18/08/2005
stampa
invia
In Colombia, the war goes on. Death and refugees continue to be the main characters
in the never-ending story of violence in this South American country. Despite
President Alvaro Uribe’s efforts to do everything possible to show the world an
image of Colombia as a country on the path to stability, reality tells a different
tale. As shown by recent attacks.
Normal Routine. Although yet to be resolved, this killing joins a list that grows almost
daily. On both sides of the conflict, the number of dead multiplies rapidly. A
bare chronicle of the last week tells it all: On the seventh of the month, a
bicylce loaded with explosives goes off in front of the cathedral in Arauca, the
capital of a regional department with the same name, wounding six. Four are bystanders
and two are policemen. The bicycle-bomb was parked in the city center, in Simon
Bolivar Park, a few steps from the Santa Barbara cathedral. The police commander
says that such attacks are usually carried out by ELN or FARC guerrillas.
Two days later, on the ninth, skirmishes between ELN guerrillas and paramilitaries
of the United Self-Defense of Colombia (AUC) in the Madre Seca department of
Antioquia province kill seven and leave three wounded. The preceding week was
no different: On August first, in the southern area of Putumayo, combat between
FARC and regular army forces caused the death of two farmers as they fled from
gunfire along with thirty other villagers. Eleven persons are missing since
the battle. On August second, when peace talks were about to begin between FARC
and the government, a roadside bomb exploded in the Sierra Nevada mountains
in Cesar province, killing fourteen soldiers and wounding another fifteen. The
first indications are that the attack was carried out by FARC.
What Peace? Is it appropriate, therefore, to speak of Colombia as a country on the road
to peace? But that’s what President Uribe has been doing since he came to power,
whether flourishing the Patriot Plan or praising the demobilization agreed on
with the paramilitaries. He is being contradicted by participants in the agreements,
defenders of human rights, and international observers who see more victims of
the war every day. Their voices so far have been suffocated by indifference. Now
Human Rights Watch has entered the arena with a charge that the president’s demobilization
agreement is a farce, a trick to clear the names of militias guilty of massacres
of civilians. Six thousand fighters have participated in the collective demobilization
which began in 2003, but up until April, 2005, only six have been held to face
charges for thousands of atrocities. A sixty-four page HRW report entitled, “Appearances
are Deceiving” includes a series of interviews conducted with demobilized paramilitaries,
which reveal that the process is not building peace as much as whitewashing the
penal records of assassins who now plan to take up arms as regular soldiers.
Washing Dirty Linen Privately. “It’s a farce. It’s a way of silencing the system, turning its face away and
starting again from another place,” one paramilitary told HRW interviewers, after
having participated in one of the public demobilization ceremonies, in which
fighters hand over their arms and camouflage gear. The report goes on to say that,
“no “repentant” paramilitaries have confessed or paid back any of the goods they
extorted, nor are they providing important information on the criminal networks
or the financing behind the paramilitary groups. Nor are they respecting the
ceasefire imposed by the agreement. On the contrary, the most recent paramilitary
massacre took place only two weeks ago, in the rural San Miguel zone of Putumayo
on the border with Ecuador, where 25 peasants were murdered. This is an area
controlled by the guerrillas, where FARC has imposed a blockade that isolates
it from the rest of the country.”
Guarantees and Conditions. And what about the peace process with FARC? It’s on pause. The leftist guerrillas,
who continue to attack military objectives, killing both soldiers and innocents,
have accepted a proposal by the families of the hostages they have been holding
for years to exchange their hostages for FARC guerrillas in government prisons.
President Uribe has also acccepted this proposal. FARC imposes one condition:
the exchange must take place in a demilitarized zone, one that is totally neutral.
In a document written in the Colombian mountains and signed on August fourteenth,
the FARC Secretariat asks the hostage families to propose to the government an
area between the municipalities of Florida and Pradera, which must be made neutral
and secure for thirty days. Citing military reasons, FARC refuses an earlier government
proposal to carry out the exchange near the town of Calcedonia. “Always and without
exception,” states the FARC letter, “and despite international observers, contacts
between FARC and various governments have led to military provocations that must
be avoided now more than ever, as they could definitively complicate any possibility.”
The statement concludes, “We are most interested in specifying the terms and realizing
the exchange, but with full guarantees.” There is nothing to do but await the
government’s response.
stampainvia
Bloodshed undermines the credibility of peace negotiations between armed opponents
In Colombia, the war goes on. Death and refugees continue to be the main characters
in the never-ending story of violence in this South American country. Despite
President Alvaro Uribe’s efforts to do everything possible to show the world an
image of Colombia as a country on the path to stability, reality tells a different
tale. As shown by recent attacks.
The facts. Four persons were killed on Sunday, August 14, in the heart of the Norte de
Santander region in Colombia’s northeast near the Venezuelan border: two Catholic
priests, Vicente Rozo and Ramón Emilio Mora, and two construction workers at the
local police station, Miguel Carrascal and Edgar Vergel. All were aboard the same
automobile at 11:30 in the morning. Apparently, an armed group fired from the
dense vegetation along the road that leads to the village of Teorema, approximately
twenty kilometers from El Diviso,where the ambush took place. The police command
in the area attributes the attack to FARC rebels, in retaliation against anyone
working to build the police barracks.
