Fri 02 – Amnesty condemns killing of human rights defender; EU interested in reinsertion and mine clearance programmes
· Amnesty International has condemned the killing of human rights defender Yolanda Izquierdo in Montería, Córdoba Department, only days after she reported repeated threats to the local authorities and requested protection. These threats are believed to have stemmed from her work representing survivors of paramilitary human rights violations at the demobilization hearing of paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso. The killing of Yolanda Izquierdo raises serious doubts about the government’s demobilisation process that fails to guarantee the rights of victims to truth, justice and reparation and which has patently failed to effectively dismantle paramilitary groups, Amnesty International reports.
· Foreign Minister, Maria Consuelo Araujo, received EU support for demobilisation and peace efforts during her visit to Europe. Araujo met with Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who confirmed EU interest in supporting reinsertion and mine clearance programmes. They also looked at results of European Commission funding of communities receiving demobilised paramilitaries. During the visit Araujo met with ministers including Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, El Colombiano reports.
· A free trade deal between the US and Colombia could be ratified by June. Foreign minister Maria Consuelo Araujo said State Department officials had assured her they hoped to obtain congressional consent before President George Bush’s negotiating authority expires in July, Financial Times reports.
· George Bush will travel to Bogotá during his visit to Colombia scheduled for March; this differs from previous presidential delegations who have stayed in the port of Cartagena for security and other reasons. Some 800 people including security personnel and cabinet members will accompany the visit which is still to be officially confirmed, El Tiempo reports.
Sat 03 – Freezing of paramilitary assets begins; Doubts on effectiveness of Justice and Peace Law
· The process of freezing paramilitary assets has begun with the seizure of extensive farms and luxury houses belonging to demobilised leader Salvatore Mancuso in Cordoba Department. Some commentators consider the decision to be extremely important, as the law states this does not have to be carried out until the justice phase of the process, but others say it has come too late as many assets have been transferred and will not now be traced, El Tiempo reports.
· To date the application of the Justice and Peace Law has increased doubts about the effectiveness of the paramilitary demobilisation process but two events this week have worsened this perception: the killing of Yolanda Izquierdo, a victims’ representative from Cordoba, and the decision of President Uribe to request the seizure of paramilitary assets. The key question remains: have paramilitary structures really been dismantled? El Tiempo reports.
Sun 04 – Victims’ representative sought protection days before her killing; Proposal to place military justice system in judiciary
· Two days before her killing, victims’ representative Yolanda Izquierdo, had asked the Attorney General’s Office for protection. In January she had sought protection from the Police Investigation Service (DAS), Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office and Attorney General’s Office after hearing that a substantial sum of money had been offered in Medellín for someone to kill her, El Tiempo reports.
· A proposed reform of the military justice system intends to remove it from the executive branch, where rulings are administrative acts, and place it within the judiciary to give it the independence and credibility that the Minister of Defence admits the current system lacks, El Tiempo reports.
· Victor Chacon is the second lawyer representing paramilitary leaders to be killed in six months. He represented the brothers Miguel Angel and Victor Manuel Mejia Muñera, leaders of the Vencedores de Arauca bloc. Jesus Castiblanco, a lawyer representing the former paramilitary leader in the Magdalena Medio region, Ramon Isaza, was killed in October, El Tiempo reports.
Mon 05 – Child soldiers still being recruited 10 years on; Demobilised leader says 5,000 former paramilitaries have re-armed
· Child soldiers are still being recruited in at least 13 countries, including Colombia, 10 years after international guidelines were agreed to eradicate their use, Save the Children said on Monday. The organisation said hundreds of thousands of under-age soldiers are being forced to fight around the world despite guidelines laid down in the Cape Town Principles agreed in 1997, which established 18 as the minimum age for recruitment, Reuters reports.
· Demobilised paramilitary leader, Salvatore Mancuso, has stated that some 5,000 demobilised paramilitary soldiers have re-armed under “well known paramilitary leaders who participated in the Ralito negotiations [to agree the demobilisation process]”. In contrast National Police estimate that only 3,000 demobilised soldiers have re-armed. Mancuso also confirmed that paramilitary groups that did not participate in the demobilisation process continue to grow and new groups continue to emerge, Semana reports.
· The human rights organisation Corporacion Juridica Libertad has denounced that in November and December their office has been kept under surveillance by men in civilian clothes carrying radios who have been asking questions about two of the organisations lawyers. The organisation has also received information that the Police Intelligence Service (DAS) is investigating lawyer Elkin Ramirez, Corporacion Juridica Libertad reports.
