RIGHTS:
Abuses in Colombia on
Trial in U.S.
By
Barin Masoud
NEW YORK, (IPS) - Two
U.S. corporations that
have operated in
Colombia -- Chiquita
Brands International and
Drummond Company Inc. --
stand accused of aiding
far-right paramilitary
groups with alleged ties
to the Colombian
government.
They are facing charges
in two separate civil
lawsuits filed in U.S.
district courts by
plaintiffs seeking
justice for human rights
abuses through the
Torture Victim
Protection Act and the
Alien Tort Claims Act,
which allow foreigners
to sue in U.S. courts on
issues of
internationally
recognised human rights
violations.
Chiquita Brands
International, the
banana giant based in
Cincinnati, Ohio, is
being sued for its
alleged role in the
murders of nearly two
dozen Colombian workers
killed by paramilitary
groups between 1997 and
2004. Drummond Company,
a major coal producer
based in Birmingham,
Alabama, is facing
similar charges of
complicity in the
murders of three trade
union leaders near a
Drummond mine in La
Loma, Colombia in 2001.
That trial is set to
begin on Monday.
Chiquita Brands
International pleaded
guilty in March to
allegations that company
officials made payments
to paramilitary and
guerrilla groups,
including the right-wing
United Self Defence
Forces of Colombia (AUC).
The company agreed to
pay 25 million dollars
in a settlement case
investigated by the U.S.
Justice Department.
Chiquita, which sold its
Colombia operations
three years ago,
maintains that it paid
the group in an effort
to "protect" its
employees.
It is estimated that
over 4,000 trade
unionists have been
murdered in Colombia in
the past two decades,
according to the AFL-CIO
Solidarity Centre.
Fifty-eight Colombian
labour activists were
killed in 2006 alone,
according to the New
York-based Human Rights
Watch, while the Escuela
Nacional Sindical, a
Colombian labour rights
group, puts the number
of killings for that
year at 72.
The AUC completed a
controversial partial
demobilisation process
last year as a result of
negotiations with the
government of right-wing
President Álvaro Uribe.
However, there have been
abundant reports of the
paramilitaries
regrouping.
According to the John F.
Henning Centre for
International Labour
Relations at the
University of
California, Berkeley:
"Links between the
right-wing paramilitary
groups that carry out
the majority of these
killings and both
U.S.-based corporations
operating in Colombia
and U.S. military
assistance to the
country have become
increasingly evident."
"Of greatest concern are
the alarming links
between the official
Colombian military and
the ultra-right-wing
organisations of the
United Self-Defence
Forces of Colombia, who
are responsible for 90
percent of trade union
assassinations in
Colombia," researchers
at the Centre found.
Many activists and
experts argue that its
geostrategic location is
a key factor fuelling
Colombia's four-decade
armed conflict. "Urabá
is in the northwestern
region, connected to
Panama and the
Caribbean. It is
strategic for the
transport of illegal
drugs, arms, and
soldiers of various
sorts," Renata Rendon,
advocacy officer for the
Americas for the
London-based rights
watchdog Amnesty
International, told IPS.
Banana production in
Colombia takes place
predominantly in two
northern regions, Urabá
and Santa Marta.
Rendon said that Urabá
is a poor farming area,
where "the civilian
population has
historically been
targeted by paramilitary
groups."
"The paramilitaries have
always received
political, military, and
economic support --
support from
politicians, from
businessmen within the
country, whether
internationals or
locals," she added.
Marselha Gonçalves
Margerin, programme
officer at the Robert F.
Kennedy Memorial Centre
for Human Rights in
Washington, D.C., told
IPS she believes that
the world is discussing
Colombia as if it were a
post-conflict country,
when it is actually
still embroiled in a
civil war.
"The Colombia problem is
multi-fold; the concern
is that money from the
U.S. to Colombia is
helping paramilitary
groups, hence
perpetuating the human
rights problem," said
Margerin, who noted that
Colombia has been
declared the most
dangerous country for
human rights activists.
"The human rights
problem, the security
problem, the war on
terrorism -- definitely
the situation for human
rights defenders is very
serious," she said.
"We have seen the
situation for human
rights defenders
deteriorating a lot in
the past few years,"
said Margerin, who
pointed to the "very
serious" allegations
comparing human rights
defenders to terrorists,
which she said gives
paramilitary groups the
green light to go ahead
with their activities.
President Uribe himself
has made statements
along those lines.
A number of human rights
groups have called for a
decrease in U.S. aid to
Colombia, which they
claim helps strengthen
paramilitary groups,
whose ties to the
Colombian armed forces
have been amply
demonstrated. In its
place, they want to see
aid money go towards
social development, such
as poverty alleviation
programmes and aid to
the internally
displaced, which number
more than three million.
Just last month, the
U.S. House of
Representatives passed a
2008 foreign aid bill
which proposed cutting
the proportion of
military aid to Colombia
from 76 to 55 percent.
Democratic
Representative Nita
Lowey, chair of the
State and Foreign
Operations Subcommittee,
introduced the bill,
also known as H.R. 2764.
"Since 2000, over 80
percent of our [U.S.]
aid to Colombia has gone
to Colombia's security
forces," according to
the Centre for
International Policy's
(CIP) assessment of the
Colombia bill.
The bill calls for "more
economic aid, specific
conditions for economic
aid, stronger human
rights conditions,
stronger fumigation
conditions, stronger
paramilitary
demobilisation aid
conditions, and
reporting requirements,"
CIP reports.
"We would like the bill
to eventually go to the
Senate," Lisa Haggard,
executive director of
the Latin American
Working Group, told IPS.
When asked about the
State Department, she
said "We would like to
see a constant dialogue
with the U.S. State
Department and the need
to apply human rights in
the law."
Another new element of
the bill calls on the
government of Colombia
to protect the land and
property rights of
Afro-Colombians and
indigenous peoples from
the Colombian Armed
Forces.
The bill must be
approved by both the
House of Representatives
and the Senate, and must
also be signed by
President George W.
Bush, before it becomes
law.
The U.S. government has
provided Colombia with
billions of dollars in
aid over the last
decade, making it the
world's third-largest
recipient of U.S.
military aid, after
Israel and Egypt.
Twice a year, the State
Department certifies
Colombia's compliance
with the human rights
conditions contained
within U.S. legislation,
in order to release
military aid.
"Our concern is really
that there is a process
whereby the secretary of
state notes that the
links between
paramilitary groups and
the government are being
severed," and that "the
secretary of state has
been certifying this
(Colombia's progress on
human rights) for six
years," said Rendon of
Amnesty International.
"It may be true that it
could be improving on
some level. But on human
rights, not so much,"
she added.
IPS contacted the State
Department for comments
on the lawsuits against
Chiquita and Drummond,
but they declined to
provide statements and
said they were currently
reviewing the Drummond
case.
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