Urgent Action Update: Diana Salamanca Martinez is Freed
Three peasants remain disappeared

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What you should do

• Call and/or fax the armed actors who have a presence in the zone, so that those who have these captives in their power recognize this fact, respect her physical integrity and immediately release her.
• Ask Colombian authorities to begin immediate search actions in the perimeter where they were last seen, and encourage American authorities to request that the same be done in Colombia.
• Ask Colombian and American authorities to investigate the reasons why the municipal administration did not fulfill its promise to pick up the peasants at agreed place and time.

Contacts

Madeleine Albright
Secretary of State
+1 (202) 647 1533

William Cohen
Department of Defense
+1 (703) 697 9080

Ambassador Curtis Kamman
+57 1 315 2163

Colonel Diego Gutierrez
XVII Brigade of the National Army Telephone:
  +57 4 823 6844
  +57 4 823-9527
  +57 4 823-9526

General Herrera Verbel
IV Brigade of the National Army
Telephone:
  +57 4 230-4411
  +57 4 230-5127

Gustavo Bell Lemus
Vice-President of the Republic
Fax:
  +57 1 286-3589

Andres Pastrana
President of the Republic
Fax:
  +57 1-5616580

Jaime Bernal Cuellar
Prosecutor General of the Nation
Fax:
  +57 1-2827614

Alfonso Gomez Mendez
Attorney General of the Nation
Fax:
  +57 1-5700200

Fernando Castro Caycedo
Defender of the People
Fax:
  +57 1-345-2300

Brigadier General Gabriel Eduardo Contreras
I Division of the National Army
Telephone:
  +57 5 423-1802
  +57 5 421-0996
  +57 5 421-0482

The Intercongregational Justice and Peace commission reports to all the authorities and to the national and international community that:

1. DIANA SALAMANCA MARTINEZ, who was taken captive along with three peasants in a paramilitary operation on November 10 in Alto Bonito, municipality of Dabeiba (Antioquia), at a time when she was accompanying a group of displaced peasants of La Balsita, was handed over to a delegate of the Diocese of Apartado, yesterday November 12 during the night.

2. DIANA SALAMANCA was released near the municipality of Necocli, Antioquia, by the decision of her captors.

3. Their captors drove Diana and the other victims from Dabeiba to Necocli by land, without any of the permanent police and military checkpoints, or the mobile units set up along the road that leads to the ocean, having taken any actions.

4. The three peasants who were disappeared in the same paramilitary operation on the road that leads from Dabeiba to Mutata, remain in the same condition; their whereabouts and the situation that they are in, are unknown.

   LUZ DARY TORRES, 22, is among the peasants who were disappeared. She was forced to board the paramilitaries' truck, leaving little son, 2, in her store, located in the Alto Bonito site.

5. Considering the fact that the three peasants remain disappeared, the continuing actions of paramilitary groups through the action, omission or acquiescence of the police and military authorities, and the continued attacks against the civilian population, we reiterate our request of constructing a High Level Interinstitutional Commission that permits irreparable harm from being done to the peasant population, and to clarify, investigate and sanction those responsible for so many crimes committed against the civilian population in the municipality of Dabeiba.

   It is likewise necessary that the State and governmental entities adopt effective mechanisms to obtain the freedom of the three peasants who remain disappeared.

6. We ask that these disturbing acts contribute to the uncovering of impunity and of "cover-up" mechanisms, and we also ask that mechanisms be found that make it possible justice to be made.

   Similarly, we want the Displaced Communities of La Balsita, who are found in the city of Dabeiba, to receive from the State all the protection and attention stipulated in the International Pacts and Protocols and in national legislation due to their condition as victims, that a definitive solution to their Return with Dignity is guaranteed, and that all the necessary measures to prevent them and the other peasants from suffering irreparable harm.

7. We appreciate the gestures of support and solidarity shown by the communities victims of the war, by the diplomatic corps accredited in Colombia, by the International Community, the Colombian Church, the Diocese of Apartado, the national and international NGOs, and the media.

   Santafe de Bogota, November 13, 1999

   Intercongregational Commission of Justice and Peace