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VERIFICATION MISSION ON THE HUMANITARIAN
Faced with the intensification of the humanitarian crisis of indigenous communities in Colombia, the principal Colombian indigenous organisations , brought together in the National Indigenous Peace Council (Consejo Nacional Indígena de Paz - CONIP), convened an independent and international mission to follow up on the recommendations made in 2004 by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen. From September 19 to 29, 2006, the International Verification Mission on the Humanitarian and Human Rights Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Colombia had the objective of verifying the state of compliance with the recommendations and the current situation of indigenous peoples. The Mission also had the objective producing a report so the international community can urge the Colombian government to fulfil national and international agreements and commitments on the rights of indigenous peoples. The Mission was made up of human rights and civil society organisations from Europe, Latin America, United States, and Canada, with observers from United Nations agencies, the Swiss Embassy, the German Embassy, the European Commission delegation, and MAPP-OAS. The Mission visited five regions: the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, the Upper Sinú in Córdoba, the Department [administrative region] of Arauca, the Department of Cauca, and the Department of Guaviare. In each region, the Mission held interviews with indigenous communities and their organisations, received personal accounts from indigenous victims of violations to human rights and international humanitarian law, and met with local and departmental authorities, both civilian and military, and from State control agencies. On a national level, the Mission met with agencies from the United Nations system, members of the diplomatic corps forming part of the G24, central government authorities, and State control agencies. Additionally, the Mission participated in the National Indigenous Women’s Forum and in the National Forum for the Life of Indigenous Peoples, and had access to case studies, reports on human rights violations of indigenous peoples, personal accounts, and documents and analysis from experts. This gave the Mission a comprehensive vision of the situation presently affecting indigenous peoples in Colombia. After carrying out the on-site visits, the Mission issues the following statement:
1. The Mission verified that indigenous peoples (men, women, children, and their organisations) are presently victim of violations to fundamental human rights and crimes against humanity –such as political murders, mass and arbitrary detentions, torture and cruel treatment, forced disappearances, searches, unsubstantiated accusations, criminal investigations and groundless charges, ongoing checkpoints, and limitations to movement. Likewise, violations occur against their right to due process, and against respect for their autonomy, customs and territories. Worsening the already difficult situation faced by indigenous peoples and their territories, the measures implemented as part of the current administration’s policies, include the following: informant networks, campesino reserve soldiers, high mountain battalions, mobile brigades, anti-riot squads, and special operations groups. 2. The Mission verified that indigenous peoples are suffering from the effects of grave breaches to international humanitarian law committed by armed actors in the context of the internal armed conflict (public force, guerrilla groups, and paramilitaries or demobilised persons). The Mission also learnt and was able to observe in the terrain that the public force has constructed police posts, garrets, trenches, and advance posts in the midst of the housing of indigenous people, in places extensively populated, and in territories belonging to indigenous reservations. Military checkpoints and controls are carried out in which indigenous persons are stripped of food, medicine, and other goods necessary for their survival. The illegal armed groups forcibly recruit indigenous young persons. All the armed actors have murdered indigenous men and women, and occupy humanitarian zones and places for ongoing assembly –designated by the indigenous communities as places of protection in regards to the effects of the conflict. Military operations are carried out that do not keep to the basic principles of distinction and proportionality, gravely affecting the indigenous population. 3. The Mission verified that the current demobilisation process of the paramilitary groups, and the regulations established for this process, do not guarantee truth, justice and reparation for the crimes committed by the paramilitaries against indigenous peoples, who continue to face a critical situation. The Mission received personal accounts that indicate that the paramilitaries have not effectively demobilised, as well as continue to commit crimes and intimidate the population in several of the indigenous territories. In other cases, the Mission was informed that the paramilitaries have created new armed groups and carry out the same previously mentioned practices against the communities. Additionally, the Mission received personal accounts concerning the social control, as well as harassment, infiltration and information-gathering activities, carried out by the demobilised paramilitaries against the indigenous communities, organisations and leaders. 4. The Mission verified that large-scale development projects are being implemented in indigenous territories without respect for the consultation process and the criteria for this process established through international agreements from the ILO, the United Nations, and the very national mechanisms agreed upon by the Colombian State and indigenous authorities. These projects include the following: road, river and maritime infrastructure; mineral and hydrocarbon extraction; construction of dams and major hydroelectric projects; control and exploitation of the bio-diversity; and agro-industrial projects such as the monoculture of the oil palm and rubber. In addition to generating grave and irreparable environmental damage, these large-scale development projects de-structure territory, break the natural and spiritual balance that indigenous peoples have maintained over the years, as well as adversely affect health, productive and growing cycles, and the co-existence of the indigenous communities.
