Colombia: FARC Battering Afro-Colombian Areas | WPN World People News

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas are committing widespread abuses with impunity in the mostly Afro-Colombian city of Tumaco and its surrounding rural areas, Human Rights Watch said.

The identification cards of two sisters who were disappeared from a Tumaco neighborhood in early 2013, evidence strongly suggests by a paramilitary successor group. The sisters were 13 and 14 years old at the time of their disappearance.

Human Rights Watch documented a wide range of abuses committed against scores of victims in Tumaco in 2013 and 2014 in which there is compelling evidence the FARC was responsible. These abuses included killings, disappearances, kidnapping, torture, forced displacement, attempted forced recruitment, planting landmines, extortion, and death threats against community leaders. Official data indicates the FARC has also committed sexual violence in Tumaco in 2013 and 2014.

“FARC abuses are devastating Tumaco’s Afro-Colombian communities,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The FARC has a tight grip over the lives of many Tumaco residents, who are forced to keep silent as the guerrillas plant their fields with landmines, drive them from their homes, and kill their neighbors and loved ones with impunity.”

Paramilitary successor groups also engaged in rampant atrocities in Tumaco until they stopped operating in the municipality in late 2013. There is compelling evidence that members of the security forces have been responsible for some human rights violations there as well.

Human Rights Watch visited Tumaco in May and June and interviewed more than 90 abuse victims, their relatives, community leaders, and local officials, among others. Research also drew on government data, official reports, and criminal case files.

Human Rights Watch documented abuses in Tumaco against more than 70 victims since 2013 in which there is strong indication the FARC was responsible, including 12 killings, 3 disappearances, 6 cases of attempted forced recruitment, and 5 cases of torture, among other types of abuse. Human Rights Watch also documented abuses against 16 victims in recent years in which evidence points to the perpetrators being paramilitary successor groups, including the disappearance of three teenage girls and attempted forced recruitment of two teenage boys.

Official data strongly suggests that the FARC and paramilitary successor groups have committed more than 300 killings and dozens of disappearances in Tumaco over the past several years. Tumaco has among the highest officially reported levels of homicides, disappearances, conflict-related sexual violence and abuse, landmine victims, and forced displacement in Colombia. More than 10,000 Tumaco residents have fled their homes annually since 2011, according to government figures.

Over the past decade, the FARC and paramilitary successor groups – principally the Rastrojos – vied for control of Tumaco. Paramilitary successor groups emerged in Tumaco after the deeply flawed official demobilization of right-wing paramilitary organizations.

Since late 2013, the FARC has established an undisputed presence in many of the urban and rural areas of Tumaco, after numerous Rastrojos members were arrested and several neighborhoods succeeded in expelling the group. Some Rastrojos members stayed in Tumaco – and there has been concern among residents and officials over the possible arrival of another paramilitary successor group, the Urabeños – but, at this time, the FARC’s influence is uncontested by other armed groups.

“Almost no one has been held accountable for the atrocities in Tumaco,” Vivanco said. “As long as Colombia fails to deliver justice in Tumaco, residents will remain vulnerable to abuses, whether from guerrillas, paramilitaries, gangs, or security force members.”

The Attorney General’s Office reported that only seven of its investigations into the more than 1,300 homicides committed in Tumaco since 2009 have led to convictions. Prosecutors have not obtained a single conviction in any of their more than 680 investigations into disappearances and forced displacement committed since 2009 in Tumaco and several nearby municipalities. Only four of the 314 investigations into sexual violence and abuse in Tumaco since 2009 have led to a conviction. Eight local prosecutors interviewed by Human Rights Watch were handling more than 1,100 investigations each. In some of the cases documented, justice authorities delayed – or completely failed – to take basic steps to investigate abuses.

The municipality of Tumaco, in southwestern Colombia, has roughly 200,000 residents, 89 percent Afro-Colombian. Slightly over half of the municipality’s population lives in the city of Tumaco, