Columbia is a democratic country
controlled by Conservative Party President Andres Pastrana and a bicameral
legislature with the Liberal Party holding majority. Widespread violence
is rampant throughout the country, brought by conflict between and among
government security forces, paramilitary forces, guerilla forces, and drug
traffickers. According to the human rights group Columbian Commission
of Jurists, 78% of human rights violations are committed by paramilitary
troops, 20% are committed by guerillas, and state forces are responsible
for the remaining 2% (qtd. in Human Rights Watch [HRW], "Columbia," 1999).
While President Pastrana and the government have put
forth extensive efforts to end hostilities, including such measures as removing
from office four generals and numerous mid-level officers of state forces,
violence and numerous human rights violations continued (U.S. Department
of State [DOS], "Introduction," 1999). Government orders to the armed
forces to combat military groups have gone unheeded, however. Conversely,
there have been many reports that the state forces cooperate with the
paramilitary forces. For instance, paramilitary forces have been known
to send corpses of those they killed for suspicion of supporting guerillas
to the army. The army then claimed the guerilla deaths due to combat
and paid the paramilitary with weapons (HRW, "Columbia," 1999).
Extrajudicial killings, disappearances, kidnapping, forced displacement,
discrimination against women, child abuse, and forced child prostitution
are several of the human rights violations found within Columbia.
Extrajudicial/Civilian and Political Killings
The most common violation of
human rights attributed to Columbia's security forces is extrajudicial execution
(HRW, "Columbia," 1999). According to the human rights Ombudsman's
office, there were 399 massacres during 1999, killing an estimated 1,845
civilians, only five of which have been credited to the armed forces.
An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 citizens died in extrajudicial and political
executions, generally performed by paramilitaries, who justified the acts
by claiming victims to be "guerillas in civilian clothing" (DOS, "Columbia,"
1999, AI, "Columbia," 1999).
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), a
paramilitary group, seized and executed three Americans returning from a
visit to the U'wa indigenous group in northeastern Columbia. Throughout
the year, the FARC committed at least eleven civilian extrajudicial executions.
In addition, the group used gas cylinders as bombs; unable to
aim the weapons properly, the FARC consequently caused numerous civilian
casualties (HRW, "Columbia," 1999).
Paramilitaries reportedly dragged 27 civilians out of
church in January of 1999 and "riddled their bodies with bullets." Later
that week, authorities associated paramilitaries with over 100 killings,
some of which involved mutilation of corpses to hide evidence (HRW, "Columbia,"
1999).
In January, units from the paramilitary group United
Self-Defence Groups of Columbia (AUC) raided villages in various regions,
torturing and killing suspected guerilla supporters, burning homes and entire
villages, and displacing the population. Between May and September,
almost 200 civilians were killed when AUC forces launched an attack
for control of the Catatumbo region of North Santander; the forces
carried out massacres in La Gabarra, Tibu, and Cucuta, among others (AI,
"Columbia," 2000).
In 1998 the human rights
Ombudsman's office reported 12 complaints against the army, 6 against the
National Police, and 399 against paramilitary forces for forced disappearance.
The Center for Investigations and Popular Research (CINEP) reported 309 cases
of forced disappearance during the first 9 months of 1999, attributing 112
of them to paramilitaries. According to a July 14 report by the Ombudsman's
office, the FARC was responsible for the forced disappearance of 34 residents
of the despeje zone whom it suspected of collaborating with paramilitary
groups (DOS, "Columbia," 1999).
Abductions and kidnappings for ransoms are common throughout
Columbia. At least 1,000 people were kidnapped by armed forces or
paramilitary forces and held for ransom or for political reasons (AI,
"Columbia," 1999). Recently on September 17, 2000, The National Liberation
Army (UC-ELN), blocked a road and abducted over 60 people. While many
of the hostages were released, 25 were kept in captivity, two of which died
(AI, "Amnesty International Condemns," 2000). Previously, on April
12, 1999, the UC-ELN abducted 41 passengers from a plane, and then another
140 worshipers from church the following month (HRW, "Columbia," 1999).
The FARC and UC-ELN, along with other guerilla groups, commonly kidnapped
foreign travellers, some of whom remained in captivity for months. Three
missionaries kidnapped by the FARC in 1993 still remain missing (DOS, "Columbia,"
1999).
Forced Displacement
Columbia has the third largest
internally displaced population in the world. According to the Displaced
Person Support Group (GAD), 1.5 million Columbians are estimated to have
been forcibly displaced between 1985 and 1999. The Consultancy and
Human Rights for the Displaced (CODHES) released in a 1999 report that
displacement reached its highest level in 1998 with an estimated 308,000
new Columbians forced to flee, increasing by 20% from the previous year.
The CODHES believes that for every one political killing in 1998, about
78 people fled. (HRW, "Columbia," 1999).
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