Tues 06 – Campaign for Rights of Displaced launched; Democrats say conditions for black population must improve
· The 2007 Campaign for the Rights of Displaced People in Colombia was launched on Friday to focus attention and lobby for the rights of the 3 million Colombians displaced by the armed conflict. Colombia’s displaced population make up about eight percent of the country’s total population and represent the largest single group of concern to UNHCR anywhere in the world, the UN Refugee Agency reports.
· Democrats who took control of the US Congress last month say Colombia must improve the lot of its black population. “Displaced Afro-Colombians are being attacked by both the paramilitaries and the guerrillas and being abandoned by their government.” Representative Donald Payne of New Jersey, part of Congress’ 43-member, all Democratic Black Caucus, told Reuters during a recent fact-finding trip to Colombia.
· A correspondent for the Venezuela-backed Telesur television channel was ordered to be rearrested, authorities said on Tuesday. Freddy Muñoz, a 36-year-old Colombian, was arrested in November on the same charges but freed last month, although the Attorney General's office said at the time it would keep investigating the role he might have played in bombings in the Atlantic coast cities of Barranquilla and Cartagena. Muñoz's jailing sparked outcry from media groups including Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, which said the arrest may have been prompted by interviews he had conducted with left-wing Colombian guerrillas, Reuters reports.
· Ecuador plans to file a lawsuit in the International Court charging Colombia with breaking an agreement over fumigation of illegal drug fields along the border, alleging that the herbicides pose a risk to people and farm crops on Ecuador's side of the border despite last month’s agreement to monitor spraying to ensure glyphosate herbicides did not cross over the frontier. "We know that yesterday fumigation restarted. ... They did not inform us and that really complicates matters," Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Espinosa told a local television station, Reuters reports.
Weds 07 – Amnesty concerned for Peace Community; UNHCR attends villagers who flee Colombia
· Amnesty International’s concerns for the safety of inhabitants of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, in Antioquia Department, have been heightened by fresh threats against the civilian community by paramilitaries. A number of witnesses living in the area reported being approached by 10 armed men who identified themselves as paramilitaries demanding information about the Peace Community, its leaders and individuals working with the Peace Community, and reportedly told the witnesses that they were setting up a special group to attack the community, Amnesty International reports.
· 37 refugees (19 adults and 18 children) have sought safety in Ecuador after a group of heavily armed men entered their village in Nariño Department, gathered everyone on the football pitch and fired gunshots at their feet threatening that “the next visit will be much worse”, causing hundreds of people to flee, UNHCR reports.
· After her meeting with Foreign Minister Araujo the President of Switzerland has reiterated in an interview with El Tiempo that negotiations should be prioritised when seeking the release of hostages held by the guerrilla, the FARC should provide evidence that hostages are alive; she added that Switzerland is willing to increase its involvement as a facilitator, El Tiempo reports.
Thurs 08 – National Victims Movement threatened by paramilitaries; President “courts controversy to divert attention”
· Two days after President Uribe accused opposition politicians of being “terrorists dressed in a shirt and tie” the National Victims Movement and other social organisations have received a written threat from paramilitary groups calling themselves “Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) new generation”. This shows that the “negotiation” or “demobilisation” process did not result in the dismantling of paramilitary structures which remain intact, according to a communiqué signed by 26 Colombian social organisations.
· President Uribe’s controversial statements are a well thought out ruse to divert attention from scandals affecting his government such as the 26 Uribista signatories to a 2001 agreement with the paramilitaries, current investigations into parliamentarians links to paramilitaries, and demobilised paramilitary leader, Salvatore Mancuso’s declarations to the press in which he recognised that the process with the paramilitaries was massively skewed in their favour. It also diverts attention from his links to paramilitary groups in Antioquia Department and polarises politics, according to Rafael pardo in El Tiempo.
· 103 members of the Manuel Cepeda column and 30th Front of the FARC, who operated in the port of Buenaventura, disarmed yesterday in Cali during a ceremony presided over by the Minister of the Interior, Carlos Holguin, and will benefit from the reinsertion programme, El Colombiano reports.
Colombia This Week is a news summary produced and distributed by ABColombia Group. Sources include daily Colombian, US, European and Latin American newspapers, and reports from non-governmental organisations and the UN System. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the ABColombia Group.
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