5. The Mission was able to verify that violations to the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples are accompanied by violations to their collective rights, and that a legal regulatory framework is being created that worsens this situation. In this regard, the Mission expresses its special concern for the recently passed laws and the bills being processed –such as the forestry law, the water law, the high plateau law, and the rural development law- that reverse the rights attained by indigenous peoples, lead to the generation of greater levels of socio-cultural exclusion and violence, and create clear settings for the extinction of indigenous peoples. 6. The Mission was able to observe the particular situation of education and health in indigenous communities, and expresses its concern for the neglect by regional institutions and the central State, and for the absence of mechanisms for reaching agreements that lead to respecting and supporting the proposals of indigenous communities in terms of their cosmovision, their traditional practices, their ancestral knowledge, and their own health and education projects. 7. The Mission heard abundant personal accounts on the specific situation of indigenous women. The Mission is highly concerned and denounces the practices of harassment, sexual abuse, rape, deception, and seduction against indigenous women and girls by members of the public force. The Mission received personal accounts concerning minors that became pregnant, and the responsible members of the military and/or police did not assume any responsibility. 8. The Mission received personal accounts and information on the aerial fumigations over indigenous territories that took place without a consultation process with the communities, where crops for illicit use did or did not exist within the affected indigenous territories. Due to damaging the subsistence crops and negatively affecting health, the fumigations are worsening the food insecurity in several indigenous communities. The Mission observed that the communities face serious difficulties in terms of access to reparation funds for the damages caused by the fumigations of their territories and subsistence crops. The Mission also observed that the corresponding authorities did not find real alternative proposals agreed upon with the communities. 9. The Mission verified that indigenous peoples have initiated a campaign leading to the “liberation of Mother Earth” that regards the need and right to increase their territories in order to guarantee their survival. The Mission received information and data on the high indices of land and property concentration in Colombia in recent years, as well as of the deaths suffered by indigenous peoples in the defense of their right to land and territory. Likewise, the Mission learnt that the Colombian government has repeatedly failed to comply with agreements signed with indigenous organisations that are meant to return and legalise ancestral land that has been seized from indigenous peoples. 10. The Mission regrets not having been able to meet with some of the principal Colombian government and State institutions, such as the Vice-presidency, the Ministry of Interior’s Ethnic Affairs Office, and the Ministry of Mining and Energy. The members of the Mission interpret this absence as a lack of political will by the Colombian government to fulfil its obligations to respect and protect the rights of indigenous peoples in Colombia.
11. Based on the previously mentioned verifications, the Mission concludes: · That government and State authorities have not opportunely and effectively handled the recommendations presented by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples. · That, since the visit by the Special Rapporteur in 2004, the situation of indigenous peoples in Colombia has worsened to the point of not only creating a grave humanitarian crisis, but also of threatening certain extinction. In this regard, the Mission makes an urgent call to the international community and the Colombian State to do everything necessary to stop this risk. · That the systematic nature of the violations to human rights and international humanitarian law –and the crimes against humanity- subjected upon indigenous peoples in Colombia prefigure a genocide against these peoples, which the precautionary and provisional measures issued by the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights have not even been able to detain.
12. The Mission recommends the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples to promptly carry out a follow-up visit on the fulfilment of his recommendations in order to demand effective responses from the Colombian State concerning the gravity of the situation of these peoples. 13. The Mission recommends the European Union and the G24 to closely follow up on the situation of indigenous peoples, as part of the summits in London and Cartagena on human rights and international cooperation in Colombia. 14. The Mission recommends the Colombian government to not delay in fulfilling the agreements with indigenous communities and organisations in relation to the legalisation of land and territory, and to implement mechanisms for negotiated resolutions instead of police repression and criminal investigations. 15. The Mission recommends the Colombian government to withdraw the bases, trenches, and other forms of military occupation –which put the civilian indigenous population at imminent risk- from the indigenous towns and housing settlements. 16. The Mission recommends the Colombian government to consider indigenous reservations as peace territories, and to design a comprehensive policy to protect peoples at risk of extinction. 17. The Mission recommends the illegally armed groups to respect the rights of indigenous peoples to their territory, life, and autonomy, as well as all the principles of international humanitarian law. 18. The Mission recommends international and national social organisations, as well as indigenous peoples, to request a moratorium on the implementation of large-scale development projects in indigenous territories and reservations, as long as international and national mechanisms and agreements are not fulfilled –such as a real and effective consultation process with indigenous communities and organisations. 19. The Mission recommends international cooperation to support life plans, and strategies for the self-government and self-protection of indigenous communities. 20. The Mission extends our solidarity to the Afro-descendent and campesino communities facing conditions similar to that of indigenous peoples.
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