Urgent Actions



Dear Friends,

Army-backed paramilitaries have declared Peace Brigades International a "military target" after threatening both one of its members and a women's grass roots organization it accompanies in Barrancabermeja, Colombia.

PBI has had a long history of supporting Human Rights groups in Guatemala as well. Please consider making a phone call (see more numbers below) to the U.S. State Department or the U.S. Embassy in Colombia, or write to President Andres Pastrana (President of Colombia, Palacio de Narin~o, Bogota, Colombia, fax: 011- 57- 1- 334- 19 -40), to express your concern for the safety of human rights defenders in Barranca, and for the safety of international human rights monitors like Peace Brigades International.

For more on PBI's Colombia Project check out www.igc.apc.org/pbi/colombia.html

thanks,
GNIB


February 9, 2001

Threats against international and Colombian human rights workers

COLOMBIA


Army-backed paramilitaries have declared Peace Brigades International a "military target" after threatening both one of its members and a women's grass roots organization it accompanies in Barrancabermeja, Colombia.

In the early morning of 8 February, two armed men, who said they belonged to the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia, came to a women's community center run by the Organización Femenina Popular (OFP), Popular Women's Organization, in the city of Barrancabermeja. They men went straight to an international observer from the non-governmental organization Peace Brigades International (PBI), who are accompanying OFP members in immediate danger, and ordered him to hand over his official papers and mobile phone. When he refused, the paramilitaries threatened him with a gun. He and Jackeline Rojas, an OFP activist, therefore handed over their papers and mobile phones. When leaving the center, the paramilitary gunmen threatened the international observer, declaring PBI a "military target"

Since 1994, PBI has maintained a team of international observers in Barrancabermeja. The organization protects human rights activists by physically accompanying those at risk. PBI accompanies the OFP, an internationally backed organization working with displaced communities in the Magdalena Medio region, which came under paramilitary threat in January.

Background

Amnesty International is concerned that despite a heavy security force presence in Barrancabermeja, where a special forces unit was deployed in January, paramilitary forces have apparently been able to operate unhindered. One paramilitary, who was arrested for threatening workers at the OFP centre on 27 January, was released only two days later. Also, the paramilitaries are reported to have set up checkpoints and to have killed several people in recent weeks. Although the precise location of these checkpoints have been reported to the security forces, they have taken no action to confront the paramilitaries.

The security forces and their paramilitary allies have a policy of labeling human rights activists as guerrilla collaborators or supporters, so they can present them as legitimate targets in the counter-insurgency war. Human rights activists in Barrancabermeja and the Magdalena Medio region have suffered continuous threats and harassment for carrying out their legitimate work to promote and protect internationally recognized human rights. In the past they have been the subject of death threats, killings and disappearances at the hands of the security forces and their paramilitary allies. Many have been killed and others have been forced to leave the region in fear for their lives. The Colombian authorities have so far failed to take action against paramilitary groups operating in the region.

Recommended Action

Call the human rights staffers at the DC offices of your three Members of Congress. Ask them to call the State Department Colombia desk officer (Alex Lee 202.647.4173) and the human rights officer of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá (Mari Dieterich 011.571.315.2130). Request that the U.S. Embassy make a public pronouncement of concern about this situation, urging the Colombian authorities to take concrete action against paramilitary groups in Barranca.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -- Taken from an Amnesty International news release:

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9 February 2001

Colombia

Colombian Paramilitaries Declare International Human Rights Organization a 'Military Target'

     (New York) -
In an alarming development, army-backed paramilitaries have just declared Peace Brigades International and the Colombia-based Popular Women's Organization (OFP) "military targets" after threatening group members in Barrancabermeja, Colombia.

     "This direct threat against international humanitarian volunteers in Colombia represents a significant deterioration of the human rights situation there," stated Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director for Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "Unfortunately, the authorities in Barrancabermeja continually fail to uphold their obligation to protect the citizens."

     Thursday morning two armed men, identifying themselves as members of the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, declared members of the human rights groups as military objectives." Peace Brigades International, which offers a permanent international presence to threatened human rights defenders, has been accompanying the OFP and other groups in Barrancabermeja since the fall of 1994. This is the first direct threat that the PBI team has received in Colombia.

     Yesterday's threats were carried out in the context of increasing tensions in Barrancabermeja. In addition to the OFP, human rights groups such as CREDHOS (Regional Human Rights Committee) and ASFADDES (Association of the Families of the Detained-Disappeared) have been receiving threats from army-backed paramilitaries. Last year hundreds of selective killings were carried out in Barrancabermeja, making it one of Colombia's most violent cities. This year alone, dozens of people have been killed or "disappeared" in Barrancabermeja by paramilitaries and guerrillas.


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