June 1999 News

Press Release by a Group of Colombian Human Rights Organizations
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Urgent Action: Stop Impunity for Massacre at Mapiripan

Given the likelihood that once again the attempts to bring to justice military officers implicated in crimes against humanity will be treated with scorn, under the protection of military privilege, we the undersigned organizations approach you to let you know about the following events and invite you to react by contacting the Colombian authorities :

  1. On July 2, 1999, the Commander of the Colombian Army General Jorge Enrique Mora Rangel representing military justice took advantage of competing jurisdictions to seek from the Colombian Attorney General that he be the person to judge Brigadier General Jaime Humberto Uscategui-Ramirez, Colonel Lino Hernando Sanchez-Prado. Liuteniant Colonel Hernan Orozco-Castro, Second Sargent Jose Miller Uruena-Diaz and Second Sargent Juan Carlos Gamarra-Polo, all of whom are covered, except Lieutenant Colonel Orozco-Castro, by preventive detention for the crimes of conspiracy to commit crime, terrorism, aggravated homicide and aggravated kidnapping and ideological falsity, because of the investigation which is being carried formally by the Human Rights Unit of the Colombian Attorney General's Office regarding the events which took place in Mapiripan, Meta Department, in July 1997.
  2. The events were carried out during the period July 15 - 20, 1997 in the municipality of Mapiripan and recognized publically by the paramilitary chief Carlos Castano-Gil, who assured to have massacred 48 persons, the majority of whom were not found because they were tortured, dismembered, eviscerated, beheaded and thereafter thrown into the broad waters of the Guaviare River.
  3. The paramilitaries arrived at Mapiripan coming from Urabá, in civilian airplanes hired for that purpose which took off from the airports Necocli and Cefars of Apartadó. They arrived on July 12, 1997 at the airport of San Jose de Guaviare, where, canvas-topped trucks were waiting for them. It has been established that the Police and the Army had absolute control of the said airports and that all persons had to be fully identified in order to board planes there and to leave from these airports.
  4. The Human Rights Unit of the office of the Attorney General of Colombia has carried out a rigorous investigation as a result of which it has ordered the preventive detention of the members of the Army; but today the risk is being run, as has happened on prior occasions, that the Superior Council of the Judiciary will cause these initiatives to be aborted by sending the case to the military penal justice system.
Based upon what has just been mentioned, we ask that you communicate with the following Colombian authorities in terms which we propose as follows :
  1. Repudiating the fact that the President of Colombia, as Commander in Chief of the Military Forces, does not keep his subordinates from continuing to sponsor impunity for crimes against humanity through competition of jurisdiction, making a mockery not only of justice and the State of Law but also of the very will expressed by the Government that human rights should be respected
  2. Repudiating that the Superior Council of the Judiciary, in systematic pronunciations with broad interpretations of military penal privilege, impedes the efforts of the Attorney General of Colombia to try for crimes those who by action or omission perpetrate crimes of lese justice protecting themselves through the very State they represent. Insisting in failing to recognize, furthemore, the sentence of the Constitutional Court(C-358 of August 5,1999) which in one of its sections establishes that: "The totality of the actions or omissions of a member of the public forces cannot as a consequence remain contained within the privilege for military forces. For penal purposes it becomes imperious to distinguish between what actions or omissions are imputed to the person as a member of the military or police forces and which are based upon his own and singular activity as a person or an ordinary citizen. The distinction is basic and required if one wishes to preserve the specialty of military penal law, which complements penal law, but in no way substitutes for it... that the link between the criminal act and the activity related to service is broken when the crime acquires an unusual seriousness, such as happens with the so-called crimes of lese humanity. In these circumstances the case should be assigned to the ordinary justice system, given the contradiction between the crime and those committed constitutionally by the Public Forces" (emphasis added)
  3. Ask why the Superior Council of the Judiciary and the Army do not respect this jurisprudence of Colombia's highest constitutional tribunal, and wgy the Magistrates who thought their decisions continue guaranteeing a systematic impunity for the crimes against humanity which are continuing to be perpetrated in the country are not themselves subjected to criminal investigation and discipline.
  4. Demanding that the different Colombian authorities support the actions of the ordinary justice system which tend to put an end to the policy of impunity which has prevailed in the country.

The authorities and addresses to which these comments should be directed are the following :