Tuesday 04 November 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
RIGHTS-COLOMBIA:
UN Warns of Civilian
Killings by Military
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA (IPS) - The
extrajudicial executions
that are being committed
by government forces in
Colombia constitute
crimes against humanity,
United Nations High
Commissioner for Human
Rights Navi Pillay said
at the end of her
six-day fact-finding
tour of this South
American country.
"An offence becomes a
crime against humanity
if it is widespread and
systematic against the
civilian population. We
are observing and
keeping a record of the
number of extrajudicial
killings, and it does
appear systematic and
widespread in my view,"
Pillay said in answer to
a question from IPS in
her only meeting with
the press in Colombia,
on Saturday Nov. 1.
According to the
Observatory of Human
Rights and Humanitarian
Law of the
Colombia-Europe-United
States Coordination
Group (CCEEU) -- a
coalition formed by some
200 humanitarian
organisations -- from
January 2007 to June
2008 "one person died
every day in
extrajudicial
executions" committed
directly by government
security forces.
The same source
indicates that the
number of summary
executions has tripled
since right-wing
President Álvaro Uribe
took office in August
2002. And the killings
are occurring in every
region of the country,
as evidenced by
statistics from the
Colombian Commission of
Jurists, a prominent
human rights group that
forms part of the CCEEU.
Pillay spoke of
"continuing levels of
extrajudicial
executions," which she
described as "very
alarming."
But the implicated
military officers may
not have to appear
before the International
Criminal Court (ICC) --
on which the South
African-born U.N.
official previously sat
as a judge -- given that
the Colombian government
has started to bring
actions against the
culprits, she noted.
"The goal is to have the
national authorities
investigate these crimes
and prosecute the
perpetrators," Pillay
explained. "It's only
when a country is unable
and unwilling that the
International Criminal
Court, for instance,
would have the power to
intervene."
Midway through Pillay’s
visit to Colombia, on
Oct. 29, the Uribe
administration dismissed
20 officers, including
three generals, and
seven non-commissioned
officers, for alleged
involvement in forced
disappearances and
summary executions of
civilians.
The bodies of the
victims are later
dressed up and presented
to the media as leftist
rebels or right-wing
paramilitary fighters
killed in combat, with
the aim of showing
results in the
counterinsurgency war.
That same day, the CCEEU
and other human rights
groups presented a total
of four reports on
extrajudicial executions
in this country that has
been torn for more than
four decades by a war
between leftist
guerrilla groups,
government forces and
far-right
paramilitaries.
The military officers
were fired for
negligence or lack of
command over their
troops, and the
Colombian press was
quick to stress that
they are innocent until
proven guilty.
The U.N. high
commissioner, however,
said that in her
meetings with Defence
Ministry officials she
"noted that in
accordance with
international standards,
a superior may be
criminally responsible
for crimes committed by
subordinates, under his
or her effective
authority and control,
and as a result of his
or her failure to
exercise control
properly over such
subordinates."
"So this is the basis on
which this government
has acted," she
continued, "and I am
encouraging that the
process of investigation
be followed consistently
through the ranks,"
until those who are
directly responsible are
found.
Pillay urged "the
Ministry of Defence to
continue working to
ensure that central
orders are enforced at
an operational level."
She said she recognises
"that this is an
historic development
that has not been
attempted before, where
the government takes
accountability"
seriously with respect
to the responsibility of
the armed forces.
The dismissals -- which
the government promises
will not be the last --
are "a hopeful
indication that such
atrocities will not be
tolerated and that the
army is moving away from
‘counting bodies’ as a
criteria of success in
their operations," the
high commissioner
declared.
She added that she
"supports the commitment
expressed by the highest
civilian and military
authorities of the
country that progress in
security should be
achieved with full
adherence to legality
and respect for human
rights."
The Office of the High
Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR) has a
major country office in
Colombia, which has been
pressuring the
government since 2004,
demanding that it stop
emphasising "body
counts" as a measure of
military success, as
soldiers are tempted by
a policy of rewards --
prizes, leave incentive,
promotions and bonuses
-- which leads them to
execute civilians to
inflate the number of
casualties achieved in
actual combat.
In the last interview he
gave before stepping
down in 2006, the former
head of the OHCHR
Colombia field office,
Swedish U.N. official
Michael Frühling, had
warned about
extrajudicial killings,
saying that "the
government is aware of
many of these cases
because we have talked
about it."
"The government has
taken certain steps
because it is apparently
concerned, even though
it has not declared it
publicly," Frühling said
back then to Un Pasquín,
an anti-Uribe newspaper
published by Colombian
caricaturist and
journalist Vladdo.
The Final Report of the
International
Observation Mission on
Extrajudicial Executions
and Impunity in
Colombia, made up of 13
independent experts from
Britain, France,
Germany, Spain and the
United States,
identifies certain
patterns in these
extrajudicial killings.
Presented at the same
time as the CCEEU
report, it warns that
these killings "are not
isolated crimes but
rather a systematic
practice that is
premeditated."
"There is a system of
incentives for
soldiers," said German
expert Stefan Ofteringer,
one of the 13 members of
the observation mission
who personally reviewed
135 of the 955
extrajudicial execution
cases documented by the
CCEUU since 2002.
"There are economic
rewards," he added, "and
prizes for positive
results, which we have
been able to verify in
many cases we’ve
studied."
But there are also
"intimidations and
aggressions against the
relatives of victims,
whenever they attempted
to access the case
files, court proceedings
or bodies," and the
human rights defenders
that help these families
in their inquiries have
also been threatened, he
said.
The mission sees the
efforts made in 2007 by
the OHCHR, the
Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights and Colombian
human rights groups, as
well as its own work, as
instrumental in the
Defence Ministry’s
decision to refer the
homicide investigations
to civilian courts on
Nov. 2 of last year.
But, at the same time,
the cases brought before
ordinary courts advance
very slowly, there
aren’t enough
prosecutors assigned to
them, and no efforts are
being made to determine
who is really behind the
crimes, beyond the
actual perpetrators.
"We asked that military
aid be conditioned to
(the elimination) of
extrajudicial executions
and, in general, to the
human rights record of
the security forces,"
Ofteringer told IPS.
The expert said that the
countries should assess
whether Colombia is
complying with the
annual recommendations
made by the high
commissioner for human
rights, in preparation
for the Universal
Periodic Review that
Colombia will
voluntarily submit to
next Dec. 10 in Geneva.
Ofteringer noted that
because of the
forthcoming review, "the
outcome of our mission
goes far beyond
individual cases." |
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