Franco, executive secretary of the Inter-Ecclesial Commission for Justice and Peace NGO led by the Jesuit community in Colombia, denounced that members of black communities living in the Colombian Pacific region "have been killed and threatened with death".
According to their own reports, three black community leaders have been killed in the area since last July.
Franco affirmed that as a result of making these claims, he along with other NGO members working in the area had received death threats.
The priest pointed out his fear that the presence of the paramilitary squads will cause the forced displacement of some 2,000 Afro-descendants and indigenous communities who live in the region in the department (province) of Chocó.
So far, about 200 members of the community have been displaced, according to their reports.
According to the “Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz“ (Indepaz), there are currently about 6,000 members of ultra-right paramilitary squads operating in Colombia, and in the first half of 2010 their presence was reported in at least 27 of the 32 departments (provinces) of the country.
Paramilitary squads, which numbered approximately 30,000 members in the past, were demobilized between 2003 and 2006, in a process which offered them legal benefits in exchange for confessions of atrocities.
However, human rights organizations have denounced that mid-ranking members of these groups have reformed into criminal organizations with links to drug trafficking.
Agence France-Presse
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