Urgent Actions
Dear Friends,
Army-backed paramilitaries have declared Peace Brigades International
a "military target" after threatening both one of its members and a
women's grass roots organization it accompanies in Barrancabermeja,
Colombia.
PBI has had a long history of supporting Human Rights groups in
Guatemala as well. Please consider making a phone call (see more
numbers below) to the U.S. State Department or the U.S. Embassy in
Colombia, or write to President Andres Pastrana (President of
Colombia, Palacio de Narin~o, Bogota, Colombia, fax: 011- 57- 1-
334- 19 -40), to express your concern for the safety of human
rights defenders in Barranca, and for the safety of international
human rights monitors like Peace Brigades International.
For more on PBI's Colombia Project check out
www.igc.apc.org/pbi/colombia.html
thanks,
GNIB
February 9, 2001
Threats against international and Colombian human rights workers
COLOMBIA
Army-backed paramilitaries have declared Peace Brigades
International a "military target" after
threatening both one of its members and a women's grass roots
organization it accompanies in
Barrancabermeja, Colombia.
In the early morning of 8 February, two armed men, who said they
belonged to the paramilitary
group United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia, came to a women's
community center run by the
Organización Femenina Popular (OFP), Popular Women's
Organization, in the city of
Barrancabermeja. They men went straight to an international
observer from the non-governmental
organization Peace Brigades International (PBI), who are
accompanying OFP members in
immediate danger, and ordered him to hand over his official
papers and mobile phone. When he
refused, the paramilitaries threatened him with a gun. He and
Jackeline Rojas, an OFP activist,
therefore handed over their papers and mobile phones. When
leaving the center, the paramilitary
gunmen threatened the international observer, declaring PBI a
"military target"
Since 1994, PBI has maintained a team of international observers
in Barrancabermeja. The
organization protects human rights activists by physically
accompanying those at risk. PBI
accompanies the OFP, an internationally backed organization
working with displaced communities
in the Magdalena Medio region, which came under paramilitary
threat in January.
Background
Amnesty International is concerned that despite a heavy security
force presence in
Barrancabermeja, where a special forces unit was deployed in
January, paramilitary forces have
apparently been able to operate unhindered. One paramilitary,
who was arrested for threatening
workers at the OFP centre on 27 January, was released only two
days later. Also, the
paramilitaries are reported to have set up checkpoints and to
have killed several people in recent
weeks. Although the precise location of these checkpoints have
been reported to the security
forces, they have taken no action to confront the paramilitaries.
The security forces and their paramilitary allies have a policy
of labeling human rights activists as
guerrilla collaborators or supporters, so they can present them
as legitimate targets in the
counter-insurgency war. Human rights activists in
Barrancabermeja and the Magdalena Medio
region have suffered continuous threats and harassment for
carrying out their legitimate work to
promote and protect internationally recognized human rights. In
the past they have been the
subject of death threats, killings and disappearances at the
hands of the security forces and their
paramilitary allies. Many have been killed and others have been
forced to leave the region in fear
for their lives. The Colombian authorities have so far failed to
take action against paramilitary
groups operating in the region.
Recommended Action
Call the human rights staffers at the DC offices of your three
Members of Congress. Ask them to
call the State Department Colombia desk officer (Alex Lee
202.647.4173) and the human rights
officer of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá (Mari Dieterich
011.571.315.2130). Request that the U.S.
Embassy make a public pronouncement of concern about this
situation, urging the Colombian
authorities to take concrete action against paramilitary groups
in Barranca.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -- Taken from an Amnesty International news release:
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Amnesty International. You may download and read it. You may not
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to support future research and campaigning. Please contact your
nearest AI office.
9 February 2001
Colombia
Colombian Paramilitaries Declare International Human Rights
Organization a 'Military Target'
(New York) - In an alarming development, army-backed
paramilitaries have just declared Peace Brigades International
and the Colombia-based Popular Women's Organization (OFP)
"military targets" after threatening group members in
Barrancabermeja, Colombia.
"This direct threat against international humanitarian volunteers
in Colombia represents a significant deterioration of the
human rights situation there," stated Curt Goering, Senior Deputy
Executive Director for Amnesty International USA
(AIUSA). "Unfortunately, the authorities in Barrancabermeja
continually fail to uphold their obligation to protect the
citizens."
Thursday morning two armed men, identifying themselves as members
of the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces
of Colombia, declared members of the human rights groups as
military objectives." Peace Brigades International, which
offers a permanent international presence to threatened human
rights defenders, has been accompanying the OFP and other
groups in Barrancabermeja since the fall of 1994. This is the
first direct threat that the PBI team has received in Colombia.
Yesterday's threats were carried out in the context of increasing
tensions in Barrancabermeja. In addition to the OFP,
human rights groups such as CREDHOS (Regional Human Rights
Committee) and ASFADDES (Association of the
Families of the Detained-Disappeared) have been receiving threats
from army-backed paramilitaries. Last year hundreds of
selective killings were carried out in Barrancabermeja, making it
one of Colombia's most violent cities. This year alone,
dozens of people have been killed or "disappeared" in
Barrancabermeja by paramilitaries and guerrillas.
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