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Interesting statement

A very interesting testimony before the Canadian House of Commons, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade concerning a possible Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Colombia.

“For years, Colombia has led the world in trade unionist assassinations. Approximately 2,550 unionists have been murdered in Colombia from 1986 to the present; more than 400 of them have been killed during the government of current President Alvaro Uribe.

A principal factor contributing to the ongoing violence against trade unionists has been the Colombian government’s persistent failure to bring the killers to justice.

Recently, President Uribe ordered the extradition of nearly all the top paramilitary leadership to the United States to face drug charges. … we do have concerns about the Colombian government’s motivations in doing so at this precise moment. The decision to extradite came only after some of these commanders had actually started to cooperate, and others announced plans to do so, by beginning to talk to Colombian investigators about their links with Colombian military and government officials, including generals and politicians close to the president. The view that the extradition could potentially have a negative impact on the investigations underway in Colombia is shared by many of the leading authorities on the country’s “demobilization" process, including Colombia’s Inspector General, the President of the country’s National Commission on Reparations and Reconciliation, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Meanwhile, it is likely that the paramilitaries’ complex and powerful organizations will continue operating and engaging in violence under new leadership. Uribe administration officials often dismiss concerns about paramilitary violence by simply claiming that the paramilitaries are now “extinct" thanks to the government’s demobilization program. But nearly all the 30,000 persons who supposedly “demobilized" are free and have never been investigated. And dozens of “new" groups closely linked to the paramilitaries are operating all over the country, engaging in extortion, killings, forced displacement, and drug trafficking - just like their predecessors. Eight foreign embassies in Bogota, the Organization of American States’ mission verifying the demobilization, and dozens of human rights defenders have reported receiving threats from the new groups in recent months.

Human Rights Watch has interviewed many victims of these new groups. To those who have seen their sons or sisters horrifically tortured and murdered, the government’s talk of paramilitary demobilization is a cruel joke. “

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/06/02/colomb19044.htm

By Dolfi on Aug 14, 2008, 06:00 in Friendly Talkzone.