Colombia
22.11.01
Urgent Interventions
Colombia: massacres by paramilitary in rural areas
Case COL 221101
The International Secretariat of the OMCT requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Colombia :
Brief description of the situation:
The International Secretariat of the OMCT has received information concerning serious violations of human rights by paramilitary groups in Colombia. Outstanding occurrences include massacres in rural areas of the municipalities of Corinto (Auca Department) El Santuario, Cocorna, La Pintada and San Carlos (Antioquia Department). These events have resulted in the death of 25 persons.
According to information received from various reliable sources, including the Corporacion Sembrar, on 18 November 2001 a group of hooded men on motorcycles, apparently paramilitaries, set up an unofficial barricade at Guandalay on the road linking the villages of Río Negro, Las Cruces, Media Naranja and Quebraditas in the district of Corinto and stopped a local rural bus 15 minutes after its departure from Corinto. The bus was carrying 30 persons, the names of 12 of whom were reportedly on a list of wanted persons carried by the attackers. They proceeded to indiscriminately on men women and children fire with automatic firearms, accusing them of being « guerrilla collaborators »
13 persons died in this action, all of them indigenous peasant farmers. Their names are: Marcos Medina; Julio Vitonas Chilueso; Ernesto Talaca; Adelmos Vitonas Chilueso; Loy Emilio Morales; José William Rojas; Eider Alexander Rojas; Sigifredo Rojas Bustamante; Eleicer Orozco; Eliberto Sandoval; Franz Indigo, president of the Communal Action Junta of the village of Las Cruces, and the children Benilda Ley, 16 years old, and Jhon Eduardo Osorio, 15, both members of the Indigenous Civic Guard. After the massacre, the motorcyclists drove towards the mountains.
According to the reports, in the light of the paramilitary’s usual methods, local people attribute these events to the paramilitary, comparing them to a previous massacre at la Habana (Buga municipality) on 10 October. According to the official figure, 24 persons died on this occasion; local people, however, count 31 victims.
Official sources state that the following crimes occurred a week after a massacre carried out by the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) in which 15 peasant farmers were killed in the regions of El Santuario, San Carlos and Cocorná. These regions are currently undergoing a massive exodus of labourers. According to the information received, the following victims have so far been identified : Mr Jaime Horacio Jaramillo Zuluaga, 58; Mr John Fredy Quintero Quintero ; Mr Manuel Zuluaga and the brothers Mr Arley and Mr John Osorio Giraldo, residents of the village of Viadal. In the early hours of 10 November 2001, a number of armed men arrived, forcing the above persons out of their houses and proceeded to shoot them down in front of their families, accusing them of belonging to or collaborating with the guerrilla.
The reports add that paramilitaries carried out similar acts against three peasant farmers from the village of El Ramal (El Santuario), identified by the authorities as Mr Aníbal de Jesús Giraldo Jaramillo, 29, and the brothers Mr Fabio de Jesús and Mr Carlos Emilio Giraldo Ríos, aged 18 and 19 respectively. In addition, suspected paramilitaries also carried out the killings of a further 4 persons in villages of San Carlos, identified as: Ramón Eduardo Valencia, 68 years old; Abelardo de Jesús Ramírez, 51; José Darío Parra Naranjo, 28 and Eduar de Jesús Ramírez Morales, 22.
The reports add that eastern Antioqio has been one of the areas the most ravaged by conflict this year, due to high levels of pressure from actors on all sides of the conflict, which is reflected in high numbers of homicides, massacres, armed seizures, forced displacements attacks against the electrical infrastructure, kidnappings and barricades on the Medellin-Bogota highway.
The International Secretariat of the OMCT again condemns these new occurrences of extreme violence, the severe persecution of the civil population, the apparent impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators and the failure of the authorities to provide effective protection measures to prevent these events.
Requested Action:
Please write to the Colombian Authorities urging them to:
i. take all measures necessary to guarantee thephysical and psychological integrity of the above-mentioned communities;
ii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the above.mentioned events in order to identify those reponsible, bring them to justice and apply the civil, penal or adminstrative sanctions stipulted by law;
iii. fully execute the recommendations made by international and regional human rights organisations, including those of the High Commission for Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the Inter.American Human Rights Commission as well as national and governmental human rights organisations;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental liberties in all the country in accordance with national law and international human rights norms.
Addresses
· S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Presidente de la República, Cra. 8 n .7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 566 20 71
· Consejería Presidencial de Derechos Humanos, Calle 7 n . 6-54 Piso 3, Santafé de Bogotá, D. C. Fax: (+57 1) 337 13 51
· General Fernando Tapias Stahelin, Comandante de las Fuerzas Militares, Avenida el Dorado con Cra. 52, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 222 29 35; e-mail: siden@mindefensa.gov.co ; pilaque@cgm.mil.co
· Mission Permanente de la Colombie auprès de l’Office de las Nations Unies et des institutions spécialisées a Genève. Chemin du Champ d’Anier 17-19, 1209 Genève. Tel : (+41) 22 798 4554, 798 4555. E-mail: mission.colombia@ties.itu.int
Please also write to the embassies of Colombia in your respective country.
