September 16, 2002

Colombia's Deteriorating Human Rights Situation

by Garry Leech

On Monday, September 9, the U.S. State Department cleared the way for $41.6 million in U.S. military aid to be delivered to Colombia when it certified that the Colombian government had met the human rights conditions called for by the U.S. Congress. The conditions demand that the Colombian military suspend officers involved in serious human rights violations, cooperate with civilian prosecutors, and sever ties with right-wing paramilitary forces. Human rights groups criticized the certification, claiming that the Colombian military had not met any of the three conditions. On August 22, a little more than two weeks before the State Department issued its certification, I interviewed Catalina Diaz, a lawyer for the human rights group Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ), about the human rights situation in Colombia since the collapse of the peace process, the imminent expansion of U.S. involvement from counternarcotics to counterinsurgency, and the inauguration of President Alvaro Uribe.

Q: What is your role with the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ)?

A: I am a lawyer in the Debates Section for Public Policies, which works with the Constitutional Court, the Congress, and the presidency. I work in the area of peace. It is not my only subject area, but it is the main one. I work with human rights and the obligations of the state, as well as the obligations of the guerrillas and the paramilitaries; all of the fighters in the armed conflict.

Q: How long have you worked for the CCJ?

A: I have worked here for eight months. Before this I worked in the Constitutional Court and before that for another human rights organization, the Social Foundation.

Q: Which armed groups are responsible for what types of human rights violations?

A: We have a booklet that covers all aspects of human rights violations in Colombia. It contains statistics about human rights violations. It is clear that the paramilitaries are responsible for more than 80 percent of human rights violations resulting in deaths. The paramilitaries rely in many cases on direct help from the state for arms, intelligence, facilitating communications and transport on roads, helicopters, and airports. Government institutions support and tolerate them. A really clear example is the fact that paramilitaries operate 500 or 1,000 meters from military checkpoints and the military knows they are there but doesn't do anything. We cannot be sure that this is a policy of the government or military command; however, in many battalions there is not only collaboration from lower level officers but also from higher ranks. It is clear that there is direct and indirect collaboration between the paramilitaries and officers in many different battalions in many places.

Regarding the right to be free, the guerrillas commit the highest levels of kidnappings, but kidnappings by the paramilitaries are increasing. I have heard from organizations like Pais Libre (Free Country) that work exclusively with kidnapping cases that the paramilitaries don't only kidnap for political reasons like they used to with regards to government officials, guerrilla collaborators, journalists or prosecutors, they are now kidnapping for money. That is their tendency now. These are the two main human rights issues. But there are also economic, social and cultural rights. You should know about the poverty in our country. I don't have exact figures, but the rate of absolute poverty is almost 50 percent. Yesterday, I listened to the World Bank representative say that Colombia has gone backwards in the last 10 years in guaranteeing social and economic rights in regards to sustainable development. I was surprised and shocked to hear that there have never been this many poor people in Colombia.

Q: How will President Uribe's proposal to use more than one million civilians as informers affect the human rights situation?

A: I think there are various risks, one of them being the involvement of the civilian population in the conflict. At this time, they have said that the civilians are not going to carry guns, only portable radios [Editors note: On the same day this interview was conducted, Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez announced that the government intended to arm 15,000 peasants in addition to the one million informers]. They will be trained in military intelligence and how to handle information. This will put their lives in danger because the guerrillas and paramilitaries will make them military targets. We don't think this is a good alternative for guaranteeing security. The problem is not going to be solved by involving the civilian population. We accept that it is the right of the people to denounce suspicious persons and these are duties included in protecting human rights, but it should not be an obligation imposed by the government. We don't think the way the government wants to do it is the correct policy.

Q: What will be the consequences for human rights of the government's recent declaration of a Conmocion Interiór (State of Unrest)?

