ELECTIONS-COLOMBIA:
Campaign Marked by Threats
Constanza Vieira

BOGOTÁ,  (IPS) - In the view of Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos, Amnesty International timed the release of its annual report on human rights in 150 countries to influence Colombia's presidential elections next Sunday.

The timing of these reports "is not a coincidence," said Santos after the London-based rights watchdog published its report on Tuesday. "There are no coincidences in this kind of thing. Some sectors produce reports to influence public opinion in Colombia."

Meanwhile, local human rights organisations and trade unions have been receiving e-mail death threats from paramilitary or "ex-paramilitary" groups.

In its "Report 2006: the State of the World's Human Rights", Amnesty states that at least 100 civilians were killed by the security forces in Colombia in 2005, and that the victims of these extrajudicial executions were falsely described as "guerrillas killed in combat."

Santos, whose office is also in charge of human rights, is slated for reelection Sunday along with rightwing President Álvaro Uribe. The polls point to a first-round victory, in which they could take 55 percent of the vote.

Amnesty also documented continued killings of civilians by the extreme-right paramilitary groups, which declared a ceasefire in December 2002 and are currently completing a "demobilisation" process after controversial negotiations with the government.

Between December 2002 and December 2005, more than 2,750 murders and forced disappearances were blamed on the paramilitaries, whose ties to the security forces are once again mentioned by Amnesty, after having been amply documented by the United Nations and by the New York-based Human Rights Watch organisation.

According to Amnesty, "Although the number of killings and kidnappings in some parts of the country fell, serious human rights abuses committed by all parties to the conflict remained at critical levels."

The leftist rebel groups FARC and ELN "were responsible for serious and widespread breaches of international humanitarian law, especially kidnappings, hostage-taking and killings of civilians," says the report, which adds that "The FARC also carried out disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks which resulted in the deaths of numerous civilians."

But while the number of kidnappings dropped 53 percent in 2005, compared to 2004, this year has seen an increase in human rights violations and threats against those who dare to report them, said the rights group.

The National Trade Union School (ENS), a research centre founded in 1982 by academics and trade unionists in the city of Medellín, reported that in the first four months of this year, the number of trade unionists killed increased 27.7 percent with respect to the same period in 2005.

In addition, there were 58 cases of harassment and attacks on people working in the field of human rights in the first five months of the year, according to Iván Cepeda with the National Movement of Victims of State Violence.

On Tuesday, Austrian Ambassador Hans-Peter Glanzer, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU), and Adrianus Koetsenruijter, the head of the European Commission delegation to Colombia and Ecuador, held a press conference in which they were flanked by several of Colombia's leading human rights activists.

"We support these people who have faced threats to their physical integrity and their lives, threats that have even targeted their families, and that are simply unacceptable," said Koetsenruijter.

"They have to report on human rights violations," he added. "That is their role, their responsibility. They also have to seek compensation for the victims, through legal, psychological, medical and other kinds of support," while "confronting the culture of impunity, wherever it exists."

Criticism by activists must be seen as "constructive" because it contributes to developing "appropriate legislation for the establishment of national human rights strategies," said the diplomat.

The EU officials were responding to intimidating e-mail messages sent in recent weeks to human rights groups, trade unions, academics and the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia (ONIC), which last week called demonstrations in rural areas around the country to protest the free trade agreement that the Uribe administration is negotiating with the United States.

"The great majority of these threats come from paramilitary groups, or from new paramilitary groups that have been organised," said Glanzer in response to a question from IPS. "At least, the names of new groups appear" as the senders.

When the government began to negotiate a disarmament agreement with the paramilitaries, it was with the understanding that the members of the various groups making up the AUC paramilitary umbrella organisation totaled no more than 4,000.

But that number began to be inflated, until reaching a total of 31,000 "combatants" who now receive state assistance after "disarming" - even though only 17,000 weapons were handed in.

The EU has provided political and economic support for the process of reinsertion of paramilitary fighters into society.

