| U.S. State Department Rolls Over Victims'
Rights FOR Statement on State Department Certification of Human Rights in ColombiaAugust 3, 2005 Bypassing the opposition of religious leaders, human rights & community groups, and 22 U.S. senators, the U.S. State Department certified Colombia’s human rights record yesterday, releasing more than $70 million in U.S. military aid to Colombia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's certification came despite persistent ties between the Colombian government and paramilitary forces that have killed thousands of civilians, and despite rampant abuses by members of paramilitary groups and armed forces. "This certification is very worrisome,” said FOR Executive Director Patricia Clark, who recently visited Colombia and met there with U.S. Ambassador William Wood. “The State Department has chosen to overlook serious human rights violations and to send gunships and training that will further fuel Colombia's ongoing conflict, by far the bloodiest in the hemisphere." Having received more than $3 billion in U.S. military aid over the past five years, Colombia is the world's largest recipient of U.S. military aid outside the Middle East. The U.S. Congress established the human rights certification process in 2002 to address concerns regarding the Colombian military’s human rights record and its ties to paramilitary death squads. The process requires the U.S. State Department to certify that soldiers alleged to have abused civilians be investigated and prosecuted in civilian courts, and that the army end its collaboration with paramilitary groups, which are responsible for the large majority of political killings in the country. This year has already been one of the worst for human rights in Colombia. In 2005, paramilitary forces have murdered union leaders, indigenous peoples and unarmed civilians. Most notably, in February, eight members of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community, including three children, were brutally massacred. A witness last saw several of the victims being detained by men in Colombian Army uniforms. Shortly after the massacre, Army soldiers destroyed key evidence in front of community members and journalists. The atrocity provoked numerous grassroots protests in the United States and Colombia, and a letter by 22 U.S. senators citing the case as cause for withholding certification. The Fellowship of Reconciliation maintains a permanent observation team in San José, a small community that has seen more than 150 people killed without a single prosecution. The certification comes on the eve of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's visit to President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, this Thursday, August 4th. President Uribe is seeking support for his latest efforts to grant easy terms to right-wing paramilitaries, some of whom are wanted in the U.S. for drug trafficking. These efforts include passage of a law that allows paramilitary chiefs, including authors of massacres and drug traffickers, to serve little jail time and that has no requirement of them to confess their crimes. "Secretary Rice's certification, issued while the U.S. Congress is in recess, serves as a welcoming gift to President Uribe," said Susana Pimiento, coordinator of FOR’s Colombia Program. “It flies in the face of the law and of informed public opinion.” Contact:
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