OPEN LETTER To Ermest Samper from Amnesty International

* News Release Issued by the 
International Secretariat of Amnesty International *
AI INDEX: AMR 23/30/98
19 MAY 1998


OPEN LETTER TO COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ERNESTO SAMPER PIZANO 

MR PRESIDENT: One month after the killing of Dr Eduardo Uman[~]a Mendoza 
and on the eve of the first anniversary of the killing of Mario
Caldero[/]n and Elsa Alvarado, I take this opportunity, as Secretary General
of Amnesty International, to bring to your attention the following: 

The international community has looked on with mounting horror and 
indignation as Colombian human rights defenders have been subjected to 
what increasingly appears to be a systematic campaign designed to
silence them and destroy their work. Over a period of years they have been
victims of a sustained campaign of harassment and intimidation ranging 
from repeated death threats to arbitrary detention, "disappearance", and
cold-blooded murder. The attacks have taken place against a background of a
concerted smear campaign designed to discredit and undermine the 
legitimate activities of organizations and individuals who work to promote
and protect human rights.

During your administration, Mr President, human rights defenders have been 
persecuted on an unprecedented scale. More defenders have been killed in 
the last four years than during any previous government. Despite repeated 
commitments to protect human rights defenders your government has 
relinquished its responsibility and has preferred to hide behind euphemisms 
attributing the attacks to "fuerzas oscuras" ("dark forces") which, it is 
claimed, can neither be identified, confronted, nor held to account.

The indifference of your government to the plight of those who peacefully
seek to protect human rights and the basic principles of democratic society
has constituted at best gross irresponsibility and at worst criminal 
negligence.

Mario and Elsa had little warning of the impending attack. Eduardo Uman[~]a, 
on the other hand, had on numerous occasions reported to the authorities 
death threats, attempted kidnappings and other attacks against his life. 
Which Colombian state human rights official can honestly say they did not 
know of the risk to the life of Eduardo Uman[~]a and yet what precisely was 
done by the authorities to identify and bring to justice those responsible 
for the long catalogue of attacks and intimidation? Tragically, the answer 
is all too evident: everyone knew; nothing was done.

In numerous reports that AI has published over the years on the human 
rights crisis in Colombia the organization has collated irrefutable evidence 
that the vast majority of serious human rights violations, including attacks 
against human rights defenders, are committed by state agents or by 
paramilitary forces which act with their acquiescence or complicity. The 
government has received these reports and the reports of many other 
independent and official bodies containing compelling evidence of direct or 
indirect responsibility of state agents in many of these attacks. In 
response, your government has frequently attempted to explain the 
violations of human rights by state agents as isolated and unconnected 
incidents. By any objective analysis, however, it is more than apparent that 
these attacks form part of a systematic, calculated campaign to eliminate 
perceived opponents by illegal means and to silence those courageous 
individuals in Colombia who still believe, despite all evidence to the 
contrary, in justice and truth and the fundamental sanctity of human life. 
Without the dedication and commitment of human rights defenders who seek 
to protect minimum humanitarian standards - whether they work to this end 
within independent organizations or state institutions - Colombia faces an 
continuing descent into total lawlessness and chaos. 

The crucial question Colombians must ask themselves is: who stands to gain 
if human rights defenders are silenced? Certainly not the tens of thousands 
of victims of human rights violations nor those millions of Colombians who 
voted for an end to the interminable internal conflict. 

However repugnant and difficult to believe, the attacks against human 
rights defenders do have a cold logic: human rights defenders are victim of 
their own achievements. Their vital role in bringing to the attention of 
national and international public opinion the reality of the human rights 
crisis in Colombia has led to pressure on the Colombia state and, by 
extension, on its armed forces, to abide by the rule of law and to abandon 
illegal practices such as eje's, "disappearances" and torture. As a result, 
human rights activists are increasingly seen in some quarters as a major 
obstacle to the pursuit of the armed forces' counter-insurgency
operations. By removing that obstacle the path would be cleared for the 
pursuit of military action in which the most fundamental human rights 
could be suppressed and violated, unquestioned and unchallenged by civil 
society.

The ambivalence of your government towards human rights organizations 
has allowed and quite possibly encouraged the escalation of attacks against 
defenders. Despite statements recognizing the legitimacy of their work, the 
failure of your government to take action against members of the armed 
forces, in active service and retired, who falsely accuse human rights 
defenders of links with subversive organizations has sent a clear message 
that the campaign of extermination will be tolerated.

Alarmed by the growing persecution of human rights defenders in Colombia,
in May 1996 Amnesty International hosted an international conference on 
the
protection of defenders in Santafe[/] de Bogota[/]. The Conference 
emphatically confirmed the principle that everyone has the right to defend
human rights, and that the defence of these rights is an endeavour to be 
shared by all people. Men and women, individually or collectively - in their 
homes, their places of work or study, through religious institutions,
social or cultural organizations, trade union, political parties or state 
institutions - whatever their philosophical beliefs or social origin,
have the inalienable right to defend and promote each and every one of their 
human rights in the struggle to achieve a world in which all people will be 
free from fear and want.

These principles were re-affirmed by the United Nations in the Declaration
on the right and responsibility of individuals, groups and organs of society 
to promote and protect universally recognized human rights and 
fundamental freedoms adopted by the 54 th session of the UN Commission 
on
Human Rights in Geneva last month. The Declaration also clearly holds 
states responsible for the protection of human rights defenders: "The State 
shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by
the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with
others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure 
adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a 
consequence of their legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in 
thisdeclaration."

It is, therefore, the incontrovertible responsibility of states to guarantee 
the free exercise of the right to promote and defend human rights. States 
are fundamentally obliged by international law to protect and promote this 
right, to prevent it from being threatened, restricted or suppressed and to 
protect the liberties and security of those who
exercise it. Your government, Mr President, has singularly failed to fulfil
that obligation.

It is to be hoped that the incoming government will assume, without 
vacillation or hesitation, this obligation and urgently adopt all measures 
necessary to counter repressive actions or intimidations by government 
agents, or their allies, against human rights defenders including
action to finally fulfil the promise you made in September 1994 to 
eradicate paramilitary organizations.

Unless and until the Colombian Government, and specifically the President
as head of state, demonstrates genuine political will to confront and expose 
the "fuerzas oscuras", those sectors who have brought Colombia to the brink 
of the abyss will continue to succeed in their aim of replacing
the rule of law with the rule of the gun, and respect for human rights with
an escalating reign of terror.


Pierre Sane[/]
Secretary General

London, May 1998