Colombia: Torture and ill-treatment of several soldiers

Case COL 230206

Torture / Ill-treatment / Fear for their personal security and integrity

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Colombia.

Brief description of the situation:

The International Secretariat of the OMCT has received with deep concern information on serious human rights violations against 21 soldiers (known as reclutas) of the Colombian Army from their superiors during a training and army instruction known as “Evasion and Escape”. These serious violations included fists blows, kicks, blows with sticks and knives, as well as tests of asphyxiation and drowning, burns in different parts of their bodies (in some cases leaving injuries for life). For greater humiliation, some of the soldiers were forced to put their head between animal excrements and others were victims of sexual violations and humiliations.

According to the information received from several human rights organisations, on January 25, 2006, in the middle of the training process of the soldiers, 21 ones of a company of 65, belonging to the “Patriotic” Battalion, based in Honda (Tolima), planned to be trained during the day on “how to escape from the guerrilla” and “what to do in extreme cases: how to act when someone has been trapped”, in the Instruction and Training Centre (Centro de Instrucción y Entrenamiento - CIE) of the National Army, in Piedras (department of Tolima).

The main exercise in this training consisted in soldiers acting as anonymous peasants, without wearing their uniforms, walking under state of alert through a zone theoretically considered as a “red area”, once they had been divided in groups of five and dispersed on the field. Later on, once they felt the presence of the hypothetical insurgents, they had to avoid them, which 44 soldiers managed to do. Unfortunately, 21 of them did not managed “to escape” from their hypothetical enemies, i.e. they did not pass the test and “were trapped”.

Within the framework of a simulation of the attitude that the rebels would have towards them, the soldiers who could not achieve avoiding the hypothetical enemies were blindfolded and their hands tied up in their back while they were forced to cross 150 meters of a path full of different obstacles (known as “the track”) until arriving at the Honda river. Afterwards, they were taken to a esplanade where they had to hide their true identity, no matter the pressures they were put under, so that the “guerrilla” could never know that they are members of the army.

From that moment on, the soldiers received violent punches in their stomach, kicks, blows and punches in the body while being on the ground. According to their superiors, these acts were apparently not only as a simple pedagogical training exercise of survival. Some soldiers thought that “if they remained silent without denouncing anyone, they would let them continue their way”. Nevertheless, this beating was only the first part over five, in which they were subjected to violent physical attacks, acts of torture, and even some sexual abuses. Each of the beaten soldiers were threatened to be raped by the aggressors.

Later on, they were forced to climb up to some stones in order to make them fall down; one of the soldiers, family named Valencia, fell down and injured his head. He got 17 stitches on his head. Among other acts of torture, the soldiers were subjected to the following ones: as they were blindfolded, they put ants in their ears and, to some of them, also in the nostrils. Those ants pricked them with viciousness. Soon afterwards, red pepper, leaves of nettle and salt were thrown on their wounds. The superiors also started several fires in order to “tire the soldiers with the smoke”, and “to exert psychological pressure on them”, according to what the Second Lieutenant Javier Arturo Pachón Reina, who witnessed these facts, later explained. M. Edwin Alberto Avila Mesa, Third Lieutenant, also participated in these acts.

Several soldiers were undressed and then surrounded by the superiors, who shouted at them: “we told you before we were going to rape you” and, in fact, some of them were introduced sticks in their anus, some were introduced fingers and two others had their trousers lowered down. Then, they forced one of the soldiers to introduce in his mouth the penis of another soldier. It is been denounced that the greater investigator of this idea was Third Lieutenant Jairo Alonso Lora Fuentes.

In addition, each of the soldiers got some skin burns, either on their faces, their arms or their legs. “Test, test the magical stick”, said one of the superiors while he passed a red-hot stick. In the end, some got second-degree burns and others got severe marks, as it was certified by the Legal Medicine Institute. The lieutenant Jose Rafael Tarazona Villamizar would accordingly have shouted while laughing: “Look, this one has no longer his tattoo, we’ve already erased it, when he saw the burnt skin of soldier Cubillos Navarro. Moreover, after having burnt another of the soldiers, they threw him to the river, sinking his head in the water, while shouting to him “this one is not going to die burned but drowned”.

