by the Colombian government to the international community. The Plan, originally designed to seek aid to support the peace process, was transformed into a predominantly military plan ostensibly aimed at combating illicit drug cultivation. In July the Plan received the backing of the US government which approved a US$1.3 billion, principally military, aid package. In approving the aid, the US Congress added human rights conditions and a requirement that the US government periodically certify that the Colombian armed forces were acting to punish human rights violators and to sever their ties to the paramilitary. In August, US President Bill Clinton waived most of the human rights conditions on the grounds of US national security interests. AI opposed the military aid program which it believed would escalate the human rights crisis and the armed conflict and deplored the decision to waive human rights conditions.
Other members of the international community, including the European Union, pledged support for the peace process, human rights and development programs, but made clear that such support was independent of Plan Colombia.

Putumayo
Although the military component of Plan Colombia was not due to come into effect until early 2001, its impact was immediate. In response to the US military aid package, the FARC launched a series of attacks throughout the country. The southern department of Putumayo, the principal focus of Plan Colombia, was particularly affected by an upsurge in violence. Civilians were caught in the crossfire as the FARC and army-backed paramilitary forces fought for control of the region.

Persecution of human rights defenders
Protection programs set up by the Colombian government proved insufficient to counter the continuing campaign of intimidation, harassment and attacks against human rights defenders. At least two human rights defenders were killed and three ''disappeared''. Many others received persistent death threats. Defenders in Barrancabermeja, Santander department, and in Medellín, Antioquia department, were particularly at risk.

Jesús Ramiro Zapata Hoyos, founding member of the Comité de Derechos Humanos del Nordeste Antioqueño, North East Antioquia Human Rights Committee, was shot dead in May in Segovia, Antioquia department. He had received repeated death threats from paramilitary forces.
Angel Quintero and Claudia Monsalve, members of the Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos (ASFADDES), Association of Families of the Detained Disappeared, were abducted by unidentified gunmen in Medellín in October. Their whereabouts remained unknown at the end of the year. Angel Quintero had faced continuous threats and harassment as a result of his work with ASFADDES. Several members of his family had ''disappeared'' in previous years.

Journalists investigating and publishing reports about human rights and political violence were also targeted. Eight journalists were killed, mainly by paramilitary forces, and many more received death threats or were kidnapped.

In May, Jineth Bedoya Lima, a journalist with the daily El Espectador newspaper, was abducted in Bogotá by paramilitary gunmen and subjected to physical and psychological torture before being released 12 hours later. During her ordeal, her abductors threatened to kill her and four of her colleagues who also reported on human rights issues.

Increasing numbers of judicial officials investigating human rights abuses were threatened, attacked and kidnapped by army-backed paramilitary forces and guerrilla organizations.

Seven judicial investigators ''disappeared'' following their abduction by paramilitary forces in Cesar department in March. Six judicial officials were killed.
In April, Margarita Pulgarín, a Medellín-based prosecutor who specialized in investigating links between the military and paramilitary groups, was shot dead outside her home.

Justice and impunity
The Attorney General's Human Rights Unit investigated over 900 cases of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Significant progress was made in a number of cases.

In June, six members of the National Police were remanded in custody on charges of colluding with paramilitary forces in a massacre in the town of Tibú, North Santander department, in July 1999. Several army officers were also under investigation in connection with the massacre.
Two members of the FARC were formally charged in absentia with the murder of three US indigenous rights activists abducted and murdered in February 1999.
Four paramilitary gunmen were convicted of the murder in May 1997 of human rights and environmental activists Mario Calderón and Elsa Alvarado, and Elsa's father, Carlos Alvarado.

However, the vast majority of perpetrators of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law continued to evade accountability. Despite numerous outstanding arrest warrants, no attempt was made by the armed and security forces to capture paramilitary leaders responsible for widespread human rights violations. Paramilitary leaders arrested by civilian judicial investigators, routinely escaped from police or military detention.
In defiance of the Constitutional Court, the military justice system continued to claim jurisdiction in cases in which senior armed forces officers were implicated.

Legislation
In July, after six previous attempts had failed, a law was enacted making ''disappearances'', genocide and forced displacement criminal offences punishable with prison terms of up to 60 years. The law, however, omitted a clause, opposed by President Pastrana, that would have provided that all heinous crimes would be tried by civilian courts.
A reformed Military Penal Code came into effect in August. The Code introduced important modifications, including allowing civilians to act as plaintiffs in military penal proceedings and prohibiting commanding officers from sitting as judges in cases involving military personnel under their command. However, the new law failed to give civilian courts exclusive jurisdiction over human rights violations.

Intergovernmental organizations
In a statement from the Chair, the UN Commission on Human Rights condemned the persistent grave human rights violations and abuses perpetrated by paramilitary forces and armed opposition groups and called on the government to ensure that members of state forces involved in human rights violations, or collusion with paramilitary groups, were suspended and brought to trial. The Commission expressed particular concern about the increase in the number of internally displaced people, the continuing attacks on human rights defenders and the persistence of impunity, particularly in the military jurisdiction.
During a visit to Colombia in December, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the human rights situation was ''extremely critical''.

AI country reports and visits

Reports

Colombia: Protection of human rights defenders - One step forward, three steps back (AI Index: AMR 23/022/2000)
Colombia: Return to Hope - Forcibly Displaced Communities of Urabá and Medio Atrato (AI Index: AMR 23/023/2000)
Colombia: Human Rights and USA Military Aid to Colombia (AI Index: AMR 23/065/2000), published jointly with Human Rights Watch and the Washington Office on Latin America

Visits
AI delegates visited Colombia on six occasions and, during a meeting with the Vice-President in September, reiterated AI's call to the government to end human rights violations.