Santafé de Bogotá, March 7, 1999

Brotherly greetings:


We want to let you know, again, about the assaults and threats 
against the life and the personal integrity that the displaced 
community of Cacarica, which is located in Turbo, Bocas del Atrato; 
and the relocated community at Bahía Cupica continue to undergo at 
the hands of paramilitary groups. The same applies to the 
questionable actions undertaken by representatives of the public 
prosecutors office in relation to the investigations and inquiries 
about the evidence offered by our Commission.


* 22-year-old JUAN VILLEGAS ARGUELLO, resident of Cacarica, was 
forcibly disappeared by paramilitary groups on January 17. The 
events took place at 2:10 p.m., near the gas station "Las Garzas", five 
minutes from the Turbo municipality, on the road that leads to 
Apartadó. Four men that were riding two motorcycles, one of them 
with no license plates, stop the bus on which JUAN and his mother 
are traveling towards the municipality of Carepa. The armed men get 
on the bus, grab Juan by the head, take him off the vehicle and place 
him on one of the motorcycles. Then, the paramilitary leave in the 
direction of the El Tres, on the road that leads to Apartadó. Although 
JUAN's whereabouts are unknown, it is assumed that he was 
murdered and buried somewhere around "La Caleta", a site where 
the paramilitaries like to throw away their victims.


JUAN VILLEGAS ARGUELLO was displaced, along with his family, 
from the Cuenca del Cacarica on February 28, 1997. Due to his 
marital relation with an indigenous woman, the La Raya Reservation 
welcomed him as a teacher for the past few months. During his stay 
among the indigenous people, JUAN was in the process of creating an 
interethnic project. 


On Tuesday, January 12, Juan arrived at Bocas del Atrato, where he 
left about 40 bundles of wood while he went to Turbo to do the 
necessary paperwork to obtain the authorization to negotiate with 
and sell the wood.


Next day, January 13, at "La Punta", a gas dispenser for boats, JUAN 
received news according to which, at Bocas del Atrato, three people 
had taken part of his load of wood. It had been "confiscated" by 
ROBINSON CORDOBA, WILLINGTON PALACIO, and EDWIN PALACIO, 
who are well-known for their ties to paramilitary groups. According 
to the versions gathered, They said that they were keeping the wood 
because "it belonged to the guerillas." A boat owner, called EUSEBIO, 
affirms that he was forced to use his vehicle to carry the wood to a 
place known as "Casanova." Apparently, the merchandise was left 
there. 


A shopkeeper from Turbo's harbor who found out about JUAN's 
predicament, advised him to appeal to the Turbo's public 
prosecutor's office or to the CONVIVIR to attempt to get back his 
wood. JUAN was called to the CONVIVIR's Turbo office on Friday, 
January 15. There, he met with ROBINSON, WILLINGTON and EDWIN, 
who assumed the obligation to return the wood to JUAN.


On the same day, JUAN and several members of the displaced 
community, traveling together, are followed by two of those three 
men. At the stadium, and while they are participating in community 
meetings, JUAN's closest friends are invited by those men to go to 
Turbo's harbor. 


On Saturday, January 16, in the afternoon, while JUAN is trying to 
negotiate his wood and faces the indifference of all businessmen, he 
is verbally and physically abused by "ROBINSON", WILLINGTON, 
EDWIN, and another young man called "EL NIñO."


On January 17, JUAN VILLEGAS is forcibly disappeared. The events 
take place while the region is visited by the Sub-Commission for 
Protection and Security, organized at the request of the national 
government, by national and international NGOs, by the United 
Nations High Commissioner's Office, and by the ACNUR, all of which 
were witnessing the process known as the Return of the Displaced 
Communities of Cacarica.


Three days later, it is discovered that ROBINSON ANGEL CORDOBA, is 
disappeared by the paramilitaries themselves. 


* 14-year-old HERNAN VERGARA, a displaced youth from Cuenca del 
Cacarica, and RAFAEL ANTONIO MUÑOZ, approximately 30 years old, 
leave on Thursday, January 28, at about 2:00 p.m., on a three-day 
fishing trip at Bahía Margarita. They are seen for the last time on 
January 29 buying food in Bocas del Atrato.


