RIGHTS-COLOMBIA:
US Lawyers to Defend
Victims of
Paramilitaries
By Helda Martínez
BOGOTA, Jul 25 (IPS) -
Two human rights lawyers
from the United States
announced in the
Colombian capital that
they will defend the
victims of paramilitary
chiefs who were recently
extradited to the United
States.
Roxanna Altholz and her
colleague Almudena
Bernabeu told a press
conference in Bogotá
Thursday that they would
represent victims of
seven of the 14
paramilitary leaders
extradited on May 13.
The heads of the
far-right United Self-Defence
Forces of Colombia (AUC),who
took part in a
controversial
demobilisation process
negotiated with the
rightwing government of
Álvaro Uribe, are facing
drug trafficking and
money laundering charges
in the United States.
The paramilitary leaders
complained that the
extradition ordered by
Uribe was a betrayal.
The surprise move
followed public
statements by one of the
most prominent leaders,
Salvatore Mancuso, who
boasted that 35 percent
of the members of
Congress were controlled
by the groups, which he
said had permeated all
areas of the state in
Colombia.
That claim is backed up
by experts and
non-governmental
organisations like the
Corporación Nuevo Arco
Iris, which stated in a
report that "in a major
expansionist wave, the
paramilitaries won
various wars, and in
that process managed to
substantially modify the
political map in twelve
provinces, partially
transform others,
establish a large bloc
in parliament, influence
the presidential
elections, gain
political power in
different regions of the
country and engage in
negotiations with the
state."
Human rights groups saw
the extradition of the
paramilitary chiefs as
cutting short the
victims’ search for
justice, because the
leaders will be tried
for drug trafficking,
but not for the crimes
against humanity that
have affected more than
three million victims of
forced displacement in
Colombia and numerous
others who have lost
loved ones to
paramilitary massacres.
"Analysing U.S.
legislation, we want to
outline a strategy that
would allow us to take
legal steps to enable
the victims to
participate in the
prosecutions against the
extradited paramilitary
chiefs," said
Colombia-born Altholz,
who is associate
director of the
International Human
Rights Law Clinic at the
University of
California, Berkeley
School of Law.
One argument they intend
to use is that, as the
paramilitaries
themselves have publicly
acknowledged, 70 percent
of the massacres and
other operations that
led to forced
displacement were
carried out using money
from drug trafficking.
"If drug trafficking
financed these crimes,
the victims have rights
that must be recognised
and fulfilled," said
Bernabeu, an
international attorney
from Spain who works
with the San
Francisco-based Centre
for Justice and
Accountability.
"We want to give the
victims a hand," said
Bernabeu. "So ever since
the extradition of
(Carlos Mario Jiménez),
aka ‘Macaco’, we have
been closely studying
U.S. legislation, a
process that we have
stepped up since the
extradition of the other
14 paramilitaries."
So far, the lawyers have
arranged to represent 12
victims of seven of the
paramilitaries who were
sent to the United
States in May. But they
said they expected that
number to expand in the
near future, even though
the total number of
people they will defend
"will unfortunately be
small compared to the
huge number of victims
in Colombia," said
Bernabeu.
The aim is for the
victims and their legal
representatives to be
able to participate in
the public court
hearings in the United
States, have their
testimony be heard, and
be kept informed of the
progress of the trials.
Colombian human rights
lawyer Iván Cepeda, head
of the Movement of
Victims of Crimes of the
State, welcomed the
efforts of his
colleagues from the
U.S., which are in
addition to other
actions in favour of
victims of the
paramilitaries at the
local and international
levels.
Cepeda said human rights
groups had repeatedly
asked the Colombian
government not to
extradite the imprisoned
paramilitary chiefs.
But because their demand
was ignored, the
alternative was to
design a strategy to
bring to light, at the
international level, the
crimes committed by the
extradited paramilitary
leaders, he said.
"We are telling people
that each one of them is
comparable to a (former
Chilean dictator)
Augusto Pinochet," said
Cepeda. "People need to
know about the appalling
crimes they have
committed, and about the
huge debt they owe to
Colombia and to millions
of Colombians, so that
they aren't just
depicted as mere drug
traffickers."
The activists’ plans
include visits to the
United States, the
publication of a
statement signed by 20
U.S. legislators calling
for the defence of human
rights in Colombia, and
lobbying efforts to get
a draft law on victims’
rights approved by the
Colombian Congress
without amendments that
would dilute it.
In Colombia, Altholz and
Bernabeu are meeting
with representatives of
the Supreme Court, the
Attorney General’s
Office, human rights
groups, social
organisations, and
victims’ associations.
"We cannot expect
immediate results, but
we are completely
dedicated to this and
will continue working,"
said Altholz.
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