AMR 23/025/2006
UA 144/06
Fear for Safety
COLOMBIA : Members of human rights NGO CorporaciÛn COMPROMISO
22 May 2006
Paramilitaries have sent a death threat by email to a human rights organization based in the city of Bucaramanga, in the department of Santander. Amnesty International believes its staff are in danger.
The email was sent on 17 May to the CorporaciÛn « COMPROMISO », which works to promote and protect human rights in the north-east of Colombia. It was copied to the indigenous organization OrganizaciÛn Nacional IndÌgena de Colombia (ONIC), the trade union UniÛn Sindical Obrera, and also to the human rights organizations Viva la CiudadanÌa Bogot·, ConsultorÌa para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES) and the Colectivo de Abogados « JosÈ Alvear Restrepo ».
The email was sent from the same email address used to send a threatening email to the Colectivo de Abogados on 8 May. The email address includes the words Colombia Libre (« Free Colombia ») which is the name used by the paramilitary umbrella organization Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, (AUC), United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia, on its website. This is the largest of the army-backed paramilitary organisation that are supposedly demobilising. (See UA 131/06, AMR 23/022/2006, 12 May 2006.)
The email calls on NGOs to join the « nuevo proceso para favorecer la democracia en nuestra sagrada patria » (« new process to favour democracy in our sacred homeland. ») The email warns the threatened organizations to give up their human rights work and training, which they claim are a « disfraz de la insurgencia izquierdista » (« a front for the leftist insurgency. »)
The email states « YOU ARE ALL WARNED that here we do not tolerate third-rate supposed lawyers ... leaders...human rights defenders...that only come to align the people to retrograde communist and subversive guerrilla thought, precisely when we have been able to clean our territories of these grovellers and servile idiots who harbour these intentions, WE WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE for the safety of anyone who comes with such a purpose. »
(ESTAN TODOS ADVERTIDOS no toleramos aquÌ a supuestos abogaduchos de pacotilla... lideres... defensores de derecho humano... que solo vienen es a ALINEAR al pueblo al pensamiento comunista retrogrado y subversivo de la guerrilla, cuando precisamente hemos logrado limpiar de nuestro territorio a arrodillados e idiotas serviles de tal propÛsito, NO RESPONDEMOS por la integridad de nadie que venga con tal propÛsito.)
The email suggests that the AUC is still operating and continues to threaten the work and lives of members of NGOs that promote and protect human rights in Colombia.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Colombia’s army-backed paramilitary groups have officially been demobilising, in a government-sponsored process that will supposedly be completed this year. Despite this, Amnesty International has continued to receive reports of human rights violations committed by paramilitary groups operating in coordination with the security forces. It appears that many paramilitary groups have not demobilized at all, but are continuing to operate under new names.
Human rights organizations are frequently labelled as guerrilla collaborators or supporters by the security forces and their paramilitary allies. As a result they often suffer (disappearance(, killings or torture at the hands of army-backed paramilitary groups, or members of the security forces. Armed opposition groups have also threatened or killed human rights defenders they consider to be siding with the enemy.
RECOMMENDED ACTION : Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Spanish or your own language :
expressing concern that a paramilitary group has sent a death threat to the CorporaciÛn el Desarrollo del Oriente « COMPROMISO », ONIC, UniÛn Sindical Obrera, Viva la CiudadanÌa Bogot· , CODHES, and the Colectivo de Abogados « JosÈ Alvear Restrepo » ;
urging the authorities to take effective action, deemed appropriate by the members of these organizations themselves, to protect them so they may continue their legitimate and important work in the defence of human rights in safety ;
calling on the government to investigate all threats against human rights defenders and to bring those responsible to justice ;
calling for full and impartial investigations into the links between the security forces and paramilitary groups, for the results to be made public and for those responsible for supporting and participating in such groups to be brought to justice, in line with the human rights recommendations of the UN ;
calling on the authorities to produce policy and plans, in conjunction with human rights defenders, to guarantee their safety according to the principles of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, and to make these plans public.
APPEALS TO :
President of the Republic
SeÒor Presidente ¡lvaro Uribe VÈlez, Presidente de la Rep˙blica, Palacio de NariÒo, Carrera 8 No.7-26, Bogot·, Colombia
Fax : +57 1 337 5890
Salutation : Excmo. Sr. Presidente Uribe/ Dear President Uribe
Minister of the Interior and Justice
Sr. Sabas Pretelt de la Vega, Ministro del Interior y de Justicia, Ministerio del Interior, Av. JimÈnez No 8-89, Bogot·, Colombia
Fax : +57 1 560 4630
Salutation : Dear Sir / Sr. Ministro
Attorney General
Dr. Mario Iguar·n, Fiscal General de la NaciÛn, FiscalÌa General de la NaciÛn, Diagonal 22B 52-01, Edificio C Piso 4, Bogot·, Colombia
Fax : +57 1 414 9108
Salutation : Dear Dr Iguar·n / Estimado Dr. Iguar·n
COPIES TO :
CorporaciÛn COMPROMISO
Apartado Aereo 0538
Bucaramanga, Santander
COLOMBIA
Ambassade de la République de Colombie
Avenue F.D.Roosevelt 96A
1050 Bruxelles
Fax : 02.646.54.91
Email : colombia emcolbru.be
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 2 July 2006.
