From: RED DE HERMANDAD Y SOLIDARIDAD CON COLOMBIA
        (Network of Brotherhood and Solidarity with Colombia)

Subject: Urgent Action in southern Bolivar

Background:

1. On October 25 a large paramilitary group entered the municipality of
Altos de Rosario, which is part of the subregion of Sur de Bol’var.  This
zone is included in the accord signed in Barrancabermeja between the
Colombian State and representatives of the more than ten thousand refugees
from this region.  The government promised in these accords to take every
available action to dismantle the paramilitary groups that operate in the
Madgalena Medio and in the rest of the country; and also to fully guarantee
the safe return of refugees to this region.

2. After entering Altos de Rosario, the paramilitary group assembled the
townspeople, killing eleven, disappearing others, and attacking the
property of the civilian population.  There was no effort whatsoever by
government authorities to stop the paramilitary attack.

Events:

1) Last Friday, October 30, a group of approximately 70 heavily armed men,
who identified themselves initially as army and later as paramilitaries,
set up a roadblock in the early morning hours at the site known as "La
Guarigua," approximately 7 km from the munipality of San Pablo, Bol’var.

2) Seven people were stopped at the roadblock. After handcuffing the seven
people, the paramilitaries read them "Wanted" announcements for several
people in the community [hojas de vida].  The seven detainees were
threatened with death, and physically and mentally mistreated on several
occasions.  Of these 7 people, 3 were eventually released and 4 remained in
detention.  The names of the detained people are Oscar Saiz Pe–a, Baydiris
Chamorro, Mart’n Mej’a, and Neider JosŽ Garc’a.

3) According to all of the passengers of all of the vehicles that passed by
the roadblock, the armed men issued death threats against the leaders and
participants in the recent Exodo Campesino [Peasant Exodus].

4) Peasant leaders immediately reported the roadblock, detentions, and
death threats to the National Police Corps and Colonel Correa so that they
would take the necessary measures.  The National Police went to La
Guarigua, where the roadblock had been set up, crossing paths with one of
the men who had been released by the paramilitaries only two minutes
before.  The police returned to San Pablo, claiming that the roadblock did
not exist.  Colonel Correa explained that he did not have information
confirming the existence of the roadblock and that he did not have the
technical means to inspect the site.

5) Various witnesses claimed that the armed men wore clothing of the
Colombian Armed Forces.

6) According to various eyewitnesses, small groups of army personnel were
stationed at a distance of approximately 300 meters to either side of the
roadblock, giving to the go-ahead to vehicles passing by.

7) Various eyewitnesses recognized the people manning the roadblock as
members of the Colombian Armed Forces.

8) On the same day that the roadblock was set up, a radio announcement was
broadcast stating that participants in the Exodo Campesino who were waiting
for their second checks, part of the subsidy that had been agreed to in the
recent a accords with the Colombian government, should proceed to San 
Pablo to collect them, since the Agrarian Fund [Caja Agraria] no longer had 
the funds to pay them.

9) On November 2 news was received that three graves had been found near
the roadblock.

10) On November 3 a commission composed of various members of the
government and the Red Cross went to the gravesite to proceed with the
disinterment and identification of the cadavers.  After one of the graves
had been located, a mutilated body was uncovered.  Although the body was
assumed to be that of Oscar Saiz Pe–a, a positive identification was
impossible, since the fingerprints had been burned off.

11) After members of the Armed Forces retired from the region, the
commission members claimed that they had not been given the necessary
protection to continue with the exhumation, forcing them to leave the body
in the grave.

We ask:
1) That you communicate immediately with the president of Colombia so 
that as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces he orders the Fifth Brigade 
of the Army and the Police Command of the Magdalena Medio to fight 
against this armed group, as stipulated in the accord signed with the peasants 
of this region.  Otherwise the Colombian government will be guilty by
ommission or commission.

2) Insist that Colombian take immediate actions against the paramilitary
groups that yet again are terrorizing the civilian population and
committing flagrant outrages with absolute

3) That the exhumation of the three graves proceeds.

4) That you demand that the relevant authorities investigate the events at
La Guarigua, both to clarify who is responsible and to determine the
relationship of army and police units to these events.

5) That the Colombian government proceeds with the punishment of the 
guilty parties, as stipulated in Chapter 1, point 2 of the "Accord between the
National Government and the Regional Roundtable for Permanent Work for
Peace of the Magdalena Medio," signed on October 4, 1998, in
Barrancabermeja.

Signed by:
Asociaci—n de Familiares de las V’ctimas de Barrancabermeja, coordinadora
Popular de Barrancabermeja, Uni—n Sindical Obrera USO, Di—cesis de
Barrancabermeja, Proyecto Nunca M‡s,CREDHOS, Corporaci—n Jur’dica 
Libertdad, Corporaci—n Sembrar, Asociaci—n Campesina de Antioquia - ACA-, 
Asociaci—n Nacional de Ayudas Solidarias - ANDAS-,  Asociaci—n de 
Detenidos Desaparecidos - ASFADDES-, ComitŽ de Solidaridad con los Presos 
Pol’ticos, Corporaci—n Procuradores Comunitarios, ComitŽ de Derechos 
Humanos del Nordeste, Comisi—n de Justicia y Paz de la Familia Franciscana, 
Comunidades Eclesiales de Base -CEBS-, Subdirectiva de la Cut Sec- 
Antioquia, MINGA.

