From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 09:42:21 -0500 (CDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CR: When Human Rights No Longer Matter
==============================================
After all, what are a few human rights abuses
when there is an ineffective drug war to wage?
____________ ==============================================
COLOMBIA REPORT
June 4, 2001
When Human Rights No Longer Matter
----------------------------------
By Garry M. Leech
In a throwback to the days of the Cold War counterinsurgency campaigns,
the Colombian Senate recently passed a bill authorizing the nation's
security forces to wage war against the Colombian people in the name of
anti-terrorism. The new bill, now being debated in the lower house of
Colombia's Congress, will unleash the army against the civilian
population, especially in rural regions, using tactics that violate
international human rights treaties to which Colombia is a signatory. The
new policy is reminiscent of the counterinsurgency strategies promulgated
by the United States throughout Latin America during the Cold War years.
Recent decisions by the Bush Administration indicate it will be more than
willing to support the re-implementation of such tactics by the Colombian
army.
The urban bombing campaign waged by various armed groups over the past
month has hit a little too close to home for many middle and upper class
Colombians. The recent spate of bombings is reminiscent of the violent
urban campaign waged against the government in the late 1980s by drug
traffickers fighting to end extradition. In order to prevent a further
escalation in this latest wave of bombings, Colombia's urban elite and its
congressional cohorts appear to be trying to give the security forces free
rein to combat suspected terrorists.
The likely consequences of the military's newfound freedom will be a
dramatic increase in human rights abuses perpetrated by the army against
the civilian population. The bill would allow an army unit to enter a
village and detain citizens for seven days without charging them with a
crime. There is little doubt this violation of international humanitarian
law would be used against community leaders, human rights workers, union
members and anyone else the army chooses to cast as a leftist or guerrilla
sympathizer.
Secondly, under the new law soldiers would be permitted to force villagers
to act as informants and intelligence agents, a tactic that will
undoubtedly result in retaliation against the villagers by whichever armed
group they are forced to betray. And finally, the law allows soldiers to
arrest anyone for subversion based solely on the statement of a fellow
citizen--even if that statement is obtained under duress.
Inevitably, the use of such tactics by the army will result in charges of
human rights violations being leveled against overzealous troops. However,
the new bill foresees this "problem" and addresses it by providing
immunity to members of the armed forces who commit human rights abuses
while combating "supposed" terrorist groups. The new law also turns over
responsibility for the investigations and autopsies of subversives killed
in combat--currently performed by government officials--to the military.
Furthermore, just to guarantee that soldiers aren't accidentally charged
with human rights abuses in spite of these safeguards, The bill has a
provision to ensure that all ongoing and future investigations into rights
violations by security forces will become a matter for military justice
and not civilian courts.
There is little doubt about who will become the principal targets of the
military's tactics: any rural villager believed to be sympathetic to the
guerrillas. Colombia's rural population, already the principal target in
the nation's conflict, is now being offered up for slaughter by
legislators in Bogota rattled by the war's recent arrival at their
doorsteps.
A campesino does not have to do much to be accused of having leftist
sympathies in Colombia's volatile political and social climate, least of
all anything that would be considered suitable evidence in a court of law.
Often, villagers are deemed to be sympathetic to the rebels simply based
on the geographic area in which they reside.
Sometimes peasants aid the guerrillas out of fear, which also leads to
their being labeled as sympathizers. And now, according to the would-be
law, any Colombian could be arrested for subversion on the word of a
neighbor who may bear nothing more than a personal grudge.
Throughout the 1990s, international pressure resulted in a significant
decrease in the number of human rights abuses directly attributed to the
Colombian Armed Forces.
However, during the same period the military strength of paramilitary
groups increased dramatically as they conducted the dirty war on the
army's behalf, often with logistical support provided by the military. The
new proposal would remove the constraints on the army, allowing it to once
again wage war against the civilian population without fear of
retribution. Furthermore, allowing the army to recruit citizens in
conflict areas is akin to re-authorizing the military creation of civil
self-defense forces that inevitably evolve or are absorbed into
paramilitary organizations, which have been illegal in Colombia since
1989.
