CPT releases annual report documenting violations of International Humanitarian Law in Colombia

BARRANCABERMEJA, COLOMBIA---Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Colombia releases our compilation of violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) witnessed by or reported to our team in the calendar year of 2008. The full report can be found at http://www.cpt.org/content/violations-international-humanitarian-law-colombia-december-2007-november-2008

The Colombian government officials maintain that paramilitary groups are now “extinct.” Our documentation in the Bolivar and Santander provinces gives evidence that paramilitary activity continues. New generations of paramilitary groups continue to commit the majority of the violations. Allied with the Armed Forces, they operate with impunity. Many of these violations are directed at human rights workers, community leaders, and union organizers. We have yet to see any real progress toward the rule of law and a negotiated peace.

In the report, CPT outlines violations of IHL that we observed in Colombia’s Magdalena Medio region (Bolivar and Santander provinces) and Nariño province from December 2007 through November 2008. This report includes only cases of which CPT has direct knowledge, either by having witnessed the violation or by taking information directly from victims or witnesses. We have only documented violations of IHL which relate directly to Colombia’s armed conflict. This is not meant to ignore the ongoing problem of government inattention to violations of Colombians' most fundamental rights.

Three principle actors in Colombia's armed conflict committed the IHL violations that this report covers: the Armed Forces with 20 violations documented, the paramilitary groups with 21 cases documented and the guerrilla groups with 5 cases documented.

In light of this report, CPT urges citizens of the US and Canada to contact their government officials to advocate for the following changes in Colombia policy:

• The United States Congress and President Obama's administration must continue to cut military and police aid and increase economic and social aid. The United States cannot continue to fund a war whose participants continue to violate IHL. Instead, the US should provide social and humanitarian assistance to Colombia’s 4 million internally displaced people.

• Canada and the US must refuse to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia. While extrajudicial killings and other violations of IHL continue, The United States and Canada cannot support an FTA with a country that fails to provide basic protection to its union organizers, community leaders, and human rights workers.