CIJyP has been Civis’ partner organization for more than three years, with project activities wn Buenaventura, located on the Pacific Coast. The main objective of the project is to promote the prevention of recruitment and to create alternative life projects for young people in difficult neighborhoods.
Civis: In the beginning of 2010, CIJyP made a press release denouncing a media campaign including false accusations and harassment against the organization. Could you please tell us about the background to this campaign and the facts around it?
CIJyP: To begin with, we have to consider that the national context plays a significant role. In early 2009, through the Colombian magazine SEMANA it was publicly known that the Administrative Department of State Security (in Spanish DAS) – which is directly subordinated to the President of the Republic, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, had founded a so-called G3 group.
The G3 group was created to control and to carry out offensive actions against human rights organizations, political opponents as well as judges within the Colombian Supreme Court. The Supreme Court was investigating individuals close to the government circle because of their links with paramilitary groups. There are even members of the same governmental sector which are tied to this criminal strategy.
Civis: When did the work of the G3 group start?
CIJyP: This intelligence work, that is giving information to the state via illegal actions, started operations in 2003. Information was collected by illegally tapping phone calls and emails, registering all the movements of human rights organizations.
In particular, one of these investigations is related to the work we carry out in the regions where you can find a clear connection between paramilitary operations, forced displacement of the population and extractive business operations. We have, for example, verified information that indicates ties between a lawyer of a local lumber company and an international company – providing information to the intelligence service about our activities and about the community members.
Civis: What kind of connection did you detect between military intelligence work and the media campaign against your organization?
CIJyP: In 2003, when the so-called G3 group started its activities, there was a press conference organized by a Colombian Army General, Jorge Enrique Mora Rangel, in which they launched multiple accusations against us. They said that we are linked to the guerrilla group FARC, that we commit serious human rights violations and that we have created "concentration camps" in the different regions we work.
What is the background of this media campaign? It is the creation of a prosecution against our organization with information from paid or false witnesses in order to prevent us from exercising our human right to denounce and to search for the truth. It also aims to undermine all the evidence that we have started to collect about connections between the 17th Brigade of the Colombian Army[1] and paramilitary structures.
Civis: What happened after 2003?
CIJyP: The experience that we had to go through during 2003 was reedited, yet they added a new element. The responsible actors of the actions in 2003 now returned acting in a slightly different way. They reappeared on October 5th of 2008, when the public was informed through the TV news about a tapped phone call between Army General Rito Alejo del Rio, who is currently in prison, and the former Minister of Internal Affairs, Fernando Londoño. During the call they express the need for, and ultimately announced the launching of, a media campaign against our Justice and Peace Commission.
Why a media campaign? Because by doing this, all existing calls for responsibility for crimes against humanity hanging over the above mentioned General Rito Alejo del Rio, won’t be valid any more. It makes the prosecution office no longer trust the accusations made against him. The charges would ultimately become an element of justification, telling us that behind the judicial accusation lie only a simple accusation against his persona, to delegitimize him, and he would appear as an angel.
Civis: How does he want to achieve that?
CIJyP: By permanently publishing false messages like: The Commission for Justice and Peace steals money, the Commission for Justice and Peace maintains “concentration camps”, the Commission for Justice and Peace accompany humanitarian zones that are part of the FARC strategy, saying that our organization is responsible for the crimes committed in the region. To say publicly that the Commission of Justice and Peace is responsible for the forced displacement was a strategy to divert the public attention.
It was a way to twist clear facts and legal arguments, which proves General Rito Alejo del Rio to be responsible. In a few words: What exists behind the media campaign is the promotion of impunity of a military authority that is responsible of crimes against humanity.
Furthermore, this implies something else. For example, in the case of the region Bajo Atrato[2], it is about avoiding the restitution of illegal and forced property takeovers by paramilitary structures, structures which continue to operate together with the 17th Brigade and the 15th Brigade of the Colombian Army. Finally, it is a way to make the presence of a democratic and constitutional state in Colombia impossible.
Civis: What has happened since late 2009 and early 2010?
CIJyP: The current media campaign, which is similar to the one in 2003, began with an article in the American WALL STREET JOURNAL in which they accused us of being part of the FARC strategy. Simultaneously in the Colombian press, columnists and other journalists who have worked with the national government, such as Jose Obdulio Gaviria, the president´s advisor[3], who accuses us of being members of the FARC, and therefore of being part of a criminal strategy. This media campaign implies a higher level of public exposure of us, putting us at a high risk as paramilitary operations permitted by the Brigades of the Colombian Army exist in the regions where we work.
In fact, threats made through the media campaign have also resulted in concrete actions. Our staff in the department of Putumayo received death threats via text messages on their cell phones. This occurred just at the same time as we highlighted links between members of the 11th Brigade of the Colombian Army, the 11th Battalion Selva del Putumayo and paramilitary structures in the region. Because of the high level of insecurity, staff members had to leave the area. We have received death threats in the past which affected us but we have always remained in the regions.
Recently we have detected a new phase of the campaign of false accusations. This phase is simply a public smear- and discredits campaign that seeks to erode existing public confidence in our work. Furthermore, it seeks to undermine the confidence and credibility that international institutions like the Inter-American Commission and Inter-American Court of Human Rights have for our organization and our investigation work.
The campaign against us tends to generate skepticism and distance to our statements concerning the responsibility of business operations, benefiting from paramilitary activities (paramilitary activities that could only have been undertaken with the consent by military forces).
Civis: Regarding the situation of the systematic harassment, what kind of action has CIJyP taken in its defense?
CIJyP: In the first place we have to deal with death threats on an internal, personal level. We have to face the fears and analyze the effects of these threats. Secondly, as an organization we have to review our protection mechanisms, because we believe that once false accusations ceases, it can lead to physical attacks against our personal integrity. Not right now, but indeed later on. Thirdly, we denounce publicly what is happening, highlighting the precautionary measures that the Inter-American System has required from the Colombian government, which is to establish certain levels of dialogue. We say clearly: we know who is behind all of this. There are militaries, former militaries and businessmen benefiting from paramilitary activity and drug dealers that do not want to give back the legally owned ancestral territory to the victims where the land will be used differently than has been the case historically in the area.
Civis: You mentioned reviews of your internal strategies. What can be done to support the work of CIJyP from an external level, for example from the Swedish community?
CIJyP: First, if the Swedish government has funded and supported the demobilization process of the paramilitary groups in Colombia, it should demand accountability of the impact that the demobilization have had on the victims. The example of the Bajo Atrato, the case of Putumayo where we have been threatened over the past two years, as well as the case of the Naya Community[4] reflect that the demobilization process was not real, that there has been a reengineering of the paramilitaries structures. The Swedish government should ask the Colombian government for accountability naming specific cases that are documented or already part of judicial investigations.
Secondly, the Swedish government should pay attention to existing intelligence work undertaken by the Colombian state because it is even possible that their efforts to support peace initiatives in Colombia are being regarded as part of a FARC strategy. In that sense we believe that the Swedish government can play a vital role for the protection of human rights defenders by analyzing the process of the paramilitary demobilization.
And thirdly, to ask for political intervention in order to stop the impunity in regard to our persecution. There has not been a single investigation since 1997 until today, although we have been systematically persecuted, received written invitations for our own funerals, there was an attempt of forced disappearance, one attempt of physical attack in the city of Bogotá and one kidnapping. No single investigation has been carried out since 1997.
For more information please check: http://justiciaypazcolombia.com/
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