There are two versions of the events, however, and both have been reported by
Monsignor Fabián Marulanda, General Secretary of the Colombian Conference of
Bishops. In harshly condeming the attack, Monsignor Marulanda stated, “Some say
the attack was aimed at a car containing suspected paramilitary soldiers, and
therefore the murder of two priests was a grave mistake. Others say that the
two priests were intentionally murdered, because they had gone to the area to
begin a dialogue with the guerrillas.”
Normal Routine. Although yet to be resolved, this killing joins a list that grows almost
daily. On both sides of the conflict, the number of dead multiplies rapidly. A
bare chronicle of the last week tells it all: On the seventh of the month, a
bicylce loaded with explosives goes off in front of the cathedral in Arauca, the
capital of a regional department with the same name, wounding six. Four are bystanders
and two are policemen. The bicycle-bomb was parked in the city center, in Simon
Bolivar Park, a few steps from the Santa Barbara cathedral. The police commander
says that such attacks are usually carried out by ELN or FARC guerrillas.
Two days later, on the ninth, skirmishes between ELN guerrillas and paramilitaries
of the United Self-Defense of Colombia (AUC) in the Madre Seca department of
Antioquia province kill seven and leave three wounded. The preceding week was
no different: On August first, in the southern area of Putumayo, combat between
FARC and regular army forces caused the death of two farmers as they fled from
gunfire along with thirty other villagers. Eleven persons are missing since
the battle. On August second, when peace talks were about to begin between FARC
and the government, a roadside bomb exploded in the Sierra Nevada mountains
in Cesar province, killing fourteen soldiers and wounding another fifteen. The
first indications are that the attack was carried out by FARC.What Peace? Is it appropriate, therefore, to speak of Colombia as a country on the road
to peace? But that’s what President Uribe has been doing since he came to power,
whether flourishing the Patriot Plan or praising the demobilization agreed on
with the paramilitaries. He is being contradicted by participants in the agreements,
defenders of human rights, and international observers who see more victims of
the war every day. Their voices so far have been suffocated by indifference. Now
Human Rights Watch has entered the arena with a charge that the president’s demobilization
agreement is a farce, a trick to clear the names of militias guilty of massacres
of civilians. Six thousand fighters have participated in the collective demobilization
which began in 2003, but up until April, 2005, only six have been held to face
charges for thousands of atrocities. A sixty-four page HRW report entitled, “Appearances
are Deceiving” includes a series of interviews conducted with demobilized paramilitaries,
which reveal that the process is not building peace as much as whitewashing the
penal records of assassins who now plan to take up arms as regular soldiers.Washing Dirty Linen Privately. “It’s a farce. It’s a way of silencing the system, turning its face away and
starting again from another place,” one paramilitary told HRW interviewers, after
having participated in one of the public demobilization ceremonies, in which
fighters hand over their arms and camouflage gear. The report goes on to say that,
“no “repentant” paramilitaries have confessed or paid back any of the goods they
extorted, nor are they providing important information on the criminal networks
or the financing behind the paramilitary groups. Nor are they respecting the
ceasefire imposed by the agreement. On the contrary, the most recent paramilitary
massacre took place only two weeks ago, in the rural San Miguel zone of Putumayo
on the border with Ecuador, where 25 peasants were murdered. This is an area
controlled by the guerrillas, where FARC has imposed a blockade that isolates
it from the rest of the country.”The shortage of necessities and the destruction of electric energy sources are
creating a humanitarian crisis, which the combat between rival factions makes
still more grave as they drag in innocent, unarmed civilians. Hundreds of peasant
families have been driven from their homes in search of economic survival and
safety.
Guarantees and Conditions. And what about the peace process with FARC? It’s on pause. The leftist guerrillas,
who continue to attack military objectives, killing both soldiers and innocents,
have accepted a proposal by the families of the hostages they have been holding
for years to exchange their hostages for FARC guerrillas in government prisons.
President Uribe has also acccepted this proposal. FARC imposes one condition:
the exchange must take place in a demilitarized zone, one that is totally neutral.
In a document written in the Colombian mountains and signed on August fourteenth,
the FARC Secretariat asks the hostage families to propose to the government an
area between the municipalities of Florida and Pradera, which must be made neutral
and secure for thirty days. Citing military reasons, FARC refuses an earlier government
proposal to carry out the exchange near the town of Calcedonia. “Always and without
exception,” states the FARC letter, “and despite international observers, contacts
between FARC and various governments have led to military provocations that must
be avoided now more than ever, as they could definitively complicate any possibility.”
The statement concludes, “We are most interested in specifying the terms and realizing
the exchange, but with full guarantees.” There is nothing to do but await the
government’s response.Stella Spinelli
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