Stand by Colombia's Victims of Violence

Congressional Human Rights Caucus Briefing
"The Colombian Conflict: The Victims’ Search for Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation in Colombia"  

LAWG invited four members of the Colombian Victims' Movement to the U.S. to speak directly with policymakers in Washington and New York. The delegation testified in front of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in the House of Representatives. Below is the testimony of Marleny Orjuela, Executive Director of ASFAMIPAZ, the Association of Police and Soldiers Held Captive and Freed by the Guerrillas.

Honorable Members of Congress:

To the honorable members of the U.S. Congress who have listened to our testimony, our greetings and gratitude in the name of the Association of Families of Police and Soldiers Held Captive and Freed by the Guerrillas in Colombia, “ASFAMIPAZ.”

In Colombia, 34 of our sons and family members (police and military officials and lower-level officers) have been held by the guerrillas of the FARC-EP for up to 7 or 8 years. Because of the armed conflict in Colombia, which has lasted more than 40 years, our loved ones were serving in the frontlines of the war when they were captured and now the Colombian government has left them to their own resort. The government lacks the political will to carry through a humanitarian agreement with the guerrillas so that those who are kidnapped are able to return to their homes.

Our family-members and sons have been held captive in the Colombian mountains and jungles for longer than the duration of World War II. Even though they are the ones who are being held captive, their families also suffer in every one of their homes. However, hope does not fade in any of our homes. We still believe that, with all of your help, the government will agree to sign a humanitarian agreement with the FARC-EP that will liberate our 34 sons and family-members, the 3 U.S. citizens that have been held captive for 32 months, the 22 politicians that have been kidnapped for more than 4 and 5 years, and many other people who are currently being held captive in Colombia.

In 2001 the mothers and families that today belong to ASFAMIPAZ were successful in lobbying for a humanitarian agreement between the guerrillas and the government of Andrés Pastrana. Through this agreement 55 policemen and sick soldiers were to be freed in exchange for 14 imprisoned guerrilla members. In the end, the guerrillas returned 304 additional policemen and soldiers.

We ask you today for all your support and solidarity so that the Colombian government shows political will and carries out a new humanitarian agreement. Our families do not accept rescue missions by force because they jeopardize the lives we are trying to save. A humanitarian agreement would show the world that saving lives and letting human rights prevail is more important than legal technicalities and political rivalry caused by war.

We are clear about the fact that in Colombia kidnappings have not been reduced. For the last 3 years between 6 and 7 people have been kidnapped daily.

We need your support so that the victims of the war in Colombia can obtain truth, justice and reparations from the Colombian government. We have to end impunity so that crimes do not remain unpunished, which is what is currently happening with most human rights violations in Colombia. Impunity is the rule particularly in the cases of the detained and disappeared. We believe that the families of those who have been detained and disappeared have an even greater suffering than ours because everyday they await the arrival of their loved ones who NEVER arrive. They don’t know where they are, or what happened to them; it is an indefinite mourning. The Families of the Detained and Disappeared, along with many other victims groups, have formed the national Movement of Victims of State Violence to fight for truth, justice and reparations and against impunity.

Honorable members of Congress, in the name of the Association of Families of Police and Soldiers Held Captive and Freed by the Guerrillas in Colombia I thank you for your attention. I hope that my testimony, along with the testimony of the members of the national Movement of Victims of State Crimes, will motivate you to increase your support for peace initiatives in Colombia and for a humanitarian agreement.

Congressional Human Rights Caucus Briefing
"The Colombian Conflict: The Victims’ Search for Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation in Colombia"  

LAWG invited four members of the Colombian Victims' Movement to the U.S. to speak directly with policymakers in Washington and New York. The delegation testified in front of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in the House of Representatives. Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director of the LAWG, tesified with the group. Below is her testimony.


Honorable Members of Congress:

Many thanks to Representatives Lantos and Wolf, and the staff of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus for giving this importance space to victims of the Colombian conflict, and to Representative McGovern for chairing this briefing and to Rep. Farr for his attention to these issues.

When a conflict appears to be ending, some members of the international community, who are understandably anxious for peace to be concluded, can be impatient. We want the loose ends tied up, we want to hear about reconciliation, about the cessation of violence, we want to hear how a society is moving on. Yet inadequate space for justice and for truth, even in cases where there are serious peace negotiations, can lead to continued violence, unreformed military structures and instability, or unresolved questions that trouble societies for decades. In countries like Chile and Argentina, for example, the search for an adequate measure of truth and justice persists more than twenty years after a period of severe human rights violations.

In Colombia, this search for truth and justice has barely begun. But it is an important moment indeed to be asking questions about how the search for truth and justice should take place. In the last two years the Colombian government has been negotiating with illegal paramilitary forces to convince them to lay down their arms. This is, of course, a laudable goal we all share. It is important for us to understand however, the unusually intense concerns that exist over the process --- which are based not on abstract notions of justice but on a real fear that the violence will simply continue in new forms. Because the paramilitary forces openly claim to be fighting to support the Colombian state – not to oppose it like most insurgent forces—and because of the well-documented, pervasive links beween some members of the Colombian security forces and paramilitaries, there is considerable skepticism about exactly what has been negotiated between the Colombian government and paramilitary forces in a process perceived as very untransparent. What is occurring is at best the demobilization of part of one group, but not a peace process as generally understood. Meanwhile, the war with the guerrillas rages on, and hope of negotiations for a broader, just and lasting peace remain on the far horizon.

