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SPECIALREPORTS
| Thursday 02
September 2010 |
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COLOMBIA
US
Military
Aid
Contingent
on
Reversal
of
Rights
Record
By
Matthew
Berger
WASHINGTON
(IPS) -
As a new
administration
takes
over in
Bogotá,
some
groups
are
hoping
for
change
in the
human
rights
record
of
Colombia
- and
that the
U.S.
will use
its
clout in
the
country
to
ensure
that
change
occurs.
At some
point in
September,
the U.S.
State
Department
will
likely
certify
that
Colombia
is
meeting
the
human
rights
conditions
required
for
receiving
some of
the
military
aid
provided
by the
U.S. But
in the
year
since
the last
certification
numerous
human
rights
violations
have
occurred
in the
country,
Colombian
and U.S.
NGOs
said in
a
statement
issued
Monday.
The
groups
hope
that the
fact
that
those
human
rights
violations
occurred
while
former
president
Álvaro
Uribe
was in
power
means
that
Colombia
has a
chance
to break
that
trend
under
new
president
Juan
Miguel
Santos -
and that
the
U.S.,
which
gives
hundreds
of
millions
of
dollars
in aid
to
Colombia
each
year,
has a
chance
to
pressure
them to
do so.
The
certification
requirement
only
affects
U.S.
military
assistance
- and
only a
percentage
of it.
Moreover,
the
State
Department
has
never
not
certified
that
Colombia
meets
the
human
rights
conditions
required
for
receipt
of the
aid in
the ten
years
that
certification
has been
required.
The
certification
requirement
has
"still
been a
useful
tool
because
the
State
Department,
in
anticipating
these
decisions,
sometimes
delays
certifying
and
discusses
with the
Colombian
government
the
serious
issues
of human
rights,"
says
Lisa
Haugaard,
executive
director
of the
Latin
America
Working
Group,
one of
the 18
groups
behind
the
statement.
"It’s
been the
one tool
we have
available
to put
some
pressure
not just
on the
Colombian
government
but on
the
State
Department,"
she told
IPS.
Rather
than
simply
asking
for
delays,
the
groups
would
like the
State
Department
to not
certify
Colombia’s
human
rights
record.
Haugaard
explains
that it
has been
a
particularly
bad year
for
human
rights
in the
country.
"We’ve
seen
considerable
backsliding,
particularly
in terms
of
investigating
and
prosecuting
effectively
abuses
by the
army,
even the
most
egregious
ones,"
she
says.
Over the
past
year,
several
infractions
have
remained
unaddressed,
including
the
supposed
failure
to
prosecute
rights
violations
like the
"false
positive"
extrajudicial
executions
in which
Colombian
military
personnel
have
allegedly
executed
civilians
then
dressed
them up
as
guerrillas
in order
to
inflate
their
combat
body
count.
Though
the
cases
involve
3,000
victims
of
extrajudicial
executions
dating
back to
2002,
results
are
slow,
according
to the
groups.
In
response
to the
false
positive
scandal,
27
military
personnel
were
dismissed
in 2008,
but none
have
been
charged
with
crimes,
they
say.
They
also
write
that 31
union
leaders,
7
community
leaders
and one
indigenous
leader
have
been
killed
so far
in 2010,
and that
there
has been
an
"exponential
increase
in
threats
against
defenders
via
email
since
April
2010."
They
also
point to
the
expanded
operations
of
paramilitaries
and
criminal
groups
as well
as
evidence
of
military-paramilitary
cooperation.
Six of
the
groups -
WOLA,
CIP,
Human
Rights
First,
Latin
America
Working
Group,
Lutheran
World
Relief
and the
U.S.
Office
on
Colombia
- wrote
a letter
to U.S.
Secretary
of State
Hillary
Clinton
Aug. 20
in which
they ask
the U.S.
to press
for
reform
in these
areas
and in
protecting
human
rights
defenders.
Their
hope is
that the
new
Colombian
administration
will
offer a
new
opportunity
for
reform.
Uribe’s
government
had come
under
fire for
presiding
over a
multitude
of human
rights
abuses,
including,
most
famously,
a
scandal
in which
recordings
of the
wire-tapped
conversations
of
people
supposed
to be
critics
of the
government
-
including
human
rights
defenders,
politicians,
journalists
and even
Supreme
Court
justices
- became
public.
The
majority
of blame
for the
eavesdropping
activities
-
illegal
under
Colombian
law -
was
directed
at the
Department
of
Administrative
Services,
or DAS,
an
intelligence
agency
under
the
president’s
authority.
DAS had
grown
considerably
in size
and
scope
since
being
founded
in the
1950s,
but
following
the
wiretapping
scandals,
and
especially
the
discovery
of a
recording
of a
conversation
between
a
Supreme
Court
justice
and a
U.S.
embassy
attaché,
Uribe
ordered
the
dismantling
of DAS.
That
dismantling
has yet
to be
carried
out.
These
actions
by DAS
are the
"very
antithesis"
of the
condition
that
Colombia
respect
the
rights
of human
rights
defenders
-
required
for them
to
receive
some of
the U.S.
aid, the
groups
behind
Monday’s
statement
say.
For his
part,
Santos
has
showed
signs
that he
will
move to
distance
himself
from his
predecessor’s
record.
In his
inaugural
speech
Aug. 7,
he vowed
to do
more to
defend
human
rights,
and in
the
weeks
since
his
government
has
continued
to
emphasise
making
human
rights -
as well
as
social
issues -
a more
central
issue
than
they
were
under
Uribe.
But,
says
Haugaard,
"He’s no
clean
slate."
She
notes
that as
Defense
Minister
under
Uribe,
Santos
"was
somebody
who put
in place
policies
that
escalated
the
killings
of
civilians.
"But he
was also
somebody
who
then,
after
there
was
international
pressure
and
outcry,
put in
place
some
policies
that
began to
bring
down the
number
of
killings
of
civilians,"
she
adds.
"So he’s
somebody
who
listens
to what
the
international
community
thinks,
but also
someone
who was
implicated
in the
problems
in the
first
place."
In the
statement,
the
groups
are
asking
the
State
Department
"to
withhold
certification
until
marked
results
are seen
in
advancing
human
rights
cases
and
combating
Colombia’s
rampant
impunity."
While
she
feels
the
evidence
for
non-certification
is
there,
Haugaard
is
realistic
about
the
prospects
of their
request’s
success.
"I think
the
State
Department
will be
reluctant
to not
certify
right
now -
not only
because
it
always
has but
also
because
a new
government
is
coming
in - but
[our
request]
is based
on the
past
year of
the
facts on
the
ground,
and
that’s
what
we’re
asking
the
State
Department
to look
at."
And if
the
certification
goes
ahead
anyway?
"We’ll
see
what’s
next,"
she
says.
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