Later, on February 5, several of the victim's relatives along with 
members of the public prosecutor's office, found in Bahía Margarita, 
a site behind a military base, RAFAEL's boat, without its motor, 
without nets, and without gear. Several days later, between February 
11 and 12, RAFAEL's dead body was found, headless and legless at 
the site known as Leoncito near the banana boat slip at Nueva 
Colonia. HERNAN's whereabouts are unknown.


* Between January 23 and 28, renown paramilitaries, among them 
PEDRO BAUTISTA and a man called EDWIN, appear at Bocas del 
Atrato. The paramilitaries, armed and dressed in civil clothing, patrol 
the town all day. Nowadays, it is a common sight to see a blue and 
white "panga" (fast boat), owned by paramilitaries, traveling towards 
Riosucio. The paramilitaries questioned several locals about the 
displaced communities' activities and about those who visit them. 


* On February 5, at about 5:00 p.m., a load of wood, brought by a 
displaced family as a means to survive, arrived at Wafle. Upon its 
arrival, several men who identified themselves as members of the 
CONVIVIR, questioned the family about the origins of the wood and 
about the place where they were staying. When the family 
responded that they were going to the municipal stadium, the 
CONVIVIR told them they would check on them, as indeed they did 
the following day. 


* On February 6, NELSON MARTINEZ, a representative of the 
communities that are asking the national government the relocation, 
was intimidated by a group of men armed with submachine guns and 
dressed in civil garb, who were riding on high-power motorcycles 
that had no license plates. At about 10:30 a.m., they parked for about 
fifteen minutes in front of the home where NELSON and his family 
live provisionally, in the El Bosque de Turbo neighborhood. Next to 
them, there was another motorcycle ridden by two men, also dressed 
as civilians, wearing sport caps and carrying submachine guns, who a 
short while before had screamed at him asking him about his place 
of origin. For three days, the same men and others, also riding 
motorcycles, and belonging to paramilitary groups, remained in front 
of NELSON's home. 


Given the situation, NELSON felt forced to abandon the Turbo 
municipality that had served him as a refuge for being a displaced 
individual from Cacarica.


* PEDRO POLO MARTINEZ, who lived in Cacarica, in the San José La 
Balsa community, is murdered by members of paramilitary groups at 
the site known as Punta de Piedra. At 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 
13, while visiting a relative, the killers questioned PEDRO POLO about 
his activities, asking him, "Do you sell chickens?" To this, he 
responded negatively. When he noticed that one of the men carried a 
machine gun, he ran away, and the paramilitaries shot him down. 
PEDRO POLO was shot seven times.


While PEDRO's remains were at Turbo's municipal hospital's morgue, 
a member of the CONVIVIR told a relative of the murdered man, 
"this was a mistake, but we are already fixing things." 


* On Wednesday, February 17, at 2:00 p.m., MIGUEL DOMICO is 
murdered by two men belonging to paramilitary groups. MIGUEL, a 
member of the indigenous community from the Resguardo de 
Peranchito, in the area of Cacarica, remained several hours during 
the morning with members of the displaced community at Turbo's 
municipal stadium, during which time, he shared information about 
the situation that people are undergoing in the area. He told several 
of the participants, members of the displaced community, that he 
had brought several loads of wood in order to sell them, but that he 
saw the situation as tense. 


MIGUEL went to Puerto de Turbo afterwards. There, at the Wafle, 
several versions arose about the fact that paramilitaries were 
waiting for him because he was a "guerrilla collaborator." At the 
place known as El Tancón, witnesses saw MIGUEL, unusually, walking 
with PEDRO BAUTISTA, a renowned paramilitary.


Minutes later, a few meters before the refuge "Unidos Retornaremos", 
at the Holy Ecce Homo church, MIGUEL is intercepted by two other 
men who beat him hard around the head.


During the first investigations of the facts, done by the District 
Attorney's office among the indigenous communities, one of the 
investigators asked: "couldn't they have killed him because were 
bringing wood to the guerrillas?"


