Pubdate: Fri, 01 Sep 2000
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society.
Contact:  One Norway Street, Boston, MA 02115
Fax: (617) 450-2031
Website: http://www.csmonitor.com/
Forum: http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/vox/p-vox.html
Author: Howard LaFranchi

HUMAN RIGHTS: A CASUALTY OF COLOMBIA'S DRUG WAR

US aid in war on drugs draws fire from critics who say human rights are 
being overlooked.

All Dora Isabel Camacho Serpa wanted was the "quiet miracle of a normal life."

Instead, the midwife and neighborhood leader was pulled from her family's 
modest home in the northern coastal town of Cienaga by paramilitary gunmen 
Monday, police officials say. Her husband and children found her in a 
nearby ditch, shot in the back of the head. Nine other residents of her 
poor neighborhood suffered the same fate in this country afflicted with 
staggering abuse of human rights.

Visiting this Caribbean city Wednesday, President Clinton told Colombians 
in a televised address that a substantial increase in US assistance - which 
will make this South American country the third- largest recipient of US 
aid after Israel and Egypt - had been approved in a spirit of solidarity. 
The $1.3 billion in new aid to help fight a drug war and bolster a 
"democracy under attack" is a lifeline, he said, to Colombians demanding 
peace, justice, and "the quiet miracle of a normal life."

But what he did not say was most telling: To make Colombia eligible for 
aid, Clinton overrode, "for national security reasons," six human rights 
conditions that the Senate had attached to the aid bill. The conditions 
were included by the Senate to bolster flagging support among members wary 
of Colombia's human rights record. But in an election year, when no one 
wants to appear soft on drugs, little congressional protest was heard when 
Clinton bypassed the State Department's determination that Colombia's human 
rights record could not be "certified."

"The official discourse is fully compatible with international human rights 
concerns," says Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas Division of 
Human Rights Watch in Washington. "But the gap between that language and 
reality is huge."

At least seven civilians died in leftist guerrilla attacks on various towns 
during the few hours Clinton was in Colombia. Last year, more than 2,500 
abductions made Colombia the world's kidnapping capital. Nearly 2 million 
people have been displaced by the civil war. Executions like those this 
week in Cienaga are common.

But human rights leaders say the worst problem Colombia faces is 
longstanding, increasing collusion between units of the country's armed 
forces and paramilitary organizations. With Colombia facing heightened 
scrutiny over human rights violations, the armed forces are acting to keep 
their record clean - but in some cases by simply contracting out their 
dirty work, critics say.

"Often the information available to us shows a clear case of criminal 
omission on the part of military brigades," Mr. Vivanco says. Sometimes 
evidence indicates that an Army unit actually supplied logistical support, 
or allowed the paramilitaries free transit in Army-patrolled areas. "But 
the standard practice is simply to look the other way when the 
paramilitaries are in action," he says.

At a press conference Wednesday, Colombian President Andres Pastrana 
recognized the serious state of human rights in Colombia, and noted that he 
had assigned the country's vice president to oversee human rights issues. 
Clinton said the two leaders discussed "efforts to punish all violators" of 
human rights, and especially Pastrana's efforts to hold violators among 
law-enforcement bodies accountable.

Last February, Human Rights Watch issued a scathing report documenting 
links between three Army brigades and paramilitaries. In response, Pastrana 
named a special commission to investigate paramilitary activities. Says 
Vivanco: "That commission hasn't met a single time."

Human rights groups say nothing will change until the international 
community demands action.

"The waiver sends exactly the wrong message to all levels of the Colombian 
military," says Bruce Bagley, a Colombia expert at the University of Miami. 
"Basically, it says, go ahead as you always have."
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