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COLOMBIA:
UNHCR Threatens
to Leave If Gov't Insists on
Dictating Terms
Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA, (IPS) - If the Colombian
Foreign Ministry insists on
establishing official rules for
the terms to be used by the
international aid community when
referring to this country's
civil war, the United Nations
Office of the High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) ”would have
to consider pulling out of the
country,” the agency's
representative in Colombia told
IPS.
Local UNHCR director Roberto
Meier is the first foreign
diplomat to publicly speak out
on the ”Guidelines for the
approach to be taken by
international cooperation
projects”, issued Jun. 8 by the
president's High Commissioner
for Peace Luis Carlos Restrepo.
The document was addressed to
United Nations agencies, foreign
ambassadors, international
development aid agencies and
humanitarian groups active in
this country.
The government's ”guidelines”
ask the international community
to refrain from using terms like
”internal armed conflict”;
”armed actors” or ”parties to
the conflict” when referring to
the security forces; ”non-state
actors in the conflict” to refer
to the left-wing rebels or
extreme right-wing
paramilitaries; or ”peace
community”, ”peace territory” or
”humanitarian zone” -
expressions often adopted by
communities in Colombia that
have declared themselves neutral
in the conflict.
When referring to the over four
decades of violence in Colombia,
the right-wing government of
Alvaro Uribe refuses to describe
it as a ”civil war” or ”armed
conflict”, talking instead about
the ”terrorist threat” posed by
leftist guerrilla groups.
The government also asked the
international community not to
refer to ”humanitarian”
activities when proposing
projects in Colombia.
In addition, the 22-point,
four-page document states that
”any kind of activity that could
imply any contact whatsoever
with the illegal armed groups is
seen as unacceptable by the
national government.”
The ban on contacting ”illegal
armed groups” is understood here
as referring to contact with the
guerrillas, who are fought by
the Colombian armed forces with
heavy financial and military
support from Washington.
”There is such a thing as
international refugee law, and
there is terminology that we
have been using for 50 years,
which has been approved by the
(U.N.) General Assembly, and a
state cannot simply change
that,” said Meier.
The UNHCR, which has been in
Colombia since 1997, ”is present
in 116 countries, mainly where
there are conflicts, whether
non-international armed
conflicts or international
conflicts,” he said.
”A state has neither the
authority nor the right to tell
other states, for example, that
are cooperating with it, what
vocabulary they can or cannot
use. There are very clear United
Nations mechanisms for this,” he
added.
”If a state wants to change (the
terminology), it must address
its concerns to the General
Assembly to get the terms
modified. That is the
appropriate channel. So for us,
this document is non-existent,”
said Meier.
”If Colombia decided that these
guidelines were to go into
effect, it should have pushed
them through the appropriate
channels. Because it failed to
do so, we believe these
guidelines are simply an
internal memorandum of the
national government,” he said.
On Monday, Foreign Minister
Carolina Barco backed the
content of the document, but
criticised the way it was
distributed to the diplomatic
corps and aid agencies. She also
announced that she would meet
with the representatives of the
international aid community to
explain the guidelines.
But if the document is received
through the Foreign Ministry,
”that will be another story,”
said Meier. ”If that happens,
then I sincerely believe that
the UNHCR would have to consider
pulling out of the country.”
The U.N. official's warning came
a day after a meeting in Bogota
of the group of donor countries,
U.N. agencies and multilateral
lending institutions that are
working with Colombia, although
what was discussed in the
meeting was not made public.
”The position would be that if
(the document) comes officially
from the Foreign Ministry, it
would be the Colombian state
trying to impose its terms. We
would then have to analyse the
question very carefully, and
consider whether under these
terms, we could continue working
with the Colombian state,” Meier
clarified.
The UNHCR is one of the sources
that provided information for
the Colombia chapter of the
report on the humanitarian
situation in the world, to be
released Jun. 21 by U.N.
Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland.
After years of solely concerning
itself with refugees who cross
international borders, in the
mid-1990s the UNHCR broadened
its mandate to cover people
displaced within their own
countries.
The Colombian government, which
provides conservative figures
with respect to the humanitarian
crisis generated by the armed
conflict, admits that the number
of displaced persons in Colombia
is over two million.
But the non-governmental
Consultancy on Human Rights and
Displacement (CODHES) estimates
the total number of people
forcibly displaced since 1985 at
3.2 million.
Word has it that Egeland's
report will paint a dismal
panorama of the situation in
this South American country of
43 million, and that the
Colombian government is already
aware of this and is not at all
pleased.
Meanwhile, Colombian civil
society groups that have joined
together in the Cartagena
Consensus are expected to oppose
the government's new
”guidelines” on terminology.
The Consensus is made up of the
National Business Council, the
Colombian Catholic Bishops
Conference, the National
Planning Council, the
Confederation of
Non-Governmental Organisations,
and the Alliance of Social
Organisations for Cooperation
for Democracy and Peace.
The Consensus will put out a
communiqué rejecting the
guidelines, said Rojas, of
CODHES, which belongs to the
Alliance.
The Alliance was created on the
occasion of the July 2003
meeting in London of donors
working with Colombia, who
condition an increase in aid on
compliance by the Colombian
government and armed forces with
U.N. Commission on Human Rights
recommendations.
The donors met once again in the
northern Colombian city of
Cartagena, on the Caribbean
coast, in February. On that
occasion, the Colombian civil
society organisations founded
the Cartagena Consensus, which
has issued public statements on
two earlier occasions.
In its third communiqué, ”we
will first ask the government
whether the 'London process' is
still alive, because it included
a series of agreements between
the government, the
international aid community and
NGOs, which contradict
Restrepo's 'guidelines',” said
Rojas.
”We will also issue a public
warning that the government is
throwing up major barriers to
international cooperation with
Colombia, at a time when the
humanitarian crisis is deepening
and the civilian victims of the
conflict are increasing in
number,” he added.
According to Meier, ”the
situation remains very difficult
and complex, and more and more
people are displaced every day -
in small numbers, but if we add
up the total, it keeps rising.”
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