VERIFICATION OF THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CATATUMBO
(Translated by Anne Boylon, a CSN volunteer translator)
PRELIMINARY REPORT ISSUED BY THE SECOND COMMISSION OF
VERIFICATION OF THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CATATUMBO
July 6 – July 11 2008
The Commission
Various human rights organizations participated in the Commission: the Colombian European and United States Coordination, the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes, the Planeta Paz Platform, CODHES, the Corporation for the Development of the Colombian Northeast, the Lawyers’ Collective, and the Rural Association of Catatumbo – ASCAMCAT. International observation organisms also took part: the International Peace Brigades, and the International Peace Observatory (IPO). Also attending were delegates from the Vice-President’s Office of Communities at Risk and the Procurator from the Municipality of San Calixto.
The principal objective of the Commission was to follow up the extremely serious reports collected in the first verification commission which took place from August 9th – August 12th in 2007. During this session the Commission documented 160 human rights violations involving official criminal and disciplinary liability on the part of the national army’s Mobile Brigades No. 15 and XXX. Serious concerns about supervision and control on the part of local, national and departmental supervisory organisms charged with the protection and guarantee of human rights were also noted. After a visual inspection of Catatumbo, in which 360 delegates from 51 rural communities from the El Carmen, Convencion, Teorama and Tarra municipalities took part, the commission verified that the following situations continue:
1) Serious human rights violations persist in the municipalities of El Carmen, Convencion, Tecrama and el Tarra. In these rural areas of scarce economic resources, the inhabitants continue to be the victims of arbitrary and illegal actions by the National Army: indiscriminate bombings, illegal detentions, threats, psychological and physical torture, registrations, illegal searches, illegal occupations of schools, lootings and plunders, illegal charges, destructions of goods and, the most egregious, extrajudicial executions of rural inhabitants by the army which are later justified as a necessary part of their counter-insurgency fight
2) Fumigations, which in the majority of cases are accompanied by bombings and machine-gun fire. These are serious violations of human rights and have resulted in grave risk to the lives, physical integrity, health, livelihoods and food security of the region’s inhabitants. The environment and natural resources of the area have also been affected – wells have been contaminated and the delivery of drinking water was disrupted in the Tarra municipality for three days.
3) The implementation of the National’s Government’s Reinsertion Program by the national army which uses illegal and arbitrary methods: intimidation, coercion, psychological pressure, threats of judicial prosecution, false orders of detention and physical maltreatment; and, in an attempt to get information about the structure and membership of the insurgency, direct threats on the lives of the Catatumbo people. In addition to these violent persuasions, army personnel have tried to entice people to join the Reinsertion Program and to incriminate members of their own community by bribery, with offers of money. There sole purpose in engaging in these criminally violent behaviors is to show the country that the Reinsertion program is a success.
4) The armed insurgent groups continue carrying out actions that are prohibited by International Human Rights Law: the use of anti-personnel mines, combat in civilian areas and attacks against the oil pipelines in Cano Limon Covenas. These actions affect the peace, food security, health and the ability to enjoy a peaceful and healthy environment.
5) In that which concerns the paramilitaries, indications are that the denouncements which have compromised the participation of the demobilized in the paramilitary structure have resulted in their joining the ranks of the army in the region. There have also been denouncements of a paramilitary presence – the self-named Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) - in the Carmen, Ocana and Tecrema municipalities. The on-going intimidation of the National Army intensifies the danger these groups represent to the population in that the army uses these groups to terrify the civilians by threatening to unleash these same “black eagles” on them and their communities.
6) The communities were very gratified with the work of the Commission which heard their denouncements and descriptions of the attacks committed against them by armed groups, since neither the authorities nor the judicial organisms have taken any notice of their complaints and denouncements; nor have there been any positive results from the cases that have been investigated and sanctioned. This lack of action has led to the necessity of reporting the violations directly to the Procurators Offices in Ocana and Cucuta.
7)) Those of us who accompanied the Commission have since received threats by members of the police force who have indicated that the leaders of the rural association of Catatumbo are now a military objective. Because of this threat we are requesting that the Colombian State adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the life, personal integrity, and the civil and human rights of the leaders of the Catatumbo Rural Association and of all of its members.
8) As a consequence of the ongoing violence in the region, the victims of forced displacement, who never received the attention and social-economic help they needed, have decided to return to their territories. However, they still have not received any guarantees nor have they been helped by any accompaniment from the National System of Integral Attention to the displaced population.
9) The abandonment by the state in the Catatumbo region is manifest in the total lack of social investment in the area: there is a continuing lack of teachers in the schools and a high turnover; the health clinics lack infrastructure, medical personnel and resources; the roadways are neglected and in ruinous conditions. These are only some of the many deficiencies.
THEREFORE, THE COMMISSION
RECOMMENDS
First: That the control organisms and relevant authorities move forward the investigations and adopt exemplary sanctions relative to the denouncements that the inhabitants of Catatumbo have been making for the last year.
Second: That the national, departmental and local authorities and the national and international human rights organizations coordinate and organize a new verification commission in order to follow up the human rights situation in Catatumbo; that they guarantee the participation of the state organisms of control and the General Procurator of the Nation in said commission.
Third: The implementation of public policies and integral development plans for Catatumbo with the full participation of the communities; the promotion and protection of the human rights and of the quality of life of the Catatumbo inhabitants.
Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI 53701-1505
phone: (608) 257-8753
fax: (608) 255-6621
e-mail: csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net
Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI 53701-1505
phone: (608) 257-8753
fax: (608) 255-6621
e-mail: csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net
PRELIMINARY REPORT ISSUED BY THE SECOND COMMISSION OF
VERIFICATION OF THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CATATUMBO
July 6 – July 11 2008
The Commission
Various human rights organizations participated in the Commission: the Colombian European and United States Coordination, the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes, the Planeta Paz Platform, CODHES, the Corporation for the Development of the Colombian Northeast, the Lawyers’ Collective, and the Rural Association of Catatumbo – ASCAMCAT. International observation organisms also took part: the International Peace Brigades, and the International Peace Observatory (IPO). Also attending were delegates from the Vice-President’s Office of Communities at Risk and the Procurator from the Municipality of San Calixto.
The principal objective of the Commission was to follow up the extremely serious reports collected in the first verification commission which took place from August 9th – August 12th in 2007. During this session the Commission documented 160 human rights violations involving official criminal and disciplinary liability on the part of the national army’s Mobile Brigades No. 15 and XXX. Serious concerns about supervision and control on the part of local, national and departmental supervisory organisms charged with the protection and guarantee of human rights were also noted. After a visual inspection of Catatumbo, in which 360 delegates from 51 rural communities from the El Carmen, Convencion, Teorama and Tarra municipalities took part, the commission verified that the following situations continue:
1) Serious human rights violations persist in the municipalities of El Carmen, Convencion, Tecrama and el Tarra. In these rural areas of scarce economic resources, the inhabitants continue to be the victims of arbitrary and illegal actions by the National Army: indiscriminate bombings, illegal detentions, threats, psychological and physical torture, registrations, illegal searches, illegal occupations of schools, lootings and plunders, illegal charges, destructions of goods and, the most egregious, extrajudicial executions of rural inhabitants by the army which are later justified as a necessary part of their counter-insurgency fight
2) Fumigations, which in the majority of cases are accompanied by bombings and machine-gun fire. These are serious violations of human rights and have resulted in grave risk to the lives, physical integrity, health, livelihoods and food security of the region’s inhabitants. The environment and natural resources of the area have also been affected – wells have been contaminated and the delivery of drinking water was disrupted in the Tarra municipality for three days.
3) The implementation of the National’s Government’s Reinsertion Program by the national army which uses illegal and arbitrary methods: intimidation, coercion, psychological pressure, threats of judicial prosecution, false orders of detention and physical maltreatment; and, in an attempt to get information about the structure and membership of the insurgency, direct threats on the lives of the Catatumbo people. In addition to these violent persuasions, army personnel have tried to entice people to join the Reinsertion Program and to incriminate members of their own community by bribery, with offers of money. There sole purpose in engaging in these criminally violent behaviors is to show the country that the Reinsertion program is a success.
4) The armed insurgent groups continue carrying out actions that are prohibited by International Human Rights Law: the use of anti-personnel mines, combat in civilian areas and attacks against the oil pipelines in Cano Limon Covenas. These actions affect the peace, food security, health and the ability to enjoy a peaceful and healthy environment.
5) In that which concerns the paramilitaries, indications are that the denouncements which have compromised the participation of the demobilized in the paramilitary structure have resulted in their joining the ranks of the army in the region. There have also been denouncements of a paramilitary presence – the self-named Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) - in the Carmen, Ocana and Tecrema municipalities. The on-going intimidation of the National Army intensifies the danger these groups represent to the population in that the army uses these groups to terrify the civilians by threatening to unleash these same “black eagles” on them and their communities.
6) The communities were very gratified with the work of the Commission which heard their denouncements and descriptions of the attacks committed against them by armed groups, since neither the authorities nor the judicial organisms have taken any notice of their complaints and denouncements; nor have there been any positive results from the cases that have been investigated and sanctioned. This lack of action has led to the necessity of reporting the violations directly to the Procurators Offices in Ocana and Cucuta.
7)) Those of us who accompanied the Commission have since received threats by members of the police force who have indicated that the leaders of the rural association of Catatumbo are now a military objective. Because of this threat we are requesting that the Colombian State adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the life, personal integrity, and the civil and human rights of the leaders of the Catatumbo Rural Association and of all of its members.
8) As a consequence of the ongoing violence in the region, the victims of forced displacement, who never received the attention and social-economic help they needed, have decided to return to their territories. However, they still have not received any guarantees nor have they been helped by any accompaniment from the National System of Integral Attention to the displaced population.
9) The abandonment by the state in the Catatumbo region is manifest in the total lack of social investment in the area: there is a continuing lack of teachers in the schools and a high turnover; the health clinics lack infrastructure, medical personnel and resources; the roadways are neglected and in ruinous conditions. These are only some of the many deficiencies.
THEREFORE, THE COMMISSION
RECOMMENDS
First: That the control organisms and relevant authorities move forward the investigations and adopt exemplary sanctions relative to the denouncements that the inhabitants of Catatumbo have been making for the last year.
Second: That the national, departmental and local authorities and the national and international human rights organizations coordinate and organize a new verification commission in order to follow up the human rights situation in Catatumbo; that they guarantee the participation of the state organisms of control and the General Procurator of the Nation in said commission.
Third: The implementation of public policies and integral development plans for Catatumbo with the full participation of the communities; the promotion and protection of the human rights and of the quality of life of the Catatumbo inhabitants.
Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI 53701-1505
phone: (608) 257-8753
fax: (608) 255-6621
e-mail: csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net
Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI 53701-1505
phone: (608) 257-8753
fax: (608) 255-6621
e-mail: csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net
posted by CSN at 9:08 AM
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