From the Latin America Working Group

The conditions call for:

• The Colombian armed forces to suspend from duty all armed forces personnel credibly alleged to have committed gross violations of human rights or to have aided or abetted paramilitary groups;
• The Colombian government to vigorously prosecute in civilian courts leaders and members of paramilitary groups and Colombian armed forces who have aided or abetted these groups; and
• The President of Colombia to direct in writing that armed forces personnel credibly alleged to have committed gross violations of human rights will be brought to justice in Colombia's civilian courts.

The emphasis on civilian courts is necessary because armed forces members are often tried in military courts, which rarely punish high-level offenders. Colombia's Constitutional Court in 1997 established that human rights crimes should be tried in civilian courts, but the military continues to challenge civilian jurisdiction.

As the recent New York Times article (Friday, July 14, 2000) on the El Salado massacre indicates, the Colombian government cannot be said to meet these conditions. The El Salado massacre is just one of the many atrocities that have been committed by paramilitary forces over the years with the overt or covert support of Colombia's armed forces.

For example, in 1999, according to Human Rights Watch, the Colombian Army's Third Brigade set up a paramilitary group in the Valle del Cauca, in the south of Colombia, that carried out killings and massacres in July and August. By September at least 40 people had been killed.

A second example: the Colombian Attorney General's office has extensive mevidence of pervasive ties between the Fourth Brigade, based in Medellin, and paramilitaries under the command of the notorious Carlos Castaņo. In El Aro in October 1997 Castaņo's forces killed at least sixteen people, including three children, while the Army maintained a perimeter around the village. No one has been brought to justice for these killings.

A few months later, Jesus Valle, a lawyer who documented the massacre and represented some victims, was assassinated in his office by hired killers linked to La Terraza, a group of professional assassins who work on contract for Castaņo. Evidence suggests they acted in coordination with military intelligence. In fact, according to Colombian government investigators, Castaņo pays a monthly retainer to La Terraza. Once a target is identified and a 'contract' is negotiated, investigators believe that the killers are given intelligence gathered by the military on the target's movements. La Terraza has also been tied to the kidnappings of Senator Piedad Cordoba and of human rights workers from the Popular Institute of Training in Medellin during 1999. (All of the above examples are from Human Rights Watch, The Ties that Bind: Colombia and Military-Paramilitary Links, Vol. 12, No. 1 (B), February 2000; see www.hrw.org)

And those are just a few examples.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many other organizations are calling on the administration NOT to certify and NOT to waive given current human rights conditions in Colombia.