North-Colombia Peace Community says 10 members murdered in 2011

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

North-Colombia Peace Community says 10 members murdered in 2011
Monday, 08 August 2011 16:35
Sarah Cast

Ten members of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community have been assassinated in 2011, despite several pleas for help from the Colombian government and the support of members of U.S. Congress.

“To this day, the pursuit of death and injustice against the community and farmers in the area continues,” said a member of the community that enjoys a special protective status by the Inter-American Court for Human Rights.

According to the community member -- who would only talk to Colombia Reports on condition of anonymity -- the individuals were killed as a result of “the relationship between the paramilitary and the armed forces, and the so-called 'social cleansing', in which people are assassinated who ... are considered to be opponents of this system of death”.

Aside the killings, the Peace Community withstands “illegal detentions, accusations, destruction of subsistence crops, occupation of community spaces by armed forces, the presence of large groups of paramilitaries wherever there are police stations and military bases, illegal registration of residents, and the taking of photos of the peasants in the area,” said the member.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18176-north-colombia-peace-community-says-10-members-mudered-in-2011.html

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(My emphasis.)

[Judi Lynn]

1. SOAwatch, 2005: Massacre in Colombian Peace Community (SOA graduate commands accused brigade)

Massacre in Colombian Peace Community
Once again, the trail of blood leads to the SOA:
SOA graduate commands accused brigade

"We have always said, and in that we are clear, that until this very day we are resisting. And our work is to continue resisting and defending our rights. We don't know until when, because the truth we've lived in our story is this: today we are here talking; tomorrow we may be dead. Today we are here in San Jose de Apartado; tomorrow the majority of people here could be displaced because of a massacre." -- Luis Eduardo Guerra, in an interview on January 15 of this year, 37 days before he was assassinated by the Colombian military

On February 21-22, 2005, eight members of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community in Uraba, Colombia -including three young children, were brutally massacred. Witnesses identified the killers as members of the Colombian military, and peace community members saw the army's 17th and 11th Brigades in the area around the time of the murders.

Among those killed was Luis Eduardo Guerra, an internationally recognized peace activist and a co-founder of the Peace Community. In November 2002, Luis travelled from Colombia to Fort Benning, Georgia to speak out against the School of the Americas and to give a first hand testimony about the brutal impact that SOA training and US foreign policy have on the dire situation in Colombia.

General Hector Jaime Fandino Rincon is the commander of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian army. Like Luis Eduardo, Fandino Rincon also travelled to the School of the Americas -- not to speak out for justice and peace like Luis, but to attend the "Small-Unit Infantry Tactics" course in order to become "familiar with small-unit operational concepts and principles at the squad and platoon level, receive training in planning and conducting small-unit tactical operations." Fandino Rincon is a 1976 graduate of the notorious School of the Americas. In December of 2004 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.

More:
http://www.soaw.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1024

[Judi Lynn]

2. Colombian Army murders members of peace community

25-Feb-2005
Colombian Army murders members of peace community

by: Comunidad de la Paz de San Jose de Apartado

Colombia: On 20 February 2005, seven members of the Comunidad de Paz de San Jose de Apartado (San Jose de Apartado Peace Community) were murdered by the Colombian National Army. One of those murdered, Luis Eduardo Guerra was a leader in the Peace Community, which was founded in March 1997 by civilians displaced by the conflicts between the FARC and the National Army. The Community, consisting of many small villages, is committed to the renunication of violence and injustice,and emphasises non-involvement in the surrounding conflicts.

Here, the most recent statement from the community regarding the deaths:

Today, on 25 February, approximately 200 of our companions are beginning the sad journey from San José to the communities of Mulatos and Resbalosa in search of the bodies of our friends. It will be nine hours on a difficult path, and our sadness will be like an extra burden. Surrounding San Jose we have seen a strong military presence of the Brigade XVII (a branch of the Colombian National Army), and neighbours have informed us that there are militants along the path from Buenos Aires to Mulatos, the same path that we have to take. We will be accompanied by international organisations such as Peace Brigades International and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. While this journey seems absurd, due to the warnings and military threat, we are carrying with us some hope. Seeing the cruelty that they have inflicted on us with our own eyes, it is difficult to accept that the other can be human, like any one of us, with the capacity to to murder whole families in cold blood, dismember their bodies, and throw them into roadside ditches. And to do so calmly. Of course, we know that their entire strategy of crime and impunity is well-planned, and that they can commit these atrocities without punishment. This is what controls our country. We can only ask for justice although we know as well as the murderers: there is no justice. Not in this massacre, not in the hundreds of other crimes we have suffered, not in the thousands of crimes suffered by other communities. It doesn't matter how much proof is collected, nor how many photos are taken, in the end there will be no clear way in which to accuse the responsible and take them to jail.

The one thing we know is that we will not forget. All of the murdered live on in us. Our companions and leaders died for a worthy cause: to dream of another life, one where we can live together without terror, for ourselves and our children.

More:
http://www.peacenews.info/news/article/312

[Judi Lynn]

3. Continued Impunity: Enforced Disappearances in Colombia

Continued Impunity: Enforced Disappearances in Colombia
Americas, Prisoners and People at Risk | Posted by: Bryna Subherwal, August 12, 2011 at 2:25 PM

In the last two weeks, Francisco Pineda and Everto González, two members of the community council of Caracolí in north-west Colombia, were subjected to enforced disappearance by paramilitaries. They were both picked up by a group of paramilitaries, who took them away to “resolve some land issues.”

Pineda and González have not been heard from since, and their whereabouts remain unknown. Amnesty International fears their lives and the lives of other members of the Afro-descendant community may be at risk, and has issued an Urgent Action on their behalf.

Enforced disappearances persist in many countries all over the world, and violate a wide range of human rights. In Colombia, especially, there is tremendous impunity for enforced disappearances, and violators continue to evade justice.

Many members of the Afro-descendent communities in the country have been threatened repeatedly in the past couple of decades, and some even killed. Enrique Petro, leader of the community council of Andalucía, is among those who have recently received death threats for his resistance to palm oil companies who seek to seize his land and plant African palm.

More:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/iar/continued-impunity-enforced-disappearances-in-colombia/