The military's recent assault against four rebel-held towns in
southwestern Colombia may be a foreshadowing of things to come under the
proposed law. Last week, 2,500 members of the Colombian Armed Forces
"successfully" seized the towns in the department of Narino as part of an
anti-drug mission labeled Operation Tsunami. According to Colombian army
officials, more than 110 people were killed in the operation. Only 18 of
them were guerrillas.
Military officials say the rest of the dead were workers in the targeted
coca fields and cocaine labs. In other words, more than 90 peasants were
killed in the offensive. The operation has been kept under a veil of
secrecy as the army has refused to let anyone into the area to talk to
survivors and determine exactly how and why so many peasants were killed.
The new law, if passed by the house, will only encourage more military
operations like this one, in which the wholesale slaughter of peasants is
justified in the name of fighting terrorism or, even worse, the drug war.
Colombia's proposed new anti-terrorist law's blatant disregard for
international humanitarian law should be cause for concern in Washington.
At a minimum, the pending legislation and its de facto conversion of
Colombia to a nation under martial law should give pause to those
policymakers in Washington who have repeatedly stressed that part of the
U.S. aim in the region is to defend democracy. In fact, all future
military aid should be withheld while this potential human catastrophe is
addressed. All military and civilian contractors stationed in Colombia
should be withdrawn and the delivery of Blackhawk helicopters scheduled
for July should be postponed until the Colombian government re-aligns its
policies and laws with the norms of international humanitarian law, both
on paper and on the ground.
However, it is highly unlikely that any of these sanctions will be imposed
on Bogota. According to Washington, U.S. aid is going to Colombian army
units fighting the drug war, not the counterinsurgency war-regardless of
the fact these troops are targeting coca fields and drug labs in
guerrilla-controlled territory. Also, the White House and the State
Department will undoubtedly try to emphasize that U.S. aid is only going
to units of the Colombian army that have been "cleared" of human rights
violations.
Washington's drug warriors discuss these U.S.-funded and trained
battalions as though they were not part of the Colombian Armed Forces. But
in reality they operate under the same chain of command as the rest of the
Colombian army and there are no safeguards to prevent the transferring of
soldiers in and out of these units after they have been vetted for human
rights violations.
Historically, the United States has allied itself with
human-rights-abusing regimes whenever it served Washington's interests to
do so, usually under the guise of the Cold War or more recently the drug
war. The new Bush Administration is wasting little time in allying itself
with some of the world's most abusive regimes. On May 17, Secretary of
State Colin Powell announced $43 million in aid to Afghanistan's ruling
Taliban.
Not only is the Taliban sheltering Washington's global enemy number one,
Osama Bin Laden, but the country's fanatical rulers are also responsible
for the gravest state-sponsored human rights violations perpetrated
against women in recent history.
Furthermore, examples of the Taliban's religious intolerance have included
the systematic destruction of revered ancient Buddha statues and the
issuing of a decree forcing Hindus in Afghanistan to wear yellow identity
patches.
At a recent press conference announcing the State Department's 2000 list
of terrorist organizations and states, acting coordinator for
counterterrorism Edmund J. Hull referred to Afghanistan as "terrorist
central for the international community," pointing out that "tens of
thousands of people" have passed through terrorist training camps there.
Why has the Bush Administration climbed into bed with these repressive
fundamentalists? The answer is simple: The Taliban is willing to be
Washington's ally in the drug war. Afghanistan's religious rulers declared
that the human consumption of opium is against the will of Allah, and
apparently that was good enough for the Bush Administration.
Washington's recent attitude towards the Afghan regime regarding the drug
war does not bode well for Colombia's peasant population. In all
likelihood, as long as Colombian security forces continue to destroy coca
fields and cocaine labs while conducting their counterinsurgency
operations, then U.S. aid will continue to flow. After all, what are a few
human rights abuses when there is an ineffective drug war to wage?
Copyright 2001 Information Network of the Americas (INOTA)
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