On February 19, two paramilitaries searched for DONALDO 
MOSQUERA at several sites around Turbo. Paramilitaries have 
accused him of being a guerrilla collaborator. DONALDO, from the 
Perancho region in Cacarica, had come to reap the corn harvest in 
order to survive while he continues in the condition of displacement. 
The paramilitaries could not find him either in the neighborhood 
where lives provisionally nor at Turbos' municipal stadium. Due to 
these events, he had to abandon the region.


What lies behind these murders? It would seem that, tragically, we 
are witnessing the fulfillment of an invitation expressed on 
December 9: "Those who go up to and who come down from the 
channels must be hit hard." All of this, within the framework of 
accusations, pointing out, and stigmatization that weigh down the 
displaced community. 


In the second place, we want to bring to your consideration a series 
of question marks about the procedure that is being followed in 
order to collect information and evidence about the various 
denunciations that our commission has expressed about the 
intimidations, the pointing out of people, which threaten the life and 
the physical and psychological integrity of the inhabitants of the 
displaced communities that are located in Turbo, Bocas del Atrato, 
Bahía Cupica. 


On Tuesday, January 12, at 9:00 a.m., two men riding a motorcycle 
without license plates, one of which was armed, enter Turbo's 
municipal stadium. With a folder in his hand, one of them screams 
amid a group of displaced people: "Where is AICARDO OSORIO?" 
Aicardo is a member of the displaced community and is the brother 
of JOSE LUIS OSORIO - also a displaced person from the Cacarica 
region, tortured and murdered by paramilitaries on September 10, 
1998. Aicardo's wife approaches the man and tells him that no one 
knows where he is. After several minutes in conversation, the two 
men identify themselves as members of the police, who have 
received orders to find out about the whereabouts of JOSE's relatives.


In the conversation with AICARDO's wife, they asked about the 
family properties in Unguía; about the person in Unguía in whose 
care they had left the farm; and about their life around the Cacarica. 
"Do you know why he was killed? What antecedents did JOSE have? 
We need information to locate AICARDO, his father or his mother. 
Are they together? We need the information to fulfill some 
paperwork, and we have to turn it in very soon." That was the tenor 
of their investigations. Then, they left, promising to return in a 
couple of days.


On Thursday, January 14, at 5:00 p.m., the same two men approach 
AICARDO's wife to inquire about her husband. "Can you ask him to 
come by? We have the telephone numbers of RAUL (another of 
AICARDO's brothers) in Medellín. We know that he works for the 
Environment and that he went to Pereira. We'll continue 
investigating. Who were the people that accompanied you to collect 
and bury his body in Unguía?" 


* On Tuesday, January 19, between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon, the 
Regional District Attorney, DARIO LEAL; the Treasurer of Apartadó, 
CHENIER MARULANDA; two members of the Technical Investigative 
Units (CTI); and a member of an security force, approached one of 
the refuges and Turbo's municipal stadium.


At the refuge, the Regional District Attorney, asked about the 
security problems that affect the region, about the disappearance 
and murder of HERMINIO PALOMEQUE (on December 1, 1997), and 
the harassment and persecution suffered by his brother, DOMINGO 
PALOMEQUE (in June 1998). When asked, the community responded 
that "everything was normal", and that no one had heard anything 
else about the two cases. 


Later, the officials went to the municipal stadium. There, they asked 
about JAIME BEITAR, whom they identify as one of the leaders or if 
not "one of those who replaces him." Some members from the 
displaced community responded that they are organized in 
committees and that, then, it would be necessary to call for a 
meeting, but that it would be very difficult to locate them at that 
precise moment. They also clarified that JAIME BEITAR was not a 
leader of the Community Towards the Return, and that he did not 
represent the interests of the community.


According to the area District Attorney, his visit was due to the fact 
that he received a fax from the District attorney's Office in Medellín, 
requesting information about a complaint that says that several of 
the community leaders are threatened. He said that it was urgent 
that he submitted a report about the situation. He was told that not 
until the following Thursday there would be a meeting of the 
Community Coordinating Committee. Such was the official's eagerness 
that he proposed the possibility to meet with the people who were at 
that moment collecting their rations. A member of the community 
and one the female missionaries that accompany them told him that 
it would be difficult because the community located there is that of 
Relocation not of Return. He said he would return later on. 


