Farc Vs Human Rights Violations in Colombia

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Sunday March 02, 2008 13:42 by Gecoga - Raices gecoga2 at hotmail dot com

An analisis of the current junture

This articule makes an analisis of the current junture of multitudinary marchs in Colombia. It reviews the situation of human rights violations and the causes of the Colombian conflict to finally explore alternatives to achieve peace in the country.

FARC vs. Human Rights Violations in Colombia

Having been ranging for over fifty years, the internal conflict in Colombia is beginning to achieve an important recognition within the international context. The latest news in relation to the liberation of Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, kidnapped almost 6 years ago by the guerillas of Farc, and the continued captivity of Ingrid Betancourt, have drawn the attention to two main topics: The suffering and appalling conditions on which people kidnapped by this guerilla group are being kept, and the actual possibility of reaching a humanitarian exchange between Farc’s political prisoners and kidnapped victims. This juncture at the same time brings the attention to the levels of violence of the Colombian armed conflict.

To react against the level of violence within the Colombian conflict, a demonstration against the guerilla group of Farc was called 4 February. This initiative proposed that big demonstrations take please at national and international levels. However, ambiguity reigns over whether the idea of organizing this protest came from. Some people believe this protest was an initiative coming from the civil society. Others believe it was a cynical ploy by the government to use the people’s indignation against violence to justify their won military agenda against Farc. The main objective of the mobilization was to condemn the violence perpetrated by Farc. This objective appears suspiciously similar with what the Colombian government of Alvaro Uribe has been always stating which is that the guerrillas groups, especially the Farc guerillas, are responsible of the current economic and politic crisis in Colombia.

The fact that most of the media in Colombia has always been prompt to support any governmental statement on the political situation explains why the call for this national and international protest reached unbelievable dimensions. Unfortunately in Colombia however, the freedom of expression is perhaps one of the most violated rights. And any voice calling for a more comprehensive view of the situation is rapidly censored by any means, but mostly by a death threats. Nevertheless, despite being viciously threaten, human rights activists in Colombia, and international observers of the civil conflict, are constantly denouncing a very different reality. Although, they acknowledge that Farc are perpetrators of abominable acts of barbarity, as has been clearly demonstrated by the life proofs of the kidnapped politicians and soldiers brought by Clara and Consuelo, they also recognize the guerillas from Farc are not the main perpetrators of violence within the Colombian armed conflict.

Worse than the barbarian acts of Farc, are the terrible human rights violations committed by the Colombian government. National and International Human Rights observers in Colombia such as the UN observer for human rights, the OMS observers from MAPP commission and local human rights defenders (now organized in a massive coalition of social movements called COSMOSOC), have been clearly stating that the most barbarian acts of violence in Colombia are actually perpetrated by the paramilitary groups, whose links with some of the members of Colombian army and politicians have also been clearly established. This of course, let the Colombian government in a very difficult position. Therefore it is not surprising in the least that the government take advantage from situations like the present release of Clara and Consuelo, to generate a blurred view of the actual conflict, manipulating the media for their own interest.

Next 15 and 16 May delegates from the Colombian Coalition of Social Organizations and Movements (COSMOSOC) are coming to Ireland. They come in a huge effort to present an international campaign in favor of the right of freedom of opinion, expression and association in Colombia. The Coalition would testify that paramilitary groups, now call “Aguilas Negras” (Black Eagles) still exist despite the so called demobilization process. The delegates from the Coalition of Social Movements will come to state that the paramilitary groups are the main violators of human rights, especially the right of freedom of expression; and that they violate human rights through the most horrifying acts of violence. The coalition, is presenting specific cases, and will put forward a proposal for the setting up of a national and international observatory of the right of freedom of opinion, expression and association in Colombia. This campaign is based on the principle that without freedom of expression and opinion, there could not be a real democratic society.

Unfortunately, for many reasons as the lack of freedom of opinion; there are yet too many Colombians who would not be able to put forward a protest which really condemn the worst acts of violence. This would necessarily mean to react firmly against the atrocities perpetuated by Farc; but even strongly, to the main actual perpetrator of the most atrocious acts of violence in Colombia who is the government itself through the paramilitary groups.

In Ireland a group of Colombians decided to follow the call for this protest against Farc. In contrast, some others like me have been trying to increase awareness of what is actually happening within the Colombian conflict, proposing a more comprehensive reading of the situation. We acknowledge that the Colombian conflict originated from political, social, cultural and economic causes. We are conscious that the political class in Colombia has always excluded the majority of Colombians from accessing their basic human rights such as health and education. We know therefore, that being this the situation for far too many years, it is just a natural consequence that guerrillas groups found a perfect environment to thrive, as it has been happening in Colombia for more than 50 years now with the Farc guerrillas.

Supporting the protest of 4 February, would transmit a wrong message. It would mean to undermine human rights violations as the most terrible acts of violence in Colombia. The government and therefore the Colombian military forces, have the mandate to guarantee that human rights are respected to all Colombians. As this is not happening and paradoxically is the state governments the main perpetrator of violence, this fact converts the Colombian government in one of the most terrible human rights violators in the world.

A good study of the conflict in Colombia would conclude that peace in Colombia would only be achieved when human rights are respected. At the end of the day, this is the reason for which guerilla groups originated in the first place and hence for which the Colombian internal conflict has been worsening.

The liberation of Clara and Consuelo through the intervention of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, and the senator Piedad Cordoba, who was appallingly physically abused with the complacence of the local authorities, also demonstrates that the return of those kidnapped by Farc is possible once the conditions for this to happening are given. This liberation opened the possibility of a negotiated humanitarian exchange of political prisoners and the kidnapped. However, the Colombian government and also in part Farc, are not yet willing to acknowledge this. And therefore, would be the ordinary Colombians, who will end up suffering for longer and the most.

Gecoga
Colombian citizen living in Ireland.