A: The Conmocion Interiór is a very complex problem because it has been presented as an alternative to having permanent measures that restrict human rights as was the case with the National Security Law. A few months ago there was a law that had to do with national security that was ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. It included the president being able to declare theatres of operations in which the military prevailed over civilian authorities. The military would act as the police, prosecutors, judges and other things. The Constitutional Court did not accept this law because it was based on the concept of national power: the idea that too much power rested secretly with the president. It is against the principles of democracy that only the president and his junta make decisions.

The Conmocion Interiór is temporary, but with all the extensions could last up to one year. This state of emergency can be restricted by the Constitutional Court, which must accept the international norms of human rights. Under the Conmocion Interiór, human rights are not suspended, although they are restricted in some cases. That these restrictions are needed has to be clearly justified. So far they have only declared the Conmocion Interiór, the next step will be to see what measures they are going to take. For now, they have decided to impose a one-time tax to strengthen the armed forces and they have also discussed intercepting communications. There has not been a decree for this, but it is going to happen.

Even we consider the situation very serious because of the attacks by the FARC against mayors and local government officials. This has never happened before. Even in Bogotá, we know that local mayors on the outskirts have been threatened. The Constitutional Court might accept the Conmocion Interiór because the roots of democracy are being threatened. The other reason the court might accept it is if it thinks the crisis is so serious that it cannot be solved with ordinary measures. But we doubt very much that these extraordinary measures that affect human rights will solve the crisis. Because of this it could be justified that the Conmocion Interiór is not constitutional. But we believe the court is going to declare it constitutional because if they don't play the game, they will disappear.

We think there should be structural measures to democratize the country. Bogotá is a clear example that this can be done: public investment with transparency and without corruption, creating spaces for recreation and work. We think this is the way the problem should be solved and, of course, there has to be a negotiated solution to the war. Even the High Commissioner for Peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, thinks this is the only way out. But they are going to use the armed forces to contain the armed groups and will only negotiate if there is a ceasefire and an end to hostilities, which means [the guerrillas] giving up their weapons. However, the insurgents think this is absurd.

Q: Has the human rights situation deteriorated since the end of the peace process?

A: We have seen an increase in guerrilla attacks and they have launched the campaign against the mayors and local officials. It looks like kidnapping has increased a little as well. The paramilitaries have stopped the big bloody massacres and barbaric acts and have changed to selective assassinations, which are not so attractive to the media. I believe the right to life and freedom has worsened since the end of the peace talks.

Q: The U.S. government wants to expand military aid beyond counternarcotics into counterinsurgency operations. What will be the consequences of this escalation on human rights in Colombia?

A: It's true that the United States is participating in the war at this time. But we are not Afghanistan, although I heard from one U.S. agency that there are more than one hundred U.S. soldiers in Colombia for training and supporting the counternarcotics battalions. So the military presence in Colombia is increasing and the violations of human rights have not stopped. There is a cause and effect relationship between the increase in war capacity of all the armed actors and an increase in human rights violations. The direct participation of the Colombian Armed Forces in violations of human rights has decreased. Detentions and torture are not as generalized as they were before. There are cases involving the military and police, but it is not generalized and it is not very visible. The dirty war activities have been transferred to the paramilitaries. As I said before, there are many cases that illustrate the collaboration between the military and the paramilitaries.

We believe the increase in military aid will increase the capacity of the military, which will increase human rights violations. The intention of the armed forces is not to reduce human rights violations, which was even evident with the United States and the wedding in Afghanistan. We also have celebrations with fireworks, like weddings, bullfights and baptisms. The fundamental question in Colombia is whether to solve the problem with war or political negotiations.

Q: Does the CCJ have any evidence of collaboration between the new U.S.-trained counternarcotics brigade and paramilitaries in Putumayo?

A: Yes, yes. I have information from someone who is working in the region and told her to send a report to the U.S. embassy. It is very clear that there is a tolerance and acceptance of the paramilitaries by this brigade, but I don't know exactly where in Putumayo.

This article originally appeared in Colombia Report, an online journal that was published by the Information Network of the Americas (INOTA).

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