Finally, they took away the bandage of the eyes of 21 soldiers and left them in that place, injured and outraged.

According to the information, in spite of the silence that covered these mentioned facts, the mothers of the soldiers heard about the news. Nevertheless, due their low social origin, none of them knew what to do, neither where to go, nor whom to call. Colonel Rubén Hernandez Mosquera, Commander of the Patriotic Battalion, told them that “they should calm down” and that “nothing of their story was real”. In addition, the military unit said that “what happened was part of the military training, so nobody must get scandalised”, and the mentioned colonel Hernandez added that “all our generals have overcome this kind of tests”, “this is the way we train”, ordering to keep silence.

The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned and condemns these acts of flagrant violence. It also urges the Colombian authorities to take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the 21 tortured soldiers and of all members of the “Patriotic” Battalion, based in Tolima, as well as the physical and psychological integrity of all the members of their families.

The OMCT recalls that torture is defined in Article 1 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as:
“1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions”.

Therefore, Colombia, as State Part of the Convention and according to article 2 of the Convention against Torture, has the obligation of:
“1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political in stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture”.

Moreover, according with the same Convention, Colombia, as State Part:
“(…) shall ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction (Article 12), and,
“(…) shall ensure that any individual who alleges he has been subjected to torture in any territory under its jurisdiction has the right to complain to, and to have his case promptly and impartially examined by, its competent authorities. Steps shall be taken to ensure that the complainant and witnesses are protected against all ill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of his complaint or any evidence given” (Article 13).

Action requested:

Please write to the authorities in Colombia urgent them to:
i. take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the 21 tortured soldiers and of all members of the “Patriotic” Battalion, based in Tolima, as well as the physical and psychological integrity of all members of their families;
ii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the circumstances of the severe violations of the rights of the 21 soldiers above-mentioned, to identify those responsible, to bring them to justice and to apply the civil, penal and/or administrative sanctions provided for by law;
iii. immediately comply with the recommendations by international and regional human rights agencies, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;
iv. generally, ensure the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards.

Addresses:

• Misión Permanente de Colombia ante las Naciones Unidas en Ginebra. Chemin du Champ d’Anier, 17-19, 1209 Ginebra. FAX : + 41.22.791.07.87; TEL.:+ 41.22.798.45.55. E-mail: mission.colombia@ties.itu.int
  
• S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Presidente de la República, Cra. 8 # 7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santa Fe de Bogotá.Fax:+57.1.566.20.71 Francisco Santos, Vicepresidente: E-mail: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co ; buzon1@presidencia.gov.co
  
• Programa DDHH de Vicepresidencia: ppdh@presidencia.gov.co
  
• Observatorio DDHH de Vicepresidencia: obserdh@presidencia.gov.co
  
• Doctor Volmar Antonio Pérez Ortiz, Defensor del Pueblo, Calle 55 # 10-32, Bogotá. Fax: + 57.1.640.04.91 E-mail: secretaria_privada@hotmail.com ; agenda@agenda.gov.co
  
• Doctor Mario Hernán Iguarán Arana, Fiscal General de la Nación, Diagonal 22-B # 52-01, Bogotá. Fax: +57.1.570.20.00 E-mail: contacto@fiscalia.gov.co; denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co
  
• Doctor Edgardo José Maya Villazón, Procurador General de la Nación, Cra. 5 #. 15-80, Bogotá. Fax: +57.1.342.97.23; E-mail: webmaster@procuraduria.gov.co; cap@procuraduria.gov.co ; reygon@procuraduria.gov.co ; anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov.co
  
• Dr. Camilo Ospina Bernal, Ministro de la Defensa, Avenida El Dorado con Cra. 52 CAN, Bogotá. Fax: +57.1.222.18.74; E-mail: siden@mindefensa.gov.co ; infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co ; mdn@cable.net.co
  
• Dr. Carlos Franco, Director del Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario. E-mail : cefranco@presidencia.gov.co
  
• Dr. Fernando Ibarra, Asesor del Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario. Tel.: +57.1.336.03.11 Fax : +57.1.337.46.67 E-mail: fibarra@presidencia.gov.co

Geneva, February 23, 2006

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.