Amnesty International: As Colombian President Uribe Returns to Washington, Congress Should Push for Exhaustive Investigations into Ongoing Abuses
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 6, 2007
12:29 PM
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CONTACT: Amnesty International
Suzanne Trimel, 212/633-4150, strimel@aiusa.org
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As Colombian President Uribe Returns to Washington, Congress Should Push for Exhaustive Investigations into Ongoing Abuses
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WASHINGTON - JUNE 6 - The U.S. Congress should tell President Álvaro Uribe that his decision to release some 200 Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) prisoners must not pave the way for the unconditional release of paramilitaries, guerrillas or third party backers still under investigation for serious human rights abuses or links to armed groups, Amnesty International USA said today.
More than a dozen members of the Colombian Congress are in detention under investigation for suspected links to the paramilitary Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and to human rights violations. According to press reports, the government may be planning to release these legislators and possibly grant them de facto amnesties before the investigations against them are allowed to run their course.
Colombia has suffered endemic impunity for decades, as very few of the perpetrators of human rights abuses -- be they security forces, guerrillas, paramilitaries or their sponsors -- have been brought to justice for the killings and forced disappearance of tens of thousands of civilians during Colombia's 40-year-old armed conflict.
Despite government claims that more than 32,000 paramilitaries have demobilized over the last few years, the Organization of American States (OAS) has documented continued abuses committed by non-demobilized paramilitaries, demobilized paramilitaries who have rearmed, and newly-armed paramilitary groups, identifying 22 new units with approximately 3,000 members. Evidence of security force collusion with paramilitaries continues.
"Ongoing paramilitary violence despite the alleged demobilization makes it clear that the network of economic, political and military support that propelled paramilitarism for decades has not been dismantled," said Renata Rendón, advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA. "The U.S. Congress must continue to push for accountability within the investigations of complicit politicians and other third-party backers."
Amnesty International welcomes investigations being carried out by the Supreme Court of Justice, the Human Rights Unit of the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Procurator General into suspected links of influential politicians, other high-ranking public officials and senior military officers to paramilitary groups. The investigations, however, focus on allegations of past -- rather than current -- human rights abuses and links between state officials and paramilitaries.
"Hundreds of thousands of civilians continue to be forcibly displaced and thousands of others have been killed and forcibly disappeared by all the parties to the conflict," Rendón said. "Considering the $5 billion of predominantly military aid the United States has provided Colombia since 2000, Congress cannot ignore the role and responsibility of the U.S."
The organization said that the search for truth and justice in any conflict situation is fraught with difficulties and obstacles. For such a process to succeed, it must have human rights at its core. Investigating and bringing to justice perpetrators of serious human rights abuses is essential to achieving a just and lasting peace.
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