WHILE THEY PROTECT THE PARAMILITARIES, THEY KEEP ON TRYING TO DESTROY THE CIVILIAN POPULATION

Original Source: Peace Community of San José de Apartadó

(Translated by Eunice Gibson, a CSN volunteer translator.) 

 

Fifteen days ago, we reported to the country and to the world how the paramilitary organizations are continuing their actions in our territory.  They have their bases where they have always been, protected for years by the armed forces and all the other government authorities.

 

We have filed complaints about the actual things that those organizations have done to terrorize our Peace Community and all the campesinos in the area.  Nevertheless, the government and the media continue to fool the whole world by insisting that there are no longer any paramilitaries, but only groups of common criminals with no relation to the government.

 

Today once again we are filing complaints about new attacks:

 

*  On Wednesday, October 12, 2011, at about 7:00 p.m., in the town of La Resbalosa, a plane fired bursts of gunfire at the homes of members of the Peace Community.  Two bursts landed in the patio at the house of a member of the Community's Internal Council and the result was that the families had to run for their lives, in the darkness, to take refuge at other locations, to escape the indiscriminate bombing that the Army was carrying out.  This was a war crime.

 

*  On Saturday, October 15, 2011, at about 9:00 a.m., paramilitaries set up checkpoints at the entrance to the town of Batata, which borders on several settlements of our Peace Community.  They were making illegal "registrations" and they told the people that anyone they didn't know or who would not work with them, they would kill.

 

*  On Sunday, October 16, 2011, at about 3:00 p.m., in the town of La Esperanza, which is attached to our Peace Community, paramilitaries from Nuevo Antioquia accosted a group of youngsters who were playing.  They accused the kids of being guerrillas and supporters of the guerrillas.  They threatened them and demanded that they work with them if they wanted to remain in the area.

 

*  Between the weeks of October 10 to October 23, 2011, there have been daily indiscriminate fumigations in the towns of La Resbalosa, Alto Joaquin and Puerto Nuevo, settlements of our Peace Community.  That has damaged subsistence crops and poisoned animals and put people's lives at serious risk, because these poisons have contaminated the water.  People have been obligated to look in other towns for basic survival resources.

 

All of these events continue to reveal the injustice and the criminal behavior of some of our authorities.  They take refuge in the total impunity that characterizes this government.  They bombard the civilian population while the paramilitaries with their bases carry out terror in the name of the government and commit every kind of crime, and they are protected.  The government keeps on attacking the lives and the survival of the community and of the campesinos in the area.  When will this end?

 

 For our part, we are continuing steadily to defend our lives and to file complaints about these atrocities.  Some day those criminals will be prosecuted and punished.

 

Peace Community of San José de Apartadó

 

October 26, 2011

(This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.)

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