Pubdate: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Juan Forero, The New York Times Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia CHANGE AND FEAR IN COLOMBIA RIGHTS PANEL BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov. 18 - Working under death threats, the prosecutors investigating the massacres and assassinations in Colombia's civil war have never had it easy. Some have been killed or driven from the country, and because of a chronic shortage of money in the national attorney general's office, investigations have sometimes stalled. But since 1995, a specialized human rights unit within the office has sidestepped daunting obstacles to investigate the most horrific crimes, in some cases mass murders in which military officials were implicated. In the process, the group of 28 prosecutors earned admirers, including members of the United States Congress, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, the rights monitoring group based in New York. Now, some of the unit's supporters have begun to criticize the new attorney general, Luis Camilo Osorio, who they fear may stall investigations against right-wing paramilitary groups and rogue military officers. They fear that Mr. Osorio, a close ally of President Andres Pastrana, was selected to mend relations between the president and an army bruised by recent investigations, not to carry out serious investigations to correct Colombia's abysmal human rights record. "We think that maybe we will not be able to touch some people," said one prosecutor in the human rights unit, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "My colleagues are going to think twice before they take on a case involving the military." Mr. Osorio, chosen by the Supreme Court in July for the four-year posting, has said that the attorney general's office has focused so much on paramilitary groups and military officers that cases against leftist rebels have suffered - a stand welcomed by many in the military establishment. He forced out two highly respected prosecutors - Pedro Diaz, who ran the human rights unit, and Virgilio Hernandez, the chief of the anti- corruption unit - after criticizing the arrest in July of a general, Rito Alejo del Rio, accused of organizing paramilitary groups. "There is a new viewpoint, in terms of human rights investigations," said Mr. Diaz, now in exile in the United States. "What is happening to those big investigations, involving military officials? The way things are looking, the outlook is not good." Under Mr. Osorio, some prosecutors investigating high-profile anticorruption cases have been transferred or cases have been nullified on procedural grounds. The cases, while not directly tied to rights abuses, underscored the high level of official malfeasance that has helped fuel Colombia's conflict. A spokeswoman for Mr. Osorio said the cases were found to have had serious legal problems, requiring further inquiries. "That does not mean they are being filed away," she said. Criticism of Mr. Osorio has gained momentum since last month, when Hina Jilani, the special representative for human rights for the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, called into question Mr. Osorio's independence. Mr. Osorio said he did not intend to slow investigations of paramilitary forces or state security officials. But in an interview, he said the paramilitary groups did not commit "a fourth part of the actions of the guerrillas." Saying cases involving human rights violations have had a "privileged" status, Mr. Osorio said the human rights unit would instead simply step up its activities against the rebels. "For every 100 guerrilla actions there are fewer than 25 effective investigations," he said, "while for 25 actions by the paramilitaries or the public security forces there are more than 100 investigations." Mr. Osorio said most Colombians believed that the state must do more to attack the rebels, who themselves are responsible for massacres, widespread extortion and most of the 3,700 kidnappings last year. "We have to take investigations against guerrillas, which have been deficient, and elevate them," he said. Critics of Mr. Osorio, though, have said he misses a central reality of Colombia's conflict: the paramilitary militias, financed by the cocaine trade and wealthy Colombians as protection against the rebels, commit most of the killings in the country. According to the Ministry of Defense, paramilitary forces killed at least 1,335 people from January 1999 to this past September, compared with 473 killings by the rebels. "That is exactly why we also have to investigate paramilitaries, since they cause violence and unrest," said Pablo Elias, who resigned as deputy attorney general to protest Mr. Osorio's management. "And although theoretically in favor of the state, they are criminals." Former prosecutors said the role of the human rights unit since its founding in 1995 had been to investigate the most serious crimes - mass murders and political assassinations, in some cases involving state security forces. Of 1,198 people formally investigated since the unit's founding, 634 were members of paramilitary groups and 234 were members of the public security forces. The human rights unit has also opened formal investigations against 200 rebels, issuing arrest orders for top guerrilla commanders. And other units within the attorney general's office have investigated other rebel crimes. But former prosecutors and human rights officials say crimes by paramilitary groups, especially those in which state agents played a role, were a priority for the unit. "You cannot compare a guerrilla's actions with that of a member of the public force, who has authority and is given arms from the state," said Mr. Hernandez, who ran the human rights unit from 1997 to 1999. "Of course, guerrillas should be investigated with the same rigor, but the general thesis is the state cannot gloss over human rights violations by its agents." Alejandro Ramelli, the new chief of the human rights unit, said his prosecutors would now "investigate everyone." He noted that in his first three months on the job, 17 members of paramilitary groups and 2 members of the military had been formally charged along with 4 rebels. But Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division, worries that cases involving paramilitary forces will be dropped in time - if not for a lack of will then because of limited resources. The unit operates on about $1.7 million a year, Mr. Ramelli said. Meanwhile, human rights groups are worried that Mr. Osorio's assertions that too much attention has been paid to paramilitary groups could further endanger those prosecutors who continue investigating those forces. Since 1995, 6 prosecutors working on rights cases - none from the human rights unit, but investigators of rights violations from regional offices - have been slain, along with 22 investigators. Another 22 prosecutors and investigators have sought exile in other countries, according to Human Rights Watch. Those who have fled under threat of death, like Luis Sarmiento, who was a regional prosecutor in the country's north, said that some of his colleagues might have died for nothing. "Their work has not been valued or recognized," said Mr. Sarmiento, now in Florida. "This hurts very much because the people who do this work are very brave." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake