False Positives and Para-politics

So, Colombia has been in the grip of a civil war since 1964, when the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas rose up in arms.

In response: The paramilitary groups or Auto-Defensas Colombiana (AUC) in their present form, emerged in the 1980s to combat the leftist insurgents with the help of politicians and the armed forces. A political scandal (parapolitics) that has recently engulfed Colombia's political class came a step closer to the president, Alvaro Uribe, after his cousin and close political companion was arrested on charges of colluding with rightwing paramilitary groups. Mario Uribe was the latest in a string of more than 30 politicians elected to Congress in 2006 who have been arrested on charges related to conspiracy with the paramilitary death squads that controlled huge swathes of the nation before they began demobilising in 2003. Yet, the Colombian population it’s adamantly pro-Uribe. Since taking office in 2002, Uribe has promised to crackdown on the country’s left-wing guerrilla and the disarmament program for its right-wing paramilitaries.

However, new illegal armed groups have emerged and resumed combats. By all accounts, demobilized paramilitaries are a major part of the illegal armed groups. Post-2003 demobilization and reintegration policies have not prevented former paramilitaries from killing and engaging in other criminal acts. Although senior paramilitary leaders have been arrested, the economic and command and control structures of paramilitaries do not appear to have been fully and effectively dismantled. In addition, there is an alarming level of impunity for former paramilitaries, and the investigation and prosecution of extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations by former paramilitaries appears to lag severely.

Last week the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston visited Colombia. On the last day of his visit, Alston partially reported his findings during a press conference in which he spoke about extrajudicial excecutions made by the Army, paramilitary and guerrilla groups. According to his declarations, these excecutions are close to being systematic. The most prominent concern is the incidence of so-called falsos positivos.

The phenomenon is well known. The victim is lured under false pretenses by a “recruiter” to a remote location. There, the individual is killed soon after arrival by members of the military. The scene is then manipulated to make it appear as if the individual was legitimately killed in combat. The victim is commonly photographed wearing a guerrilla uniform, and holding a gun or grenade. Victims are often buried anonymously in communal graves, and the killers are rewarded for the results they have achieved in the fight against the guerillas.

Alston brought up the issue of intimidation and threats made upon human rights defenders and the accusations they receive by high level officials of sympathizing with rebel groups. He called for the seize of the stigmatization of these groups. According to Alston, the law on victims rights needs to be reformed in order for it to include victims of both state and non-state actors.

Who was responsible for these premeditated killings? Alston asserts there is no evidence to suggest that these killings were carried out as a matter of official Government policy, or that they were directed by, or carried out with the knowledge of, the President or successive Defense Ministers. Neverthless, the full report will be published in 4 or 5 months and presented to the UN.

p.s. Let´s see and wait