URGENT ACTION

The nongovernmental organizations that defend Human Rights, the Association for Alternative Social Promotion ("Minga"), the Consultancy for Human Rights and the Displacement ("Codhes"), Planting ("Sembrar"), the Laboral Corporation for Basic Regional Educational Specialization ("Cleber"), the Center for Investigation and Popular Education ("CINEP"), the Solidarity Committee with Political Prisoners ("CSPP"), and the National Association of Solidaric Help ("Andas"), denounce before the international and national communities the serious Human Rights violations that affect the civilian population of the area of the Catatumbo River, in the Norte de Santander Department, which have been brought to our attention through communications we have had with those affected, with community leaders, and with local authorities in the region.

These are the FACTS:

  1. On May 29 this year, near 400 hundred armed men, most of them in uniform while others were in civilian garb, who were traveling in six trucks and other smaller vehicles, put up several roadblocks on the road that connects the Tibu municipality, in the Norte de Santander Department, with the police station at La Gabarra, in the same municipality. The vehicles in which the armed men were traveling passed by the main town of the municipality, where an army battalion is encamped and where there are police barracks; and by the Inspection of "La Cuatro", between Tibu and La Gabarra, where there is an army control checkpoint and an oil installation protected by National Police Units.

  2. At the checkpoints, the armed men identified themselves as paramilitaries, detained dozens of civilians traveling between La Gabarra and Tibu, abusing them verbally and physically, and murdered five peasants, among them JORGE CAMILO GONZALEZ, president of the "Palmeras" settlement's Communal Action Committee, GERARDO BERBASI and RAFAEL CLAROS. At the same time, they detained eight other young farmhands whose whereabouts remain unknown and who, according to statements given by the assailants to those detained at the checkpoints, were tortured and murdered with knives.

  3. The aggressors have stated that their objective is to enter the Inspection of La Gabarra, execute the inhabitants they consider insurgent group helpers, and assume total control of the town.

  4. People who were victims of the abusive events orchestrated by the aggressors have stated that once they were liberated by the presumed paramilitaries, were also detained at the police barracks at the Inspection of "La Cuatro", where in addition to army and national police units, there was a numerous group of murderers who a short while before, had frisked, beaten and humiliated those same inhabitants at the paramilitary checkpoints, and who warn them under penalty of death to keep quiet and abstain from denouncing the events.

  5. At 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 30, a blue helicopter used by these aggressors, landed and remained for several minutes at one of the roadblocks erected by the paramilitaries 14 kilometers form the main center of Tibu. The helicopter carried a man who identified himself as CARLOS CASTAÑO, who harangued the paramilitaries and stated threats against the civilians present, at the same time that he warned that he would take over control at La Gabarra regardless of the number of people he would have to execute to achieve such goal. The landing of the helicopter could be clearly seen from Tibu, but there was no action whatsoever taken to neutralize it by the military leadership of the Battalion No. 46, "Heroes of Saraguro", or by that of the Police station, all of whom are quartered in Tibu.

  6. The assailants remain stationed between kilometers 17 and 19 of the road that connects Tibu and La Gabarra, and army units have established control points at kilometer 15 on the same road.

  7. The inhabitants of the Inspection of La Gabarra and about 50 of those who live in neighboring hamlets, are right now surrounded by presumed paramilitaries, and live a period of tension and anguish in the face of the passivity exhibited by civil and military authorities, who have not put in motion any concrete action to avoid that the aggressors continue committing abuses and crimes against the civilian population.  Currently, at La Gabarra there is a displacement going on.

  8. The inhabitants of Tibu, particularly communal and union organizations leaders and members,  and sympathizers of alternative and opposition political movements, are suffering both the intimidating climate that paramilitary presence has produced in the area as well as the passivity of state organizations in the face of it.  This situation is furthered by accusations made by members of the public forces against Tibu's union and popular organizations, qualifying them as guerrilla appendages.

Faced with such situations, we request that you write to the following governmental officials.

UNITED STATES

Demand a change of US foreign policy toward Colombia:
  1. Why do we keep giving money to an army that clearly does not protect the civilian population in Colombia from attacks of paramilitaries? Demand the end of US military aid supporting such atrocities.
  2. Inquire why Carlos Castano is not stopped and brought to justice. Why do the Colombian army and police fail to protect civilians in Tibu, La Gabarra and all rural areas in the Catatumbo region?
  3. Why were paramilitaries present at the police station of La Cuatro working alongside the army and national police? Don't the Colombian army and police have a duty to disband the paramilitaries?

COLOMBIA

President and Military

Demanding
  1. That the National Government order the Army, the National Police and the Colombian Air Force to adopt the necessary steps to both protect the inhabitants of the Tibu area, the Inspection of La Gabarra and the rural sectors of these areas from paramilitary aggression, and to reestablish the free circulation of people and foodstuffs in the same area of the country.
  2. That the Command of the National Army, the National Police, the Colombian Air Force, and the Fifth Brigade of the National Army undertake immediate operations to confront and capture the paramilitaries that are attacking the Tibu municipality and the Catatumbo area.

Prosecutors

Demanding:
  1. That the Office of the Nation's Attorney-General and the Office of the Nation's Chief Prosecutor investigate promptly and efficiently the denunciations of conspiracy between the armed forces and the paramilitaries, and the omissions that members of the Army and the Police may have committed when faced with paramilitary criminal and terrorist activities in the Catatumbo area.

Office of the Defender of the People

Demanding:
  1. That the National Government and the Office of the Governor of Norte de Santander meet with the displaced populations from the Catatumbo area, and guarantee their safe return to their lands and properties.