We’re not going to begin to propose solutions to all of Colombia’s troubles at this hearing. What the Congressional Human Rights Caucus is doing here however is very important, and if the Colombian government were to consistently and meaningfully do the same, it would bring Colombia one step closer to an eventual peace. And that is, to stop for a moment and listen to the voice of the victims. And even more importantly, to find the mechanisms and the political will to give them real decision-making space in questions of peace, truth, justice and reparations. Only with such participation can the real healing of a divided society begin.

We have here today not the full universe of victims – the Colombian conflict is too complex and brutal for any four people to represent – but important sectors harmed by all sides. The son of a renowned senator murdered by paramilitary forces; a representative of the relatives of the disappeared; the head of an association of army and police members captured by the guerrillas; and a union leader, in representation of so many union members who have been threatened, exiled and killed. Thank you for giving them the opportunity to be heard.

Washington, DC – This Thursday, Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe will meet with President Bush at his Texas ranch. On Uribe's agenda will be firming up support for billions of dollars in future aid from the United States and his request for millions more to support his plans to demobilize up to 20,000 paramilitary fighters.

"The United States should not be such a pushover in its dealings with the Colombia government," commented Latin America Working Group Education Fund director Lisa Haugaard. "We should get some real progress in strengthening the rule of law in exchange for our billions of dollars in assistance."

Military aid on hold. The White House will be lauding Colombian President Uribe’s accomplishments. But a little-known story is that 12.5% of last year’s military aid was frozen for half the year over lack of progress in cases involving extrajudicial executions and other abuses by Colombia’s military. Under pressure from the U.S. embassy, two cases slowly advanced – on July 12, formal charges were brought against soldiers of the U.S.- funded 18th Brigade for the extrajudicial execution of three trade union leaders in August 2004, and on June 30, arrest warrants were issued for soldiers in the shooting deaths of five members of a family, aged 6 months to 24 years old, in Cajamarca in April 2004. However, this is slow progress, made reluctantly after the Colombian government initially said the unionists died in combat and the family was killed accidentally. Many other cases go nowhere. For example, little progress has been made in investigating the case of two families in San José de Apartadó who were murdered and their bodies dismembered in February 2005, with evidence, according to witness, pointing to soldiers, and the high-profile Mapiripán massacre case is still dragging through the courts.The State Department’s decision to certify that Colombia meets the human rights conditions for the remaining FY04 military aid and 12.5% of FY05 military aid will be controversial. (75% of U.S. military aid through the foreign aid bill is sent without conditions; the remaining 25% is subject to the human rights conditions in law, requiring that the Colombian government make progress in investigating and prosecuting security force members engaged in gross violations of human rights or collaboration with paramilitary forces.)A letter sent by 22 Senators on July 1st called for Secretary Rice “to refrain from certifying that the Colombian government meets the human rights conditions… until further progress is demonstrated.” Click here to see the letter.

"The State Department should use the leverage it has—not give away the store," said Lisa Haugaard. "The price of U.S. assistance should be respect for human rights."

Demobilization funding. President Uribe will also likely be asking for U.S. funding for a controversial plan to demobilize paramilitary fighters. Since 2002, the Colombian government has been engaged in negotiations with illegal paramilitary organizations under the umbrella of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, the AUC. The AUC is a major drug trafficking organization, and is also on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

In June, the Colombian congress approved a “justice and peace” law that will serve as the legal framework for the ongoing negotiations. The law virtually ensures impunity for paramilitary leaders who have committed human rights and drug trafficking crimes. It provides generous benefits for paramilitary leaders who demobilize, without requiring that they fully dismantle their organizations. Prosecutors will have only 60 days to investigate and charge demobilizing commanders for the atrocious crimes they are alleged to have committed. In Colombia, similar investigations routinely take a year or two before charges are formally filed. Commanders who fail to fully confess their crimes or turn over illegally obtained assets will still enjoy minimal sentences. Commanders do not have to ensure that the men under their command demobilize.

"Of course we support a just and lasting peace in Colombia. That is precisely why, with regret, we have to urge our government not to provide support for the paramilitary demobilization under the current conditions," said Lisa Haugaard. "Where is an honest balance between peace and justice? Where is the truth commission, as in most serious peace processes, or a role for victims in justice and reparations? Most importantly, where is there a guarantee that the paramilitary leaders and drug traffickers will not retain, or even strengthen, their hold over Colombian society? This demobilization is a series of disturbing, unanswered questions. Under these conditions, we should not foot the bill."

Recommendations. The Latin America Working Group Education Fund, Center for International Policy, Washington Office on Latin America and U.S. Office on Colombia produced a Blueprint for a New Colombia Policy that makes ten recommendations for improving U.S. policy to the country.

For more information, contact: Lisa Haugaard, 202-546-7010.

"We are confident that you share our admiration for journalists who risk their lives to bring us the news each day. Over the last ten years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Colombia has been the third most dangerous country in the world for journalists to work. Thirty journalists have been killed since 1995, and many more have been threatened and forced into exile." Read the full letter (PDF).