Plight of the Desplazados

In These Times
By Nick Rosen
31 October 1999

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BOGOTA -- Despite a disturbing silence in the chambers of international concern, Colombia is now home to the most grave humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere. As the Colombian military, rebel guerrillas and paramilitary groups struggle for military and political control, unarmed citizens have become the principal target of a demented strategy either to win the partisanship of poor, rural communities of Colombia or wipe them out altogether.

The "invisible" multitudes of displaced people swelling the dirty metropolitan barrios have grown desperate to grab the attention of Colombia and the world, and public offices in Bogota have been peacefully occupied on several occasions. An August protest at the Bogota office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) showed the desperation of the desplazados like no other. Two of the protesters carefully nailed their palms to crosses in the front yard and a handful of men stitched their mouths shut. Muttering through the green string, Arnolfo Antonio Hincapie claimed that they "must go to extremes to make the government keep its promise."

Hincapie, a tailor from the Caqueta region, was forced to mend the rebels' uniforms after they took control of the jungle town where he lived. When the paramilitaries arrived, they shot him for "collaborating" with the guerrillas. The bullet entered his left side and came out the other, rupturing his large intestine. Still bleeding, Hincapie fled with dozens of his neighbors and journeyed hundreds of miles to Bogota in hopes of finding work and assistance from the government.

Since he was wounded, Hincapie has been forced to wear a colostomy bag at all times. Despite his constant pleas to the government, he says he hasn't received medical attention for the past six months. "They won't even give me money for a new bag," Hincapie says. "I had to beg for money at the traffic lights to buy this one."

The bags are meant to be replaced every five days, but the displaced tailor has been wearing the same plastic bag around his waist for a month. "It's starting to burn," he says.

More than 1.5 million Colombians have been displaced since 1984. Now, 532 Colombians are displaced by violence every day-more than half of them children. Nearly all the desplazados are from poor, rural areas. The majority end up in the bustling urban centers of Colombia, where they meld into the ghettos at the margins of the city. Most are forced to the edges of the economy, selling flowers and cigarettes on the streets and adding to the statistics of crime and unemployment.

The United Nations and international relief agencies are fully aware of the crisis. The UNHCR set up a Bogota office in 1998, and field offices are popping up around Colombia. But as refugees in their own country, the Colombian desplazados are unprotected under the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, and UNHCR largely plays an advisory role here. The lion's share of the responsibility lies with the Colombian government, which has been incapable of managing the crisis.

A 1996 study by the Colombian non-governmental organization CODHES found that only around 60 percent of the displaced receive any form of humanitarian assistance, usually from relief agencies, not the government. "The appropriate laws are in place," says Father Santi Servillin, a member of the Colombian Episcopal Conference, which produced the first major study on displacement in 1994. "Unfortunately, the government has not even come close to fulfilling its obligations under those laws."

In 1997, with the number of internally displaced persons in the country already nearing 1 million, the state finally recognized the problem with an ambitious string of presidential orders that promised emergency assistance, protection and long-term resettlement efforts. But the public coffers have been drained by war, corruption and the worst recession in 60 years, and most observers agree that the $ 28 million the government has mustered this year to assist the displaced amounts to a squirt gun against a raging fire. It's certainly a small figure compared Colombia's $ 5 billion annual military budget.

The number of people recognized by the government as currently displaced by violence is little more than half the figure estimated by NGOs. Hundreds of thousands of desplazados are seen merely as unfortunate paupers, not victims of violent political persecution, and thus ineligible for any form of assistance under the law. "The Colombian government does not want to face up to such alarming statistics, because to do so would require the dedication of even more resources," says Diana Sanchez Lara of CODHES.

Perhaps Colombia's biggest problem is the military's continuing failure to confront the right-wing paramilitaries, who commit the majority of war crimes and forced displacements. Numerous human rights reports and criminal investigations have revealed a close working relationship between the military and right-wing militias, which often are allowed to carry out their illegal operations thanks to the deliberate ignorance-and in some cases direct participation-of the state. Over the past few months, these groups have stepped up their bloody campaigns to unprecedented levels of terror around the country.

Although the Clinton administration has expressed its concern about human rights violations in Colombia, the "paramilitary problem" isn't getting in the way of U.S. military aid. This year, Colombia received $ 289 million in anti-drug money from the United States. In comparison, the United States has dedicated only $ 2 million for Colombia's internal refugees. Congress is now courting a proposal for $ 1.5 billion in new aid to Colombia, most of which would be dedicated to military counternarcotics operations. While it remains unclear how much-if any-of this money would be used to address the refugee crisis, one thing is clear: As the United States steps up involvement in the Colombian war, the chances of success for President Andres Pastrana's peace negotiations grow ever weaker. If the United States continues to distance itself from the peace process-the best hope of resolving the refugee crisis-and embraces all-out war, more and more Colombians will be forced to flee.