Presidential candidate and former justice minister Enrique Parejo says the paramilitaries "could play a very important role" in the elections.

They "have held onto their weapons and are ready to launch a counterattack if they perceive any threat to Uribe's reelection," Parejo, who in the 1980s survived an attempt on his life in which he received seven bullet wounds, told IPS.

In a number of the e-mail threats, the authors identify themselves as the "New Generation", although a message sent out on Saturday is signed by the "Colombia Free of Communists Group".

Referring to the colour (yellow) of the leftist Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA), the message states that "we will not permit any other result" than a victory by Uribe. "And if on Sunday it looks like the majority are yellow shirts, we will take it upon ourselves to dye them another colourà.blood red!"

The threats also indirectly refer to verbal attacks by President Uribe against the platform of PDA presidential candidate Carlos Gaviria, a retired judge whose campaign pledges have focused on reducing social inequality in Colombia.

"We are not willing to continue allowing a bunch of disguised people like all of you to continue dragging our country through the mud of communism, and especially not under the influence of the current socialist versions of Chavismo, Castrismo, Evomoralismo, Lulismo or any other version in which you try to disguise yourselves," states one of the e-mail threats by those who describe themselves as "ex-AUC".

The message refers to leftist presidents in South America: Hugo Chávez in Venezuela; Fidel Castro in Cuba; Evo Morales in Bolivia; and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil.

Uribe, who has previously accused human rights defenders of "serving terrorism," said in April that "disguised communism" is seeking to "spread poverty."

Gaviria is in second place in the polls, with 25 percent ratings, which show an upward tendency. In the March parliamentary elections, the leftist PDA took 10 percent of the vote, while Uribe's supporters and allies won 70 percent of seats in both houses of Congress.

Activists believe the president's words have egged on extreme-right groups that support him.

"We reiterate our call to the national government and the president to issue a presidential directive that recognises the legitimate work of human rights organisations, as previous governments have done," Gloria Flórez, of the human rights group Minga, said at the news briefing with the EU officials.

"Some paramilitaries have definitively withdrawn from the fight and others are mobilising in a different manner," commented Koetsenruijter. He also said the threats may come "not only from groups but from individuals, because they perceive a danger in the activity of certain human rights defenders."

"Weapons, men and structures - especially the most sophisticated - have been left in place," analyst León Valencia, director of the non-governmental Nuevo Arco Iris peace and development group, told IPS.

"This was a partial demobilisation and a partial handover of weapons. That is a reality. But it is also true that 33 paramilitary groups demobilised," and that in their areas of influence, "the number of homicides and massacres has dropped. I call it ‘exicraso' - neither success (éxito) nor failure (fracaso), although the government only shows the successes," he added.

In Valencia's view, the election campaign has polarised the political field between ‘Uribistas' and ‘anti-Uribistas', and the former are nervous because the left is on the rise in the polls.

The big loser in the elections is expected to be the Liberal Party, one of the country's two traditional parties, which is now polling behind the PDA.

"I don't even want to imagine the climate if the elections go to a second round, I can't imagine the tension," said Valencia.

The latest e-mail death threat circulated two days before the Constitutional Court handed down a ruling Thursday on the Law on Justice and Peace, which was drawn up to govern the paramilitary disarmament process.

The verdict determined that in order to be eligible for the benefits offered by the law - which stipulates a maximum sentence of eight years for demobilised paramilitary combatants found guilty of committing crimes - the paramilitaries must confess to all of their crimes, or face up to three or four decades in prison.

The unappealable Court ruling also stated that the demobilised fighters must compensate the victims of paramilitary violence, using both their legally and illegally acquired assets. (The paramilitary groups are heavily involved in the drug trade).

In addition, the ruling opened the door for the inclusion of the principles of truth and reparations in future peace talks with the leftist groups involved in Colombia's four-decade civil war, as demanded by activists and victims of human rights abuses.