EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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09Apr11
Persecuted Colombian journalist addresses NUJ conference
Colombian investigative journalist Claudia Julieta Duque told the NUJ conference in Southport that UK government funds are being used to finance a unit of her country's secret security police.
An honorary member of the NUJ, Claudia Julieta Duque was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation when she arrived to address the union's delegate meeting, and she spoke of her deep pride in being an NUJ member.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear told the conference that Claudia is one of Colombia's most hunted journalists, receiving frequent death threats 'in a country where hunting journalists is almost a national sport'.
She had been kidnapped and had been forced to flee the country three times. She faced continual threats, intimidation and harassment at the hands of the Colombian DAS security service.
A security service memo which she had managed to see through a court action directed that she was to be raped, tortured and killed.
"All because she is a journalist covering human rights in a country with an appalling record of abuses."
Claudia told delegates that she didn't like to speak about herself, and her case was only one among many in a country where journalists and trade unionists were frequently murdered.
She condemned the claims of the UK and United States government that somehow things were now better in Colombia, and that the new regime was a big improvement. "The secret police is stlll doing its job, and for journalists the situation is not much different to how it was. My work is to investigate and denounce, to highlight the situation.
"Killings of journalists in Colombia are now down from 12 a year to seven, but this is hardly a big improvement.
"The big issue for us is to challenge the impunity which attaches to those responsible for the killings and illegal acts against journalists and others.
"My real hope for change in Colombia is to break that impunity."
Claudia told delegates that a Colombian secret service unit received money from the British government because it was supposed to be combatting money laundering. But in reality this money was being used to fund the kidnapping and intimidation of journalists.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said this charge required urgent and serious investigation in the public interest.
[Source: National Union Journalists, 09Apr11]
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