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June 4, 2001 When Human Rights No Longer Matter In a throwback to the days of the Cold War counterinsurgency campaigns, the Colombian Senate recently passed a bill authorizing the nation's security forces to wage war against the Colombian people in the name of anti-terrorism. The new bill, now being debated in the lower house of Colombia's Congress, will unleash the army against the civilian population, especially in rural regions, using tactics that violate international human rights treaties to which Colombia is a signatory. The new policy is reminiscent of the counterinsurgency strategies promulgated by the United States throughout Latin America during the Cold War years. Recent decisions by the Bush Administration indicate it will be more than willing to support the re-implementation of such tactics by the Colombian army. The urban bombing campaign waged by various armed groups over the
past month has hit a little too close to home for many middle and
upper class Colombians. The recent spate of bombings is reminiscent
of the violent urban campaign waged against the government in the
late 1980s by drug traffickers fighting to end extradition. In order
to prevent a The likely consequences of the military's newfound freedom will be a dramatic increase in human rights abuses perpetrated by the army against the civilian population. The bill would allow an army unit to enter a village and detain citizens for seven days without charging them with a crime. There is little doubt this violation of international humanitarian law would be used against community leaders, human rights workers, union members and anyone else the army chooses to cast as a leftist or guerrilla sympathizer. Secondly, under the new law, soldiers would be permitted to force villagers to act as informants and intelligence agents, a tactic that will undoubtedly result in retaliation against the villagers by whichever armed group they are forced to betray. And finally, the proposed law allows soldiers to arrest anyone for subversion based solely on the statement of a fellow citizen--more than likely obtained under duress. Inevitably, the use of such tactics by the army will result in charges of human rights violations being leveled against overzealous troops. However, the new bill foresees this "problem" and addresses it by providing immunity to members of the armed forces who commit human rights abuses while combating "supposed" terrorist groups. The new law also turns over responsibility for the investigations and autopsies of subversives killed in combat--currently performed by government officials--to the military. Furthermore, just to guarantee that soldiers aren't accidentally charged with human rights abuses in spite of these safeguards, the bill has a provision to ensure that all ongoing and future investigations into rights violations by security forces will become a matter for military justice and not civilian courts. There is little doubt about who will become the principal targets of the military's tactics: any rural villager believed to be sympathetic to the guerrillas. Rural Colombians, already the principal victims in the nation's conflict, are now being offered up for slaughter by legislators in Bogotá rattled by the war's recent arrival at their doorsteps. A campesino does not have to do much to be accused of having leftist sympathies in Colombia's volatile political and social climate, least of all anything that would be considered suitable evidence in a court of law. Often, villagers are deemed to be sympathetic to the rebels simply based on the geographic area in which they reside. Sometimes peasants aid the guerrillas out of fear, which also leads to their being labeled as sympathizers. And now, according to the would-be law, any Colombian could be arrested for subversion on the word of a neighbor who may bear nothing more than a personal grudge. Throughout the 1990s, international pressure resulted in a significant
decrease in the number of human rights abuses directly attributed
to the Colombian Armed Forces. However, during the same period the
military strength of paramilitary groups increased dramatically
as they conducted the dirty war on the army's behalf, often with
logistical support provided by the military. The new proposal would
remove the constraints on the army, allowing it to once again wage
war against the The military's recent assault against four rebel-held towns in southwestern Colombia may be a foreshadowing of things to come under the proposed law. Last week, 2,500 members of the Colombian Armed Forces "successfully" seized the towns in the department of Nariño as part of an anti-drug mission labeled Operation Tsunami. According to Colombian army officials, more than 110 people were killed in the operation. Only 18 of them were guerrillas. Military officials say the rest of the dead were workers in the targeted coca fields and cocaine labs. In other words, more than 90 peasants were killed in the offensive. The operation has been kept under a veil of secrecy as the army has refused to let anyone into the area to talk to survivors and determine exactly how and why so many peasants were killed. The new law, if passed by the house, will only encourage more military operations like this one, in which the wholesale slaughter of peasants is justified in the name of fighting terrorism or, even worse, the drug war. Colombia's proposed new anti-terrorist law's blatant disregard for international humanitarian law should be cause for concern in Washington. At a minimum, the pending legislation and its de facto conversion of Colombia to a nation under martial law should give pause to those policymakers in Washington who have repeatedly stressed that part of the U.S. aim in the region is to defend democracy. In fact, all future military aid should be withheld while this potential human catastrophe is addressed. All military and civilian contractors stationed in Colombia should be withdrawn and the delivery of Blackhawk helicopters scheduled for July should be postponed until the Colombian government re-aligns its policies and laws with the norms of international humanitarian law, both on paper and on the ground. However, it is highly unlikely that any of these sanctions will be imposed on Bogotá. According to Washington, U.S. aid is going to Colombian army units fighting the drug war, not the counterinsurgency war--regardless of the fact these troops are targeting coca fields and drug labs in guerrilla-controlled territory. Also, the White House and the State Department will undoubtedly try to emphasize that U.S. aid is only going to units of the Colombian army that have been "cleared" of human rights violations.
Historically, the United States has allied itself with human-rights-abusing regimes whenever it served Washington's interests to do so, formerly under the guise of the Cold War, but more recently the drug war. The new Bush Administration is wasting little time in allying itself with some of the world's most abusive regimes. On May 17, Secretary of State Colin Powell announced $43 million in aid to Afghanistan. Not only is Afghanistan's ruling Taliban sheltering Washington's stated global enemy number one, Osama bin Laden, but the country's fanatical rulers are also responsible for the gravest state-sponsored human rights violations perpetrated against women in recent history. Furthermore, examples of the Taliban's religious intolerance have included the systematic destruction of revered ancient Buddha statues and the issuing of a decree forcing Hindus in Afghanistan to wear yellow identity patches. At a recent press conference announcing the State Department's 2000 list of terrorist organizations and states, acting coordinator for counterterrorism Edmund J. Hull referred to Afghanistan as "terrorist central for the international community," pointing out that "tens of thousands of people" have passed through terrorist training camps there. So why has the Bush Administration climbed into bed with these repressive fundamentalists? The answer is simple: The Taliban is willing to be Washington's ally in the drug war. Afghanistan's religious rulers declared that the human consumption of opium is against the will of Allah, and apparently that was good enough for the Bush Administration. Washington's recent attitude towards the Afghan regime regarding
the drug war does not bode well for Colombia's peasant population.
In all likelihood, as long as Colombian security forces continue
to destroy coca fields and cocaine labs while conducting their counterinsurgency
operations, then U.S. aid will continue to flow. After all, what
are a few human rights abuses when there is an ineffective drug
war to wage? This article originally appeared in Colombia Report, an online journal that was published by the Information Network of the Americas (INOTA).
Copyright © 2003 Colombia Journal. All rights reserved. |
further
escalation in this latest wave of bombings, Colombia's urban elite
and its congressional cohorts appear to be trying to give the security
forces free rein to combat suspected terrorists.
civilian
population without fear of retribution. Furthermore, allowing the
army to recruit citizens in conflict areas is akin to re-authorizing
the military creation of civil self-defense forces that inevitably
evolve or are absorbed into paramilitary organizations, which have
been illegal in Colombia since 1989.
Washington's
drug warriors discuss these U.S.-funded and trained battalions as
though they were not part of the Colombian Armed Forces. But in
reality they operate under the same chain of command as the rest
of the Colombian army and there are no safeguards to prevent the
transferring of soldiers in and out of these units after they have
been vetted for human rights violations.