Colombia’s rights defenders under fire - U.N.

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia’s rights defenders under fire - U.N.
Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:00 GMT
Source: alertnet // Anastasia Moloney

By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Killings of human rights defenders and land campaigners are spreading across Colombia, and the government must do more to protect them from growing violence and displacement attributed to criminal groups, the United Nations says.

Nearly five decades of conflict - between government troops, drug-running rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and right-wing paramilitaries initially created to fight leftist rebels but later heavily involved in the cocaine trade - have uprooted more than four million Colombians and left tens of thousands dead.

Yet as the government and FARC rebels sit down to peace talks in Havana, it is Colombia’s criminal gangs who are increasingly responsible for forcing people off their land and committing rights violations, according to an annual U.N. human rights report released Friday.

“Attacks and threats continued against human rights defenders and those involved in land restitution programmes. In many areas, the majority of these violations can be attributed to illegal armed groups that emerged after the demobilisation of paramilitary organisations (post-demobilisation groups),” the U.N. report said.

More:
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/detail.dot?id=f01f488d-3bce-4b31-8345-50ed356e723a

[Peace Patriot]

1. Who was it who said that "Colombia is a model for the region"?

Ah, yes!

(John) Kerry, who has been nominated for US secretary of state, said at a senate confirmation hearing on Thursday that he hoped Washington could make progress in the Western Hemisphere with improved relations with Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, much like the success the United States had with Colombia.

"Colombia is a model for the region. It is an example to the rest of Latin America about what awaits them if we can convince people to make better decisions," said Kerry.

"Colombia has suffered too long due to insecurity and violence associated with armed conflict... President Santos has taken the difficult step towards finding a political solution and indicated that the lessons learned from past peace processes will be taken into account. Any negotiations to strengthen democracy, the rule of law, human rights, that leads to peace is good and deserves our support," said the former presidential nominee.

Kerry also lauded the security efforts made by ex-president Alvaro Uribe in a critical moment of unrest in addition to president Santos's continued efforts.

Source: Colombia Reports.
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/27850--colombia-is-a-model-for-latin-america-john-kerry.html

Posted at DU by Bacchus4.0, in the LatAm forum (not a good discussion).
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11088885

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Ah, John, John, John! What "awaits them," John, after all that prep for "U.S. free trade for the rich" that they have seen, in hundreds of assassinations of labor leaders and other advocates of the poor, in the brutal displacement of FIVE MILLION peasant farmers, in Alvaro Uribe's crime wave (death squads, drug trafficking, spying on judges and prosecutors, election fraud, unfriggingbelievable corruption--the little 'mafia' boss of Colombia, so like his mentors in the Bush Junta)? What does "await them," John, in the aftermath of all this U.S.-funded, U.S.-supported crime and horror (which is by no means over--more murders of labor leaders, human rights workers and other good people every week, in Colombia)?

Oh, that "critical moment of unrest"! My, my, my, my.

I feel about John Kerry the way I feel about our soldiers and other agents--most of them honest, ethical human beings--whose souls were dipped in acid by the Bush Junta, and who will be haunted all their lives by what they did, or are dead because of it, self-murdered, or who are going mad as we speak, and whose souls were, simply, destroyed and who will grievously harm others, sooner or later. It is perhaps the most unforgivable crime of the Bush Junta (not to mention their pal, Alvaro Uribe, in his venue)--the destruction of other peoples' souls. Not just the killing and the torture, but the long horrible destruction of the souls of those forced to, or enticed to, kill and torture.

Kerry's soul got splashed, it seems to me, by these horrors.

"...lauded the security efforts made by ex-president Alvaro Uribe in a critical moment of unrest...".

My, my, my, my, my...