Later in the afternoon, he got in touch with the police to inform them 
that it would be impossible for him to attend such date. 


On Wednesday 20, at 9:00 a.m., the Regional District Attorney 
returned to the municipal stadium with the intent of meeting with 
the Community. 
Then, one of the members of the accompanying missionary team told 
him that if the matter dealt with the harassment and the threats 
against the leaders, the community would not discuss them in a 
general assembly.


The Regional District Attorney said that he was there due to a visit 
by a Commission and to a note he received from the Regional Director 
of the Office of the District Attorney. He added that "he was tired of 
so many such rumors." The missionary told him that the procedure 
he was following was, perhaps, not the most appropriate: pretending 
to investigate in an open meeting, without having notified the 
community coordination leadership.


The District Attorney became upset and said that he was "a 
professional, in charge of an investigation. The requested me to do an 
investigation and I am autonomous to determine professionally the 
mechanisms in order to gather the pertinent information. What I 
want is to meet with the community to let it know that there is a 
civil procedure going on and that its members do not have to ask 
anyone permission to present their denunciations. The claims may 
have been made by any NGO, but I need to speak directly with the 
community." he proceeded to meet with about 40 people, most of 
whom belong to the Relocation community.


At this meeting, he said that he had received a notification 
denouncing threats to the community made by illegally armed 
groups, and that he "needed people to talk freely to him if they knew 
anything about any case" and that perhaps the place they were at 
was not the best space to do so and, consequently, "anyone with 
relevant information could go to his office to talk with him." The 
District Attorney added, "I also received a denunciation of the 
presence of armed men clad in civilian clothes, but I have found out 
that they were policemen on patrol, thus there was no problem. Do 
not get scared when you see civilians armed because they are not 
paramilitaries, but patrolmen at their service."


Such statements, more than generating clam, produced anguish 
among the community, specially when the armed men who have 
come into the stadium do not belong to the SIGN, but are recognized 
paramilitaries. 


This became more complex when on Monday, January 18, at 9:30 
p.m., the displaced community the lives at Turbos' municipal stadium 
was warned by police that a group of armed men were at the CIA 
offices, a place near the sports facility, reason for which they 
requested that the community should enter the stadium. How to 
interpret such call to calm in the face of the occurrence of this event, 
and when on Sunday, January 17, a group of paramilitaries traveling 
on two motorcycles disappeared, just meters from the municipal 
stadium, JUAN VILLEGAS ARGUELLO, identified among all the 
communities as belonging to the Cacarica community?


Moreover, as it is easily understood in such a state of tension, 
community members answered the Area District Attorney's 
questions vaguely; others answered from the perspective they have 
in the neighborhoods. The official, then, said: "You have no security 
problems, you live very happily here. Your problems stem from 
other sources, for example the labor issue." Finally, he said, in a 
veiled reference to the female missionary present, "You do not have 
to kneel down, request a hearing or permission from anyone in order 
to communicate with me."


These actions on the part of District Attorney's office units, 
attempting to clarify the truth about events or the foundation of 
complaints, generate for us very serious questions: 


Why do their actions center so rapidly on the versions the 
community may produce, instead than on the activities displayed by 
the paramilitary groups in the region? Why should it not exist a 
preliminary investigation about the meeting held on December 9 in 
Turbo, during which community leaders were accused of being 
members of the insurgency, events about which you were notified by 
community delegates at the meeting about the Casa de Justicia's 
(House of Justice) proposal that took place in December? Why, on the 
basis of the District Attorney's statement about the fact that the 
"patrolmen" are police officers, there is the attempt to discredit the 
real security problem that the displaced community lives in, 
specially its leadership, because of the clandestine activities within 
which the Turbo municipality's paramilitary groups act? Perhaps 
could it be that only men dressed in civil clothing and belonging to 
the Police have entered the stadium? And who could attest as to the 
movements and activities of the CONVIVIR and the paramilitary 
groups? Why is our Commission surreptitiously accused of being an 
obstacle to the investigation, in the words of the District Attorney, 
who has said, in a veiled reference to the accompanying missionary 
team, that "(community members) do not have to request a hearing 
or permission from anyone in order to communicate with [him]", 
when we only attempt to secure that the community's internal 
organization and the protection measures it sanctions be respected 
and consulted? Why is such a public questioning held in the attempt 
to investigate while, at the same time, refusing to recognize the 
activities of those inside the stadium who are paramilitary 
informants? Since when are proofs or testimonies collected in this 
manner in a municipality under paramilitary activity? 
Why are procedural activities carried out in a way that ignores the 
cultural identity of an ethnic minority that responds to interrogations 
with its silence or without statements due to the fact that it does not 
know the manner in which such information will be used, and what 
it means for its personal and communal security? Why in the case of 
JOSE LUIS OSORIO's murder, the investigation is "conducted" with the 
lack of information that his relatives may give, increasing thus the 
patent risk to them for information they cannot provide, instead of 
investigating the site of the crime, and the military-paramilitary 
connection in the area of the murder? It would seem that 
investigative mechanisms to satisfy justice focus on placing the onus 
of proof on the victims, not on the murderers.


