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June 1998 |
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June 1998 |
Struggling for life under the risk of death:
Human Rights Defenders in Colombia
On April 18th 1998, José Eduardo Umaña Mendoza, opened the door of his residence to three “journalists” who sought to interview him. He found, instead, three armed people who proceeded to tie and gag him, before shooting him six times in the head. Umaña, a leading jurist and human rights advocate, had made the mistake of denouncing the continuos executions and human rights violations against indigenous peoples, trade unions, workers and peasants, as well as the responsibility of military and civilian authorities, for abuses against human rights activists. Of late, he’d been working on re-starting the investigations on the death of an ex-presidential candidate.
Umaña’s death came less than two months after the extra-judicial execution of Jesus María Valle Jaramillo, a lawyer, founder-member and president of the “Hector Abad Gomez” Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights of Antioquia. Valle Jaramillo, who had received repeated death threats motivated by his public revelations concerning the joint activities of paramilitary groups and members of the police in the North of Antioquia was shot to death in the center of Medellín.
Human Rights defenders have been the constant objects of persecution in Colombia since the early 80’s. Dozens of human rights workers have been murdered by paramilitary groups, while dozens more have been threatened or have gone into exile to save their lives. The Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, for example, has had 29 of its members murdered. Other organizations present similar numbers. Paramilitary and military groups associate human rights defenders - who denounce the human rights violations committed by them - with “subversives”, and they blame them for discrediting the Colombian Armed Forces. Soon after the Commander of the Army, Gen. Manuel José Bonnet Locarno, told El Espectador newspaper that the accusations of human rights organizations such as the CINEP (Center for Investigations and Popular Education - a leading human rights group) greatly hurt the armed forces, two CINEP associates where shot to death in their homes.
The work of human rights defenders is also threatened in other manners. In May, government agents broke into the offices of the Inter-congregational Commission for Justice and Peace, where they proceeded to make copies of all documentation relating to the “Never Again” project - a compilation of information about human rights violations in Colombia.
Threats against human rights defenders extend to those working outside of Colombia. Last April, Colombian lawyer Luis Guillermo Pérez Casas, who had been denouncing human rights violations in Colombia before the UN Commission on Human Rights, received a phone call at his home in Brussels, threatening his 11-year-old son.
The UN Commission on Human Rights has recently passed a Declaration for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, and while we should hope that the Declaration will in turn be issued by the General Assembly, and eventually become a human rights treaty - more immediate measures are necessary to protect human rights defenders in Colombia. The Colombian government must be urged to stop all repressive actions against human rights defenders, and to comply with their responsibility of investigating and punishing all instances of human rights violations.