Geneva, 22 November, 2001
The International Secretariat of the OMCT requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Colombia :
Brief description of the situation:
The International Secretariat of the OMCT has received information concerning serious violations of human rights by paramilitary groups in Colombia. Outstanding occurrences include massacres in rural areas of the municipalities of Corinto (Auca Department) El Santuario, Cocorna, La Pintada and San Carlos (Antioquia Department). These events have resulted in the death of 25 persons.
According to information received from various reliable sources, including the Corporacion Sembrar, on 18 November 2001 a group of hooded men on motorcycles, apparently paramilitaries, set up an unofficial barricade at Guandalay on the road linking the villages of Río Negro, Las Cruces, Media Naranja and Quebraditas in the district of Corinto and stopped a local rural bus 15 minutes after its departure from Corinto. The bus was carrying 30 persons, the names of 12 of whom were reportedly on a list of wanted persons carried by the attackers. They proceeded to indiscriminately on men women and children fire with automatic firearms, accusing them of being « guerrilla collaborators »
13 persons died in this action, all of them indigenous peasant farmers. Their names are: Marcos Medina; Julio Vitonas Chilueso; Ernesto Talaca; Adelmos Vitonas Chilueso; Loy Emilio Morales; José William Rojas; Eider Alexander Rojas; Sigifredo Rojas Bustamante; Eleicer Orozco; Eliberto Sandoval; Franz Indigo, president of the Communal Action Junta of the village of Las Cruces, and the children Benilda Ley, 16 years old, and Jhon Eduardo Osorio, 15, both members of the Indigenous Civic Guard. After the massacre, the motorcyclists drove towards the mountains.
According to the reports, in the light of the paramilitary’s usual methods, local people attribute these events to the paramilitary, comparing them to a previous massacre at la Habana (Buga municipality) on 10 October. According to the official figure, 24 persons died on this occasion; local people, however, count 31 victims.
Official sources state that the following crimes occurred a week after a massacre carried out by the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) in which 15 peasant farmers were killed in the regions of El Santuario, San Carlos and Cocorná. These regions are currently undergoing a massive exodus of labourers. According to the information received, the following victims have so far been identified : Mr Jaime Horacio Jaramillo Zuluaga, 58; Mr John Fredy Quintero Quintero ; Mr Manuel Zuluaga and the brothers Mr Arley and Mr John Osorio Giraldo, residents of the village of Viadal. In the early hours of 10 November 2001, a number of armed men arrived, forcing the above persons out of their houses and proceeded to shoot them down in front of their families, accusing them of belonging to or collaborating with the guerrilla.
The reports add that paramilitaries carried out similar acts against three peasant farmers from the village of El Ramal (El Santuario), identified by the authorities as Mr Aníbal de Jesús Giraldo Jaramillo, 29, and the brothers Mr Fabio de Jesús and Mr Carlos Emilio Giraldo Ríos, aged 18 and 19 respectively. In addition, suspected paramilitaries also carried out the killings of a further 4 persons in villages of San Carlos, identified as: Ramón Eduardo Valencia, 68 years old; Abelardo de Jesús Ramírez, 51; José Darío Parra Naranjo, 28 and Eduar de Jesús Ramírez Morales, 22.
The reports add that eastern Antioqio has been one of the areas the most ravaged by conflict this year, due to high levels of pressure from actors on all sides of the conflict, which is reflected in high numbers of homicides, massacres, armed seizures, forced displacements attacks against the electrical infrastructure, kidnappings and barricades on the Medellin-Bogota highway.
The International Secretariat of the OMCT again condemns these new occurrences of extreme violence, the severe persecution of the civil population, the apparent impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators and the failure of the authorities to provide effective protection measures to prevent these events.
Requested Action:
Please write to the Colombian Authorities urging them to:
i. take all measures necessary to guarantee thephysical and psychological integrity of the above-mentioned communities;
ii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the above.mentioned events in order to identify those reponsible, bring them to justice and apply the civil, penal or adminstrative sanctions stipulted by law;
iii. fully execute the recommendations made by international and regional human rights organisations, including those of the High Commission for Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the Inter.American Human Rights Commission as well as national and governmental human rights organisations;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental liberties in all the country in accordance with national law and international human rights norms.
Addresses
· S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Presidente de la República, Cra. 8 n .7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 566 20 71
· Consejería Presidencial de Derechos Humanos, Calle 7 n . 6-54 Piso 3, Santafé de Bogotá, D. C. Fax: (+57 1) 337 13 51
· General Fernando Tapias Stahelin, Comandante de las Fuerzas Militares, Avenida el Dorado con Cra. 52, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 222 29 35; e-mail: siden@mindefensa.gov.co ; pilaque@cgm.mil.co
· Mission Permanente de la Colombie auprès de l’Office de las Nations Unies et des institutions spécialisées a Genève. Chemin du Champ d’Anier 17-19, 1209 Genève. Tel : (+41) 22 798 4554, 798 4555. E-mail: mission.colombia@ties.itu.int
Please also write to the embassies of Colombia in your respective country.
Geneva, 22 November, 2001