Urgent Action: AI fears for safety of displaced communities
Amnesty International Urgent Action 291/99

Amnesty International
8 November 1999

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What you should do

We request that you write or call the individuals named below with the following requests:

expressing concern for the safety of the displaced communities of the Cacarica River Basin, particularly as they prepare to return to their homes, and for the safety of other displaced communities in the department of Choco;

calling on the authorities to take all measures deemed appropriate by the communities themselves to guarantee their safety;

urging the authorities to take immediate and decisive action to dismantle paramilitary groups, in line with repeated government commitments and United Nations recommendations.

Appeals to:

Señor Presidente Andres Pastrana
  Presidente de la Republica
  Palacio de Narino
  Carrera 8 No. 7-26
  Santafe de Bogota
  Colombia
Telegrams
  President Pastrana, Bogota, Colombia
Telexes
  44281 PALP CO
Faxes
  +57 1 286 7434
  +57 1 284 2186
  +57 1 337 1351
Salutation
  Excelentisimo Sr. Presidente
  Dear President Pastrana

Commander of the Riverine Battalion No 50 of the Colombian Navy
  Colonel Nicolas Montenegro
  Batallon Fluvial No.50 de la Armada
  Avenida de La Playa
  Turbo
  Antioquia
  Colombia
Telegrams
  Colonel Montenegro
Faxes
  +57 4 827 2476
Salutation
  Estimado Sr. Comandante   Dear Commander

Dr. Luis Fernando Ramirez Acuna
  Ministro de Defensa Nacional
  Avenida Eldorado CAN - Carrera 52
  Santafe de Bogota
  Colombia
Telegrams
  Ministro de Defensa, Bogota, Colombia
Telexes
  42411 INPRE CO
  44561 CFAC CO
Faxes
  +57 1 222 1874
Salutation
  Sr. Ministro / Dear Minister

Copies to:

Intercongregational Commission for Justice and Peace
Comision Intercongregacional de Justicia y Paz
AA 31861
Santafe de Bogota
Colombia

Forcibly Displaced Communities of the Cacarica River Basin and other displaced communities in the Department of Choco.

Amnesty International fears that paramilitary groups intend to attack the forcibly displaced communities living in Choco department, whom they have accused of manufacturing cocaine and sheltering guerrillas. The communities are preparing to return to their homes in the Cacarica River Basin, an area of military and economic importance which both the army and their paramilitary allies and the armed opposition want to control.

An open letter signed by an umbrella group of paramilitary forces, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia, dated 31 October 1999, alleges that there are cocaine processing plants near where the communities are living in Choco, and claims this is proved by the seizure of "insumos para el procesamiento de alcaloides en una de las embarcaciones que suministra ayuda humanitaria a estas comunidades", "a cargo of chemicals for the processing of alkaloids on one of the boats supplying the communities with humanitarian aid".

The boat in question was raided between 20 and 21 October, reportedly in the Cacarica area. The commander of the Batallon Fluvial 50 de la Armada, Riverine Battalion No 50 of the Colombian Navy, is reported to have suggested to the media that the aid supplies and the chemicals were intended for members of the communities of the Cacarica River Basin. The Red de Solidaridad, Solidarity Network, a government relief agency, has apparently denied this.

The letter, reportedly sent to a priest working for the Diocese of Apartado, which covers areas of Antioquia and Choco departments, also accused displaced communities of inviting Colombian and foreign journalists to the department of Choco to speak to "elementos de la guerrilla que se indentifican como campesinos", "guerrilla members who identify themselves as peasant farmers". BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The communities of the Cacarica River Basin, forcibly displaced in a joint paramilitary-military offensive in February 1997, were among many forcibly displaced from their lands in Uraba by massacres committed by army-backed paramilitary groups and guerrilla organizations in 1996 and 1997. Some of them sought refuge in the municipality of Turbo, department of Antioquia. Others sought refuge in Panama before being repatriated to Bahia Cupica, municipality of Bahia Solano, department of Choco.

The communities have gradually returned to the areas in which they lived and set up "Peace Communities" to try to persuade the warring factions to respect their neutrality in the conflict and their right to life. Since then, many community members have "disappeared", been extrajudicially executed, or threatened with death, mainly by army-backed paramilitary groups, but also by members of the Colombian army and the guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, (FARC), Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Paramilitaries attacked the Peace Community of San Francisco de Asis in April 1999, and there have been persistent rumours in the region of further paramilitary attacks (see UA 70/99,AMR 23/30/99, 8 April 1999, and follow-ups). Guerrilla groups have also recently killed several members of the San Francisco de Asis community.