Government Addresses:

ANDRES PASTRANA ARANGO
Presidente de la Repœblica
Kra.8 n.7-26  Santa Fe de Bogot‡
Tlf: 571/ 284 33 00   Fax: 571/ 286 74 34 - 286 79 37 - 284 21 86
Email: pastrana@presidencia.gov.co

NESTOR HUMBERTO MARTINEZ
Minister of the Interior
JORGE MARIO EASTMAN
Viceminister of the Interior
Kra.8  n.8-09 Santa Fe de Bogot‡
Tlf: 571/ 334 39 60 - 284 02 14   Fax: 571/ 341 97 39

RODRIGO LLOREDA
Minister of Defense
Av. del Dorado con Kra.52, Santa Fe de Bogot‡
Tlf: 571/ 222 41 25 - 222 24 45    Fax: 571/ 222 18 74

ANNEX
Oscar Saiz Pe–a is one of the peasant leaders assasinated by the militaries
at the roadblock at La Guarigua on October 30.

Oscar participated in the recent Peasant Exodus.  His commitment to the
defense of life, the battle for community rights, and his courage in
denouncing the crimes of the Colombian government against the peasants of
Colombia were the reasons for the paramilitaries cruelly cutting off his
life in this way.

We have attached a few passages of a testimony that he made days before his
murder:

"We knew from the beginning that paramilitarism is a state policy, and that
it is the State that is obliged to protect our rights and is not doing it,
that it has been doing precisely the opposite, violating our human rights.

"Many years ago there was an incredible tranquility, there were people who
said that this region was a kind of paradise, they said, 'here we live in a
paradise,' because the tranquility was excellent, everybody worked, earned
money, although not to enrich themselves, but to sustain themselves, to
live more or less well.

"Obviously there are interests of the capitalists, of the people who have
abundant capital, and also of the multinational businesses to exploit this
gold and petroleum.  We think that if they manage to sow terror in the
entire region, and force us to leave and oblige the few that remain to work
under the law or under their domination, then they will have the option of
exploiting all these riches, without the peasant having rights to these
riches.  Take the case of the gold:  the 35,000 miners who have been
working in this region, they are the ones who enjoy this capital; once a
multinational comes in, then this wealth will be for the multinational, and
obviously the peasant will have to work for a miserable wage, as is
happening in other regions.

"Once the associations, the committees, and the leadership are gone, there
will be nobody who can represent the communities, nobody who can take
initiative.  Then it will be much easer to force us to work under these
conditions.

"What we are demanding is the right to life, and it is just.

"I am telling you that the government is implementing completely mistaken
policies, because the state policy of paramilitarism is a huge mistake.  I
don't think that it is good idea to be killing your own peasants.

"Let the international community hear us, because that is the best
mechanism we have to achieve peace in Colombia, because if only the
Colombian government is involved, peace will be difficult.

"Because in a region without social development, without doubt it will be
difficult to have peace.

"The people are terrified, some don't even work their fields, because if
the owner of a small plot goes out alone to his fields, he is afraid that
at any moment the paramilitaries will come to where he is working.
Nervousness. This does not allow people to work in peace or even to leave.

"The government has not shown us that is going to effectively safeguard our
lives, the government has not given any proof of this, since there still is
not confidence, first and foremost because the paramilitaries are still in
the region, they still are around the military bases, they are very close
to these bases, to the police, they enter the villages, the towns where the
police are, and they have even been seen drinking with the police, they
sleep in the houses of the towns, a few feet from the police stations and
military bases.

"The idea then was to return and fix up our region and continue working
here, because what we have here is ours, and it is not easy to abandon the
only thing one has, knowing one has nowhere to go, knowing that one does
not have a way of living anywhere else, this is not easy.

"Five or six days ago they threatened that within twenty days they would be
in Monterrey; it also is known that more paramilitaries entered the region;
people have seen many paramilitaries already in San Blas, and some in Santa
Rosa and in the "Y"; at also has been heard in San Blas that another group
[of paramilitaries] is advancing.  The number of paramilitaries has clearly
increased.  They are settling in Santa Rosa; what's more, the commanders of
the paramilitaries are in the Las Villas de Santa Rosa hotel, quite close
to the police station, only a few meters away from it.  They have gone for
drinks at the police station.  We think that the accords, the achievements
of the Exodus, quickened their killer spirit, we imagine that they are
counting on taming the communities, taming the people, and we expect that
at any moment the murders will begin again.  They are making threatening
phone calls to people in region.  One knows in any event that they kill
whomever they please, but they have been heard to say that the leadership
of the Exodus 'will have to pay'."