The World is Watching: Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado

Letter sent by the Intercongregational Commission of Justice and 
Peace to Colombian Authorities and International Community
==================================

Santafé de Bogotá, May 24, 1999

TO:

ANDRES PASTRANA ARANGO
President of the Republic

GUSTAVO BELL
Vice-President of the Republic

NESTOR HUMBERTO MARTINEZ
Minister of the Interior

ALFONSO GOMES MENDEZ
Attorney-General of the Nation

JAIME BERNAL CUELLAR
Chief Prosecutor of the Nation

JOSE FERNANDO CASTRO CAICEDO
National Defender of the People

A friendly greeting.

For the third time in less than two months, we want to place on the 
record the risk to life and to physical and psychological integrity run 
by the members of the Peace Community of San Josˇ de Apartad— 
due to army units activities, among which renowned paramilitaries 
have been seen in several occasions. Such army units have, since 
May 5, made their presence known in the surrounding areas of the 
town, on the road that leads from Apartad— to San Josˇ. The worry 
grows as it becomes clear that in the roadblocks they establish, they 
ask about the identification of those who are leaders in the Peace 
Community.

Within the framework of such permanent control measures, on 
Monday, May 15, at 8:30 in the morning, at a roadblock set up at the 
hamlet known as La Victoria, located on the road that leads from 
Apartad— to San Josˇ de Apartad—, uniformed military and 
paramilitary units, stopped a "chivero" --public service 
intermunicipal bus-- and question several women that were 
traveling in it about the identity of the leaders of the Community. 

Two days later, on May 17, an armed group of men belonging to the 
army maintained for several hours a roadblock. At 10:00 in the 
morning, they stopped another "chivero" and, again, they questioned 
the group of women who were on board about the names of those 
who lead the community. 

On May 24, 1999, at 8:00 in the morning, a group of approximately 
100 members of the Vˇlez Battalion mobilized up to the entrance to 
the urban area, via the road that leads from Apartad— to San Josˇ de 
Apartad—. Two men, who wore civilian clothes and who traveled with 
the soldiers, entered the town's central square. Apparently they 
were members of the same battalion.

On the surface, these events do not seem abnormal. Nevertheless, the 
terror and intimidation experience undergone in 1996 and 1997 
seems to come back to life with such controls and roadblock. In those 
years, less than four minutes from a military roadblock, there would 
be a paramilitary one, where civilians were interrogated, where 
names of others were demanded, where food access was denied, 
where information about people was collected and, on the base of it, 
members of the communities or of the peasant civilian population 
from the area were murdered and disappeared without, in spite our 
official complaints, the intervention by any authority in order to 
dismantle or attack such death structures. . 

Today, these army roadblocks, where well-known paramilitaries 
have been seen, continue being created and, as it happened two or 
three years ago before the murders and the disappearances took 
place, military units question people about peasant names, 
particularly about those of community leaders.

Logic is on our side if one takes into consideration that less than a 
month-and-a-half ago, on April 4, paramilitaries entered the 
municipality of San Josˇ de Apartad—, questioned several peasants 
about the community leaders and murdered one of them: ANIBAL 
JIMENEZ. 

Again, we wanted entered into the record that the recommendations 
of the international community in order to respect the life and the 
personal and psychological integrity of the Peace Community of San 
Josˇ de Apartad— have not been attended, and that the wishes of the 
Community to remain neutral and transparent in the face of the 
armed conflict, continue being disrespected by State agents and by 
groups that operate with their acquiescence, omissions and (or) 
complicity. 

With deepest worry,

Intercongregational Commission of Justice and Peace 

CC: National and International Human Rights NGOs, Diplomatic Corps