In the third place, the behavior of police units in charge of security 
around the municipal stadium never ceases to elicit in us serious 
questions and worries.


* Tuesday, February 18, for three hours after 9:00 a.m., a man with a 
hidden communications radio and armed, was at the municipal 
stadium. Meanwhile, police units passed by the same locale. This man 
is well known as a member of paramilitary groups. 


At 2:30 in the afternoon, seven men and one woman enter Turbo's 
municipal stadium aboard a car frequently used by paramilitary 
group members. With a notebook and several pictures in hand, two 
men get out of the vehicle, an all-terrain type jeep with darkened 
windows, and mingle with the displaced community, comparing the 
pictures to the faces of those they encounter.


When the community reacts, the group leaves the stadium rapidly. 
Police units are very near to the site and do not take any immediate 
measures to identify the strangers that came into the stadium. 


*On Friday, February 19, at 3:30 p.m., a man, carrying a hidden 
walkie-talkie and a weapon, enters the stadium. He remained there 
for about two hours.


*At about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 27, a day of mourning 
that commemorates the Second Anniversary of the Displacement, 
during a religious procession, next to the Pollo Rico restaurant, two 
paramilitary who traveled on a motorcycle, told several of the 
displaced people, "Your look just ripe for a massacre." A few meters 
from them, there were national police units, who were controlling 
traffic.


*On Sunday, February 28, while the communities celebrated their 
second anniversary of their forced displacement, and expressed 
publicly their Life Project for Self-Determination, Life, and Dignity in 
the War, two paramilitaries, one of them called DANIEL, traveling 
aboard a red motorcycle without license plates watch them for about 
thirty minutes without any intervention on the part of the police. 


These events, just as the one that occurred on January 18, involving 
armed men around the stadium, cause great anxiety and worry. Was 
there any operation geared to facing those armed men? What 
happened? Were there any arrests? Were there any confrontations? 
Why is it that the police do not apply control measures at the access 
points to the stadium on the armed people who enter the facilities in 
automobiles, on motorcycles, by bicycle, or on foot? Why do they 
hide and remain in civil clothing at night?


Not sufficing the lack of understanding about the communal 
processes, the distortions, and the accusations both about the role of 
the community exercising its rights and about the role of communal 
representatives; municipal authorities, created to defend and to 
promote human rights, and municipal administration officials begin 
to form part of that strange web of delegitimization and of 
systematization that denies the victimization of the displaced 
community.


* Early in the evening of February 5, a Court Citation, with a seal 
from Turbo's Central Police Station, arrives at the stadium. It reads, 
"The people listed below will appear as soon as they are requested to 
do so, to the indicated office, for the realization of a police 
investigation -in writing. They are forewarned that any disobedience 
will be punished according to the law."


According to what the police officer delivering it said, it seems that 
the Office of Municipal Planning sued those in the list for "invading 
space in order to construct the semblance of a school." 


* On Tuesday, February 9, between 9 and 10 in the morning, two 
members of the displaced community held a meeting with the Turbo 
municipality's Legal Counsel in order to request his support to 
achieve the fulfilling of the legal norms that obviate the payment of 
school fees for displaced children. The official agreed to investigate 
along with the members of the Education Committee. Later, he asked 
about the school that the displaced communities were building in the 
stadium, and told them to stop construction because, if he were 
asked about it, he "opposed such construction because if the building 
of the school were allowed, then, later, houses would be requested. 
Construction cannot proceed because [the stadium] is the only 
recreational space in Turbo."


