Declaration of Pax Christi International to the Commission on Human Rights 
of the United Nations, Gineva, 53rd Period of Sessions.
					April 8, 1997

			Human Rights in Uraba, Colombia

From March 22-27, 1997, Dutch Pax Christi visited the region of Uraba, 
Colombia.  The delegation was accompanied by a member of the Dutch 
parliament.  It interviewed representatives of different sectors of civil 
society and the Church;  with the parties in conflict as well as municipal 
and regional authorities.  Their observations are as follows:

Since the visit of Pax Christi in March of last year, the human rights 
situation has not improved.  The individual assassinations of civilians have 
continued unremittingly.  The impunity is as rampant as ever; nearly 97% of 
the crimes carry neither justice nor punishment.  In Uraba, the numbers of 
displaced persons has reached several thousand.  Recently the government 
of Antioquia and the national government promised assistance for the 
displaced victims.  Nonetheless, when we visited the region, the mayors of 
the municipalities found themselves practicially alone with the enormous 
problem of the displaced.*

Ever since February, 1997, the civilian population of Uraba, Choco, 
especially near the municipality of Riosucio--an area traditionally 
dominated by the guerilla forces--is being intimidated, held hostage and 
threatened by groups which identify themselves as ÔparamilitariesÕ or Ôself-
defense groups.Õ  These groups are forcing people to leave their lands and 
their homes, abandoning their livestock and crops.  Some have died in the 
long trek through the jungle, particularly children.  As a method of 
intimidation, executions take place in front of the people living in these 
communities.

One of the most recent and well-known executions is the case of a young 
peasant from the village of Vijao, Marino Lopez.  His body was decapitated 
and dismembered as a warning to the population.  As of this writing, the 
authorities still havenÕt taken adequate action.  During the same period, the 
areas around the municipality of Riosucio (Choco) were bombed by the 
Armed Forces, thereby forcing the inhabitants to abandon their lands.

As a result of those activities, the civilian population is fleeing, out of 
panic, by whatever means they can; the majority by foot, in canoes, mules, 
small buses, etc., heading for the cities or the neighboring country of 
Panama.  In this process many families are being split up; parents leave the 
family as a result of threats, or because they are assassinated.  Against 
these paramilitary activities, neither the guerilla forces (which pretend to 
protect the population) nor the army (which also pretends to protect the 
population) are able or willing to provide effective protection to the 
civilian population.  After the aforementioned atrocities, the abandoned 
villages are generally occupied by the official army and the paramilitaries.  
Their underhanded methods create a concentration of land in the hands of 
owners who at this moment are largely unknown.
The regional commander of the army, the general Alejo del Rio Rojas of the 
17th Brigade in Carepa, declared that he cannot guarantee the return of the 
thousand of displaced--who are mainly women and children--to their 
properties.  At this time, the refugees are concentrated in improvised 
refugee camps.  
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The guerillas (and above all the EPL and the FARC) lost a lot of ground in 
Uraba as a result of military defeat to the paramilitaries or due to 
voluntary surrender of their members and leaders to the so-called ÔACCUÕ 
(Peasant Self-Defense of Cordoba and Uraba) and to the army.   The ACCU are 
not a legal organization, but nonetheless took on considerably the state task 
of receiving, protecting, and assisting in the legalization of status of ex-
guerilla fighters, giving them land and technical assistance in their process 
of reintegration.  As such, the ACCU aspire to establish the guidelines for 
relating without the guerillas and their supposed allies in the lands that 
they control.

With regards to the situation in Uraba, the absence of an effective state is 
a very grave matter.  The actual power lies in the hands of groups on the 
fringes of the law.  As a reaction to the paramilitary strategy of Ôcleansing 
the country of guerillas,Õ the guerillas try to regain territory in Uraba.  In 
the process, many civilians are killed, because they are branded--fairly or 
unfairly--as collaborators with the enemy.  In the last few years, hundreds 
of administrators, members of town councils, mayors, community leaders, 
as well as indigenous people, have been assasinated.

