Paramilitaries and the Army commit new crimes in Puerto Asis, Putumayo
August 9, 2006. Source’s name ommitted for Security Purposes
(Translated by Dave Brown, a CSN Translator)
The incidents occurred as follows:
1. On August 5th,, 2006 around nine o¹clock in the evening a group of approximately 50 armed men dressed in camouflaged uniforms along with others with camouflaged pants and black shirts, and who covered their faces with bandanas or hoods and wore bracelets that had AUC (United Colombian Autodefense organization) inscribed on them, invaded the cock fighting arena, Las Heliconias, located in the Villa De Leiva settlement in the town of La Carmelita, municipality of Puerto Asís, department of Putumayo, where a community festival was being celebrated.
2. With insults, blows and death threats, the armed men obligated those they encountered in the arena to stay face down while they submitted the women present to humiliating and abusive sexual procedures other than actual carnal access. The aggressors also took personal belongings from those they detained, especially watches, cell phones, gold jewelry and cash, such as the money collected in the community event along with the food they had prepared.
3. The suspected paramilitaries stayed in the Villa community for more than two hours, and then withdrew, after having advised the inhabitants against reporting the acts and to stay inside the arena until after seven in the morning of August sixth.
4. The suspected paramilitaries kidnapped three persons of those that they had found in the Cock Fighting Arena, among them the Nasa Indian, DOUGLAS ANTONIO PEREZ SILVAJA of the Kiwnas Chxab reservation.
5. It is worth noting that a large military contingent had been posted in the immediate area of Villa de Leiva on August 5th.
6. On August 7th , the body of the native DUGLAS ANTONIO PEREZ SILVAJA was found by members of the Kiwnas Chxab reservation in the Puerto Asis Municipal morgue where it had been taken by members of the military, who reported him as a guerilla who fell in combat. DUGLAS ANTONIO SILVAJA´s body was dressed in a camouflaged uniform.
7. It is not known where the winds of fortune have taken the other two personas detained by the supposed paramilitaries, and to this date they are counted as disappeared.
8. The community in the rural zones of Puerto Asís expresses its preoccupation and fear of the aggressive conduct of the members of the army, who intimidates the civilian population with threats and verbal aggression, frequently leading to arbitrary detainment of the local citizenry.
9. The population of the Puerto Vega-Teteye, in the municipality of Puerto Asis, express their fear which is caused by the frequent presence in the zone of a group of individuals that make up part of the paramilitary structure, that act in this municipality, where, according to the government, they have been demobilized, and who run around on motorcycles, without anyone knowing their aim, this in a region which is strongly militarized.
In the face of these acts we demand.
That the Procurador General of the nation carry out an efficient, effective and immediate investigation of these reported acts .
Procurador General de la Nación
Dr. Edgardo José Maya Villazón
reygon@procuraduria.gov.co ; anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov.co
That Dr. SERGIO CARAMAGNA, chief of the OEA (OAS, Organization of American States) Mission of Accompaniment to the Peace Process with the paramilitaries, verify the existence and the continued presence of paramilitary groups in Putumayo scaramagna@mapp-oea.org
That the national government adopt the necessary measures so that the military forces who are active in the Putumayo region abstain from violating the human rights of the population of this department and that they combat and neutralize the paramilitary groups that could be operating in El Putumayo.
Vice-President
Dr. Francisco Santos
Vicepresidente: E-mail: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co ; buzon1@presidencia.gov.co
Programa DDHH de Vicepresidencia: ppdh@presidencia.gov.co
Ministro de Defensa
Dr. Juan Manuel Santos
E-mail : siden@mindefensa.gov.co ; infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co ; mdn@cable.net.co
Bogota, D.C. August 8th, 2006.