* In the afternoon of Tuesday, February 16, workers of the public 
electrification companies of Antioquia enters the Humanitarian 
Encampments Together We Will Return in the Santo Ecce Homo 
parish, and at the facilities of the Madre Laura's Sisters, disconnected 
the flow of electricity and said that "the service is halted due to lack 
of payment" and told the people affected to go and talk to the Mayor. 
Since that day, there is no electricity at the humanitarian refuges. At 
the stadium there is, via illegal connection, the only way to maintain 
that service, which provides the displaced with some type of 
security, at least, psychological.


One wonders what these events mean within the context of 
institutions created to preserve the respect for a people's rights, 
above all the rights of those who have been victimized. 


Is it not the case that the stadium facilities are the government's 
response to international obligations and pacts? What does it mean 
that a legal representative of the government more than promoting 
the rights of the displaced community, promotes instead limitations 
to them? Is this not a flagrant violation of such rights? Who moved 
the displaced to the Turbo municipal stadium? Was it not the 
stadium and police administrations themselves? Is this not, then, 
obviously contradictory for the State to do since the displaced were 
told by those who displaced them, "go to Turbo that the authorities 
police and the Mayor's administration will know what to do with 
you"? And these, did they not make the displaced settle at the 
municipal stadium? Why, then, such unconformity with the 
situation? Are the displaced responsible for the fact that there are 
not some sports activities in Turbo? Could it be that the school 
interrupts more the sports life when it is a weak construction topped 
with a roof made of some zinc tiles so that children are not in the 
open? 


* The Defender of the People for the Urabá Region, Mr. SERGIO 
PATIÑO, called a meeting at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, February 15, at 
Turbo's municipal stadium. A significant number of people that do 
not participate in the relocation process that our Commission 
accompanies attended; very few people belonging to the Return 
communities showed up. At about 3:00 p.m., the Defender arrived 
and said, among other things, that "People must be informed, must 
be gathered together, must be told what is going on, must be 
informed about the negotiations. . ..When one is talking in a generic 
and symbolic way about the Displaced for the Cacarica Region, one is 
talking about all of the displaced; that is why the 900 million 
Colombian pesos for housing are for all of them. . .People's rights 
must not be violated. . .People have the freedom of expression and 
the right to know what is happening. . .It is good that this spaces 
exists for people to express themselves; that is why I have come. You 
have not had the opportunity to do so. Consequently, I am here, that 
is my role." 


Afterwards, several people, who do not appear in our internal 
registries as displaced individuals seeking Relocation, spoke. They 
expressed that "the resources are for all of the displaced as the 
Defender confirmed today."


In the face of the reactions that his words elicited, we told the 
Defender that it was very important to define precisely and to clarify 
several of his statements, just as it had been told to him on January 
5, when the Executive Secretary of our Commission went to his office 
to share her experiences in the accompanying processes around the 
region. The members of the missionary team of our Commission 
made in public a detailed review of the process of accompanying, of 
the distinction between Return and Relocation, of the agreements 
achieved with the government, of the reasons why the government 
gives priority to the Return, not the Relocation, of the humanitarian 
help received, and of the interference caused among the communities 
by the violation of such processes and by the gravity of his 
pronouncements. 


In a respectful manner, he was asked to get in touch with the 
Minister of the Interior, MARIA EUGENIA CARDENAS; and with JUAN 
CARLOS VARGAS, of the Commission for the Displaced, in order to 
corroborate the number of people and families that are involved in 
the process of urban relocation. We also invited him to address the 
Presidential Advisers on the Displaced to request copies of the letters 
given personally to Colombian President ERNESTO SAMPER PIZANO, 
on April 20, in the presence of all Colombian Bishops, and of 
international delegates for the Return and the Relocation.


At the end of the presentation by the companion from our 
Commission, the Defender held onto his views about the process, 
although he was informed that one of the representatives of the 
Relocation community had to abandon the region given the threats 
that endangered his physical integrity.


