COLOMBIA:
Displaced People Find
Relative Calm in Bogotá
By
Constanza Vieira
BOGOTÁ, (IPS) - What do
Colombian children
displaced by the war
like most about this
city? The tall
buildings, the avenues,
the museums and the
cars. They love the
parks, the sports fields
and the rides in the
amusement parks,
according to a report by
the Catholic Church and
the main
non-governmental source
on displaced people.
The 160-page document,
"Drop by Drop: Forced
Displacement in Bogotá
and Soacha," by the
Consultancy on Human
Rights and Displacement
(CODHES) and the
Archdiocese of Bogota's
Migrants' Foundation (FAMIG),
focuses on displaced
people in the capital
and a neighbouring
municipality, Soacha,
within the metropolitan
area.
"Drop by Drop" reports
that from 2001 to 2006,
an average of 23
displaced families a day
have been coming to
Bogotá. That is 93
people a day, on
average. Fifty-one
percent of them are
under 18.
While Bogotá residents
grasp at any opportunity
to flee from the
stressful hustle and
bustle of the capital
city, the displaced
teenagers particularly
appreciate the "peace
and tranquillity" they
feel there, in contrast
to "their memories of
the armed conflict and
the danger it posed to
their families," the
document says.
"They feel protected and
removed from the place
where violence
threatened them," in
spite of the fact that
they live in undesirable
areas of the capital, it
says.
What they do not like is
"the pollution, the
smell of rubbish and the
rats, the unpaved
streets, the insecurity,
and violence against
children," and most
continue to miss the
rural homes they were
forced to leave behind.
There are more than 3.8
million displaced
Colombians, according to
CODHES, although the
government acknowledges
only two to three
million, and the United
Nations High
Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) reports
three million.
They are the most
serious and costly
"collateral damage" of a
civil war which the
present government does
not recognise, and which
is in its fifth decade,
with leftwing guerrillas
in armed conflict with
the armed forces and
their ultra-rightwing
paramilitary allies.
"All the parties
involved in the internal
armed conflict share
some responsibility for
the forced displacement
of persons who arrived
in Bogotá and Soacha
between 2001 and 2005,"
says the report,
released on Wednesday.
It contains a survey of
perceptions of the
nature of displacement
during that period.
According to the survey,
the majority (53
percent) of people who
contacted FAMIG for help
were driven from their
homes by the left-wing
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC),
and 34 percent by the
paramilitaries.
Formerly, more people
fled from the
paramilitaries than from
the FARC, so there has
been a change in the
armed group causing most
displacement, CODHES
director Jorge Rojas
told IPS.
"But many of those who
come to Bogotá do not
dare to say who was
responsible for their
departure," he said. In
addition, the government
"doesn't accept that
anyone is displaced by
paramilitaries, because
(officially) they no
longer exist."
Paramilitary militias,
most controlled by drug
traffickers, reached a
controversial agreement
with the authorities to
demobilise in 2003. The
process was ostensibly
completed in 2006, but
many groups are
reportedly re-arming.
Neither does the
government recognise as
displaced those people
who have left their
fields and farmhouses
after devastating aerial
spraying with herbicides
by the authorities,
intended to eradicate
illegal coca
plantations. Farms
growing coca are
confiscated and their
owners prosecuted, which
is a good reason not to
divulge why they left.
According to the survey,
the main reason people
leave their homes is
threats directed against
themselves or their
neighbours. Another
important motive is
recruitment by the armed
groups of teenage
children, either by
force or because the
young people begin to
flirt with the idea of
war as an adventure.
According to testimonies
quoted in the report,
"you put up with it, you
give them what they
want, your animals, your
crops, your money... but
not your children. When
the payment they demand
is your children, that's
when you say no, that's
enough, no more of
this." At that point, it
becomes preferable to
follow the uncertain
life of the displaced.
That is what happened to
Gildardo*, who has seven
children. In 2005, he
uprooted his family for
the second time -- the
first was in 1999 -- to
prevent his eldest
daughter, then 13, from
joining the FARC, he
said in a press
conference on Wednesday.
When the families reach
the decrepit
neighbourhoods in the
south of Bogotá,
teenagers have an
immense need to be
recognised, to adapt and
to help support their
relatives.
Then they are beseiged
by criminal gangs, urban
guerrillas, paramilitary
militias or prostitution
networks who court them
or force them to join
them, in an environment
where they have as much
chance of winning the
lottery as of getting a
regular job.
Young people who refuse
to be recruited are
risking their lives.
According to the
Foundation for
Education, Human Rights
and Development,
"between 2000 and 2003,
400 young people were
killed in selective
murders, specifically
for this reason" in
south Bogotá and Soacha.
Surviving in the urban
jungle is a major
challenge for displaced
people. Thirty-six
percent do not manage to
find stable employment
within the first five
years, according to the
survey. Lack of food
security and limited
healthcare affect 70
percent, CODHES says.
Most of them sell
fruits, vegetables and
other foods on street
corners, or pick through
garbage for materials to
recycle. Others are
taken on as temporary
construction workers or
domestics.
The average daily income
of displaced people in
Bogotá is 1.66 dollars,
and a family of five has
a monthly income of 125
dollars, Rojas said.
Many people spend hours
standing in line in
front of government
offices "negotiating the
bureaucratic procedures
necessary to obtain
funds for a productive
project or housing, or
hoping for an extension
of state aid for the
displaced."
This consists of
non-perishable foods,
cleaning products and
cooking implements,
which are generally
handed out for a maximum
of six months, although
the Constitutional Court
decided in April that
they should be provided
until displaced people
attain a stable
situation, either by
returning home or
becoming established in
their new location.
Fifty-seven percent of
households are headed by
women who have been
widowed or separated
from their spouses by
the war.
Forty-eight percent of
displaced people have
attended primary school
for some years, and 25
percent have completed
part or all of their
secondary education.
According to the 2005
census, 16.4 percent of
Colombia's 42 million
people live in Bogotá.
But displaced people are
grossly under-registered
by the city government,
which is only aware of
20 percent of the total
number, the report says.
According to CODHES,
between 1985 and 2006
some 666,600 displaced
people came to Bogotá
and Soacha, representing
17 percent of the
country's total number
of displaced people. Of
these, 35.6 percent had
fled their homes since
2001, reflecting
"conditions of
collective insecurity."
Displacement could have
a key effect on the
second phase of Plan
Colombia, a vast
anti-drugs and
counterinsurgency
operation financed by
the United States, the
budget for which is set
in the U.S. Congress,
said Marco Romero, the
president of CODHES.
On Jul. 11, the U.S.
House of Representatives
approved resolution 426,
recognising internal
displacement in Colombia
and requesting that
Bogotá and the
international donor
community prioritise
discussion of
humanistarian assistance
and internal
displacement.
The non-binding
resolution urges the
U.S. government to
"increase the resources
it makes available to
provide emergency
humanitarian assistance
and protection through
international and
civilian government
agencies, and assist
Colombia's internally
displaced people in
rebuilding their lives
in a dignified, safe and
sustainable manner."
Romero stated that the
resolution was based on
data provided by the
Catholic Church and
CODHES. It was sponsored
by 43 representatives of
both the Democratic and
Republican Parties.
The resolution also
recognises 2007 as the
Year of the Rights of
Displaced People in
Colombia.
*Full name omitted in
order to protect the
source. |
