Human Rights organizations that make up the Ad-Hoc Committee of Human Rights Defenders of Colombia denounce the following, before the national and international community.
1. Today, May 13, 1998 a police vehicle with approximately 20 heavily armed men carried out a search in the office of the Intercongregational Commision of Justicia y Paz at 1 pm. These men belong to the "Special Anti-Guerrilla Forces" of the National Army, who were acting as "support" to a Judicial Commission led by a woman from the Regional Attorney General's Office in Bogota.
2. The warrant for this search was based on reports from military intelligence stating that in this Human Rights NGO information could be found on a network of urban support system for a guerrilla organization. The warrant states specifically that the objective of the search was to find documents and other information in the computers of this organization.
3. Once the situation was know, a number of Human Rights defenders went to the Office of Justicia y Paz (located at Calle 36 # 15-39 in the "Teusaquillo" neighborhood ) to see what was occurring. A group of four people entered the office and their identification numbers were registered. Immediately, all were ordered to leave with the exception of Leonel Suarez, a lawyer from ILSA, who served as the legal representative for those affected.
4. Approximately one hour later, the group of human rights defenders reported that they were being filmed by the military personnel. The military also prohibited any of the office staff to use the phones and did not allow them to stand near the windows to prevent any communication with the NGOs representatives outside.
5. One of the occupants at the time of the search was Sister Nohemi Palencia, a nun from Congregation "La Presentacion". Sister Nohemi has been the victim of numerous death threats, and whose case is under precautionary measures ordered by the Inter American Human Rights Court.
6. Among those present at the office were two members of the Presidential Council on Human Rights who only stated that the search was being carried out correctly from a legal perspective. They then left the scene.
7. The Intercongregational Commission of Justicia y Paz has been one of the most active human rights organizations since the latter part of the 80's. It has worked on important cases of human rights violations, particulary those with links to the paramilitary and military groups. Among these reports is the Paramilitary Project in the Chucuri region, a number of crimes against human rights in Trujillo, Valle, and periodic and systematic information distributed nationally through their human rights database.
Recently, a coalition of Human Rights NGOs led by Justicia y Paz initiated a large project to clarify the crimes of Lesa Humanity in the country commited since the 70's. The files and documents from this project, entitled "Nunca Mas" ("Never Again") are housed at this office.
Last year, the Secretary General of Justicia y Paz, the Jesuit Priest, Father Javier Giraldo was the recipient of the John Humphrey International Human Rights Award, sponsored by the Center for Democratic Development in Canada.
It is feared that similar actions may take place at other human rights organizations or that their members may be captured.
We are extremely worried about the increase in assasinations and the wave of terror and violence that has shaken our country in the past few days. These include the assasinations of our colleage, Eduardo Uman~a Mendoza and the Ex- Minister of the Defense, Retired General Fernando Landazabal of the right wing, who was murdered yesterday.
We fear that this situation of terror will become more extensive and will continue to exterminate human rights defenders and Colombians with high profiles in order to intensify the polarization that already exists. We ask the national and international communities to support us during this time, and to participate in the events programmed for the National Day Against Impunity on May 19, which is being organized by a wide range of representatives of Civil Society.
We beg you to contact your Government, your Parlament and the public in your area in order to stop the abuses and terrorizations against the defenders of human rights in Colombia.
AD-HOC COMMITTEE OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS OF COLOMBIA ASOCIACION DE FAMILIARES DE DETENIDOS-DESAPARECIDOS, ASFADDES ASOCIACION NACIONAL DE AYUDA SOLIDARIA, ANDAS ASOCIACION PARA LA PROMOCION SOCIAL ALTERNATIVA, MINGA BENPOSTA, "NACION DE MUCHACHOS" DE COLOMBIA CENTRAL UNITARIA DE TRABAJADORES DE COLOMBIA, CUT, Departamento de Derechos Humanos CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION Y EDUCACION POPULAR, CINEP COMISION COLOMBIANA DE JURISTAS, CCJ COMITE DE SOLIDARIDAD CON LOS PRESOS POLITICOS, CSPP COMITE PERMANENTE POR LA DEFENSA DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS, CPDH COMITE REGIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS DEL MAGDALENA MEDIO, CREDHOS CONFEDERACION DE TRABAJADORES DE COLOMBIA, CTC CORPORACION COLECTIVO DE ABOGADOS "JOSE ALVEAR RESTREPO" CORPORACION REINICIAR CORPORACION SERVICIOS PROFESIONALES COMUNITARIOS "SEMBRAR" DEFENSA DE LOS NIN~OS INTERNACIONAL, DNI COLOMBIA FONDO ALEMAN DE SOLIDARIDAD CON VICTIMAS DE LA VIOLENCI, RAMA JURISDICCIONAL, "FASOL" FUNDACION MANUEL CEPEDA VARGAS FUNDACION PROGRESAR, Departamento de Derechos Humanos INSTITUTO LATINOAMERICANO DE SERVICIOS LEGALES ALTERNATIVOS, ILSA INSTITUTO SINDICAL "MARIA CANO" ORGANIZACION NACIONAL INDIGENA DE COLOMBIA, ONIC PROGRAMA POR LA PAZ DE LA COMPAN~IA DE JESUS REVISTA "UTOPIAS"