COLOMBIA WORSE THAN CHILE UNDER PINOCHET, SAYS HUMAN RIGHTS
WATCH
Thursday, 06 November 2008
More human rights violations are committed every year in
Colombia than during all of Augusto Pinochet's 16-year military
dictatorship in Chile, said Human Rights Watch Americas director José
Miguel Vivanco on Tuesday.
The Chilean lawyer's comments came in response to a recent barrage of personal attacks by Colombian president Álvaro
Uribe, begun in mid-October after the U.S.-based nonprofit released a 140-page report
accusing the Colombian government of undermining judicial proceedings against paramilitary groups.
In a series of public appearances since the report was made public, Uribe has accused Vivanco of holding "a personal
grudge" against Colombia, being an "accomplice" and "defender" of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) and has said that "we lost respect for him."
~snip~
While Pinochet's regime is widely credited with the kidnapping, death or forced disappearance of more than 3,000
political opponents from 1973 to 1990, Amnesty International estimates that in the last two
decades more than 70,000 people — mostly civilians — have been killed in Colombia's armed conflict, including 1,400
civilians in 2007.
Over the same time period, the U.K.-based nonprofit reported that up to 30,000 people were forcefully disappeared and
between three and four million people were forced from their homes, making Colombia home to the second-highest
number of displaced persons in the world, after Sudan. The prevalence of torture, kidnappings and child soldiers is also
very high.
~snip~
Uribe has a history of publicly denouncing detractors. Most recently, he called Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch "enemies" of his program for the country, and in the past, he has condemned judges, labor union activists and
journalists.
He also frequently alleges dissidents are tied to the FARC. In recent months, the head of state charged the guerrilla
group infiltrated both an indigenous protest in western Colombia and a nationwide sugarcane workers strike.
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