Finally, given the seriousness of what had been said, our Commission 
requested that same day, via telephone, an appointment with the 
Defender at his office. There, on February 16, several members of the 
missionary team conferred with the Defender in order to clarify the 
reach of his assertions. He, nevertheless, continued saying that he has 
several complaints, that he has letters and recordings about the 
companions' actions against freedom of expression, that he had 
names and lists. He was reminded, once again, of the history of the 
process, of the state of the dialogue with the government, of the role 
of the Mixed Commission for Verification, of the organizing processes, 
and of the meaning of our Commission's accompanying. 


The same day, members of the Return community gathered at the 
Defender's office to request him to clarify several of his observations 
due to the tension in which they live, derived from the accusations 
and false charges against the Return community and those who seek 
relocation. The communities said that his observations worsen even 
more the community's tensions and accusations against it. At the 
office, a new meeting to clarify things up was planned. 


At 11:00 a.m., on Tuesday, February 23, the Defender once again 
came to the stadium one hour late. He arrived with a bodyguard. 
After talking about the Constitution, basic human rights, war, and 
freedom of expression, he said that his presence was due to the 
petition made to him by the Return communities to clarify his views, 
and to the fact that the day before he had had an appointment with 
other families who had presented new complaints.


A representative of the Dialogue Committee for the Return asked him 
to clarify thoroughly the issue of the resources obtained because his 
presentation had not been too exact. The Defender's hesitations just 
created further doubts. Then, a member of the missionary team told 
the Defender vehemently that "the manner in which the information 
regarding the resources had been presented had been an 
irresponsible act. . .You, the Defender, received all of the 
documentation, and it appears that you have not read it. You are 
denying the communal processes. Everything that has been done you 
can confirm in various governmental offices. He continued, 
addressing the communities: "Who among you is forced to return? 
We accompany pedagogical processes about human rights and about 
international humanitarian law. We are an NGO that is recognized 
nationally and internationally." 


The Defender said that "freedom of expression had been violated. I 
have been badly treated, insulted." Afterwards, he proceeded to 
allow some people to talk, and left without listening to all, just as 
members of the Return community were speaking. Nuns and 
missionaries, upon realizing the lack of clarity of what had been said, 
asked him "it is urgent, please do not to leave, the situation is 
difficult, people are being threatened, there have been several 
people killed, and you must assume responsibility for the results of 
what you said." To which, he answered, "I have no time. . .stop 
exaggerating. . .you are threatening me."


People begged him not to leave, to clarify things. As he could not get 
into his car because a member of the team was in front of him, he 
said: "look at your assistants, they are assaulting me." He turned to 
his bodyguard and said: "Call the police, you are witness to the 
violation they are committing against me."


It is important to underline that members of displaced families, who 
are not within the process that our Commission accompanies, and 
others, when they could not find a response from the central 
government, gathered in November and December with officers from 
the Armed Forces in Turbo, and said that "food is not being 
distributed. . .those from the Return take advantage of the signatures 
for their own benefit. . ..the leadership of Retorno and Relocation are 
bought. . .those belonging to Relocation who do not meet with the 
Armed Forces are dirty."


Why do the proclamations on the part of the Defender, despite the 
many attempts on the part of the accompanying team and of the 
displaced community itself, organized for the Return and the 
Relocation, refuse to acknowledge the victimization process they 
have undergone? What is the result of his negative declarations 
about the Return process when they accuse the communal leaders of 
being manipulative of the community, of delaying deliveries of food, 
of being members of the guerrillas?


All false statements that can be verified cooperation agencies and the 
International Committee of the Red Cross that has offered its 
humanitarian support to gather staples. How can one ignore that 
members of the Public Forces have held meetings in November and 
December with people asking for Relocation, but who are not within 
the process that our Commission accompanies, or who are in the 
sphere of a parallel action promoted by the distribution of presents 
by the Army? What is the meaning of the Defender's words, 
expressed out of context, when the Armed Forces offer a Relocation 
to other areas of Urabá, accompanied by the Army? What 
responsibility can be assigned when the Defender, without thorough 
confirmation of what he says, does not recognize that these war 
victims belong to a different process? How can it be said that 
freedom of expression is denied when these individuals have met 
with the authorities without the mediation of any pressure not to do 
it?