The forces of the state, especially the army, are not being observed as 
neutral by the population, but rather as part of the conflict in conjunction 
and collaboration with the paramilitaries.  As such, the military is 
incapable of protecting the innocent civilian population, since putting down 
the guerrillas seems to be the principal objective of the military.  Fear, 
terror and impunity seem to be the reining authorities in Uraba.


Recent Developments

Breaking the logic of this continual process of mutual retaliation, the ACCU, 
on March 26, responded positively to the plea of a priest from the diocesis 
of Uraba and Pax Christi, unconditionally returning the last five civilians 
whom they had kidnapped (family members of the guerrilla leaders of the 
ÔSimon Bolivar CoordinatorÕ group, kidnapped in retaliation).  The intention 
of this unilateral gesture was to show good will, to break the vicious circle 
of violence and mutual secuestration.  However, up to the present, the 
guerillas have responded in negative form.  They refused dialog with the 
ACCU, due to their being located on the fringes of the law, and conditioned 
their peace negotiotiations with the central government in such a way that 
the authorities would have great difficulty complying with their demands 
(to demilitarize extensive areas of Colombian territory).

Neither did the guerilla forces show a sincere willingness to set free the 
sixty soldiers whom they captured in August, 1996 at the military base of 
Las Delicias in Caqueta.**

In the midst of this ever increasing violence, the diocesis of Apartado is 
promoting ÔCommunities of Peace,Ó where the armed groups, whether legal 
or illegal, retreat from a place.  The inhabitants agree not to collaborate 
with any armed group and agree not to carry weapons, in order to rebuild 
their lives.  They ask not to be forced to cooperate with one or the other of 
the parties in conflict.

On Sunday, March 23, the office of the Chief Magistrate of San Jose de 
Apartado, an area of 28 veredas, proclaimed itself a ÒCommunity of Peace,Õ 
in the presence of the International delegation of the Dutch parlament and 
Dutch Pax Christi.  The communities and the Church invited the delegation 
to take part in international monitoring of the initiative and thereby to help 
to guarantee the development of this vulnerable attempt at peace.***


Recommendations

1)  Pax Christi calls on all parties in conflict to respect the civilian 
initiative of the ÔCommunities of Peace,Ó  which hope to regain their 
autonomy without being forced to collaborate with one or the other 
political or armed force.

2)  Pax Christi calls on the central authorities and the governing bodies of 
Antioquia to take decisive steps to provide effective protection of the 
population against the violence and to guarantee that the victims will be 
able to return to their homes and their land.  The Program of the UNHCR [UN 
High Commissioner on Refugees]  for Ôinternally displaced peopleÕ could 
possibly be applied, immediately.

3)  Pax Christi calls on the international community to increase its 
international presence in Uraba, and to participate constructively in the 
development of the ÔCommunities of Peace,Ó providing monitoring of this 
peace initiative and of other development programs.

4)  Pax Christi calls on the European Community and especially the 
multinationals to refuse to contribute in any way to the chronic violence in 
Colombia, i.e. by paying enormous sums to rescue their foreign nationals 
disappeared by the guerillas, or by paying ÔprotectionÕ money--whether to 
the guerillas or to the (para)militaries--in an effort to guarantee the 
security of their investments in the country.

Instead of contributing in any way to the violence in Colombia, the 
countries and european investors ought to contribute constructively to a 
european policy against disappearances in Colombia.

Gineva, April 8, 1997

Addition to the English text that appeared previously:

*The Ministery of the Interior publicly recognized that in the last four 
months the number of new displaced has grown to 7,500 persons.

**And the ten young sailors in Choco, in January, 1997.

***Unfortunately, beginning on Tuesday, March 27, 1997, the paramilitaries 
developed a simulated confrontation with the guerillas in the zone of the 
Office of the Magistrate, and they effected actions of intimidation jointly 
with the army over a number of days.  As a result, some persons were 
assassinated, and several hundreds of inhabitants were displaced.