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Relatives of Colombian Victims Protest Concessions to Militias

New York Times

June 25, 2005
Relatives of Colombian Victims Protest Concessions to Militias

By JUAN FORERO
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, June 24 - They came to the capital from the indigenous villages in the northern mountains, the Afro-Caribbean hamlets of the steamy western jungles and the bustling barrios of Medellín. They are the relatives of union activists, politicians and peasant leaders, all victims of right-wing paramilitary assassins.

After Colombia's Congress approved a law on Wednesday granting generous concessions to paramilitary commanders who disarm, the relatives of the dead gathered by the hundreds starting on Thursday to voice their outrage in a three-day conference of victims of the country's grinding war.

The measure they are protesting, called the Justice and Peace Law, is a cornerstone of President Álvaro Uribe's efforts to pacify Colombia. Government officials say the legal framework will demobilize up to 20,000 fighters who have killed thousands of Colombian civilians in a scorched-earth campaign against Marxist rebels.

But Yarey Maku, a Kankuamo Indian leader who has lost eight relatives to violence, said: "This is not justice, it's injustice. We're offended."

In the wake of the legislative setback, the victims, meeting in a hotel here, are forming a coalition to press for punishment for paramilitary killers, and they are gathering strength. Victims' groups here have rarely worked together, but now, leaders say they plan to march and lobby, file court appeals and send delegations to foreign capitals.

"This law is terrible and nefarious and legalizes paramilitary groups," said Iván Cepeda, whose father, Senator Manuel Cepeda, was gunned down in 1994. "But it will also strengthen and propel these victims in their battle."

Under the measure, militia members who turn in their weapons will receive lenient sentences for any crimes. Commanders do not have to guarantee that all of their fighters will disarm.

Critics here and abroad, including members of the United States Congress, say the law will shield the commanders from serious punishment for some of the worst atrocities of the conflict. Echoing the complaints of the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and lawmakers, the victims' relatives say the law does little to compensate families or reveal the truth about atrocities.

The relatives still have options, though. They can appeal for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to press Colombia's government to investigate paramilitary crimes, or they can ask the International Criminal Court in the Hague to take jurisdiction. They can also file appeals to Colombian courts.

"What's left for us is to mobilize, to show the world the lack of respect Colombia has for the victims," said Amaury Moguea, 42, a farm workers organizer who escaped a paramilitary assassination attempt.

The 800 people at the conference also remembered the victims. Grainy photographs hung from the walls, along with a banner that read, "The dead do not know how to keep silent." Plastered on one wall were poems and letters to a group of 12 judges and investigators slain by the paramilitary forces in 1989.

Daniel Hernández recalled his father in verse: "The only thing I can say at this moment is he was the best father in the world, and I will always keep him close to my heart."

The relatives of the dead included people like Marta Soto, 39, who has spent years trying to find out which paramilitary units killed her brother, Jorge Enrique Soto, who was among the first of 1,500 members of the leftist Patriotic Union to be killed.

"I understand that 20 years later it will be hard to find out what happened to my brother," said Ms. Soto, who had her brother's picture hanging from her neck. "But if we do not do this, clear up as much as we can, then the impunity will be greater."

By 007CA on Jun 25, 2005, 11:28 in Politics & the war.

juanalejo says on Jun 25, 2005, 17:24:

I personally think that first is the do the what is urgent and then continue with what is important. For me what is urgent is to stop the killings whatever the cost, then when things calm down we can do what is important and think of jugding the guilty. If this was a war that had been won then as winners you do what ever is necessary, but this is peace accord, peace means for the time being no more killings. I know plenty of people who have been affected by the guerrilla in many ways and it seems that they are more willing to forgive and give peace a chance than these people who rather have no peace accord if it is not under the most harsh punishments. I wonder what they are going to tell the mothers of those killed from now on if the killing is not stopped. I think it is a very selfish way of thinking. That is the main reason that the war has lasted for so long, because the only peace accord some people see is the one that includes their enemies defeated.

0 funny, 0 helpful.