Finally, it does not really surprise us that in this rarefied 
atmosphere, in which the criminal structures are maintained, the 
accusations and intimidations against the displaced population that 
refuses to return without the minimal reparation for the damaged 
caused are extended to the accompanying teams.


* At 3:30 p.m., on Wednesday, January 27, at the Colombian Navy 
roadblock on the road to the airport, two members of that regular 
institution detained the public jeep in which two members of human 
right organizations that accompany the communities were traveling. 
After checking their luggage, the soldiers made the jeep parked and 
refused to authorize it to continue towards the airport. 


In the meantime, they allowed free passage, with no inspection or 
halting, to a white Isuzu jeep with no license plates. One of the 
passengers asked, "Why don't you let us through while you allow 
free transit to that other vehicle?" One of the soldiers answered, "The 
thing is that they work with us. They are paramilitaries, they are 
CONVIVIR." Then, he requested to see the two passengers' 
identification papers, saying: "Dioceses, Red Cross, NGO; it is the same, 
guerrillas, no?"


* At 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday, February 9, a call was received by the 
missionary group of our Commission, in which it is said, "Hello. Peace 
and Justice? Sonsofbitches, you think that you are sin free." 


In the face of known events preceded by accusations and warnings 
against the displaced population; of possible actions against 
communal representatives' life and physical integrity; of the 
stigmatization of the displaced people that have gone back to their 
lands temporarily to recuperate some crop to survive; of the 
presence of armed individuals watching and following members of 
the displaced communities in the refuges and at the stadium, who 
certainly are policemen dresses in civilian clothing; of the attempts 
against the personal integrity and the life of members of the Cacarica 
communities; of the relationship that exists between the CONVIVIR 
and the paramilitary groups; of the inadequate investigations on the 
part of the District Attorney's office from Apartadó in order to gather 
information, of the inappropriate public declarations by the Defender 
of the People; and of the behavior of police units in Turbo, we only 
want to morally place all of it on the record.


We simply wish that these events get to be known, There are 
sufficient judgement elements to believe that nothing will be done to 
oppose the cruel structure of paramilitaries that dominates the 
region. 


The convictions that accompany our work among the displaced 
communities allow us to say that if the government pretends to 
adopt measures for the protection of the displaced community of 
Cacarica, they must be implemented both recognizing that these 
people are victims of abuses that enjoy the participation of State 
agents, and within the framework of the proposals advanced by the 
communities for their Return for the Unarmed Presence of the State 
in the process. If legal investigations continued, and they were 
successful, the rights of ethnic minorities would be recognized as well 
as those of the black cultural identity. But, nothing whatsoever will 
work until the onus of the investigations continue being placed on 
the victims, not their violators. 


If, at least, a procedural truth not conducive to justice were 
pretended, then, let it fall upon those who cause the displacement, 
those who do the harassment, those who pronounce accusations that 
weigh "like foretold deaths for leaders or other communal members," 
those guilty of the murders and disappearances occurred, such as 
those of JOSE OSORIO (September 10, 1998), JOHN JAIRO MURILLO 
(January 5, 1999), JUAN VILLEGAS ARGUELLO (January 17, 1999), 
HERNAN VERGARA (January 29, 1999), PEDRO POLO MARTINEZ 
(February 13, 1999), MIGUEL DOMICO (February 17, 1999). That 
truth should, at least, be sought in the darkened depths of impunity 
and from offices and positions that adopt the necessary distance to 
recognize real truth, far from the pressure exerted by the criminal 
structures that continue operating in the region.


We do not ignore that we are accompanying communities in a war 
zone under the control of a paramilitary structure. Therefore, we 
believe that those who travail the corridors of power should provide 
a fast and efficient answer that leads to the Return and the 
Relocation with Dignity of the communities.


We cannot but feel morally distressed when faced with institutions 
that investigate, control, defend and promote human rights in the 
region because they, ignoring both the position of victims that the 
organized communities have and their socio-cultural identities, can 
fall, by virtue of the events, within the obscure logic of the parastatal 
system.


With profound worry,



Intercongregational Commission for Justice and Peace