Turning a Blind Eye
by Garry M. Leech
CSN-MADISON, May 15, 2002
Not only have innocent civilians again been caught in the middle of
Colombia's violent conflict with the tragic bombing of a church in Bojaya,
they are now also being used as political pawns in a cynical public
relations ploy by the governments of Colombia and the United States.
Following the killing of 119 people in Bojaya, President Andrés
Pastrana called for the United Nations to investigate the massacre.
The U.S. ambassador to Colombia, Anne Patterson, quickly backed Pastrana's
call for an international investigation. But instead of demanding a
senseless investigation into a crime in which the perpetrators have
already admitted their guilt, Pastrana and U.S. officials should instead
be concerned with the collusion between the Colombian army and right-wing
paramilitary forces that led to the fighting in Bojaya. Citing the UN's
willingness to send a team to investigate the Israeli army's alleged
massacre of Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank,
Pastrana called for a similar team to investigate the tragedy in Bojaya
that he ludicrously labeled as genocide. But unlike the situation in
Jenin where the Israeli army denies Palestinian claims that hundreds
of civilians were massacred, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) immediately admitted launching the homemade rocket that killed
more than a hundred innocent civilians. The rebels say it was an accident,
claiming that they were aiming at paramilitary fighters near the church
in which the victims had sought refuge.
In the past year, a lot of media and government attention has repeatedly,
and rightfully, focused on the FARC's reckless use of rockets made from
cooking gas canisters. It is a practice the rebels have repeatedly used
to attack rural towns, usually attempting to target police stations.
However, these projectiles routinely miss their targets and kill scores
of innocent civilians. Rebel claims that they are not purposefully targeting
the civilian population are unacceptable in light of the frequency with
which civilians are killed by these weapons. Employing a tactic that
knowingly results in civilian deaths time and time again has turned
many Colombians against the rebels. Although, in reality, there is little
difference between FARC rockets missing their targets and errant U.S.
smart bombs that have killed scores of innocent Afghanis and Iraqis
in recent years. But according to political propagandists in Washington,
it is terrorism when the FARC are responsible and merely a 3regrettable
mistake2 or 3collateral damage2 when misguided attacks by the U.S. military
result in civilian deaths.
While it is clear that the FARC are primarily responsible for the deaths
of 119 innocent civilians in Bojaya rendering Pastrana's call for an
international investigation nothing more than a cynical public relations
ploy‹there has been little attention paid to the role of the Colombian
army and the paramilitaries in this tragedy. In March 2000, the government
abandoned the people of Bojaya by withdrawing all security forces stationed
in the area after the FARC attacked the local police outpost. At the
same time, the rebels defeated local paramilitaries and consolidated
control over this remote jungle region in Chocó. But in the past
month, it became evident to locals and human rights workers in the area
that the paramilitaries, with the aid of the Colombian military, were
moving back into the region. The mayor of Bojaya and local human rights
workers, knowing that the arrival of the paramilitaries would inevitably
result in civilians being caught in a crossfire between the illegal
armed groups, repeatedly requested military protection from Bogotá.
In their coverage of the church bombing, many in the media have mistakenly
pointed out that these pleas were ignored, when in reality, far from
turning a blind eye to the residents of this impoverished region, the
Colombian military were actively involved in the events that were unfolding
in Bojaya.
In mid-April, 450 heavily armed paramilitary fighters from the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) traveled down the Atrato River
in eleven boats. Somehow this large conspicuous force passed unheeded
through several military checkpoints along the river. In massacre after
massacre perpetrated by the paramilitaries, the Colombian military has
aided right-wing death squads by providing intelligence, transportation,
weapons, or simply allowing them to pass through military checkpoints
unhindered in order to enter and escape targeted villages. Clearly,
this was the scenario unfolding along the Atrato River in April as the
military made no effort to prevent the paramilitaries from entering
the region knowing full well they would confront the rebels and that,
as is usually the case in Colombia's conflict, innocent civilians would
be killed.
It is this collusion between Colombia's armed forces and right-wing
paramilitaries responsible for more than 70 percent of the nation's
human rights abuses that should concern Washington and Bogotá.
But the Bush administration has decided to turn a blind eye to this
brutal military-paramilitary alliance as it tries to convince the U.S.
Congress to remove all conditions restricting current and future military
aid solely to counternarcotics operations. The Bush White House is seeking
to expand U.S. military involvement in Colombia by supporting the counterinsurgency
campaign being waged by the Colombian military and its AUC allies who,
unlike the FARC, are on both the U.S. State Department's and European
Union's lists of terrorist organizations.
Instead of calling for the United Nations to investigate a tragedy in
which the facts are evident to everyone, including the perpetrators,
Pastrana and U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson should be demanding an international
investigation into Colombia's military-paramilitary partnership and
how U.S. military aid contributes to this murderous alliance. It is
the Colombian military's ongoing collaboration with paramilitary death
squads that lies at the root of the huge majority of Colombia's human
rights abuses, especially civilian massacres. Where were the calls by
Pastrana and Patterson for an international investigation into recent
massacres in Chengue, Buga and El Salado that were committed by paramilitaries
aided by the Colombian military?
As for the FARC, it is time they heeded calls to stop using homemade
rockets that repeatedly kill innocent civilians in rural towns. The
inaccuracy of these weapons make them indiscriminate killers whose victims
are often the very same people the rebels claim to be fighting for.
While it was the FARC's reckless use of a homemade rocket that directly
caused the deaths of more than a hundred innocent civilians in Bojaya,
the collusion between the Colombian army and paramilitaries was a significant
contributing factor.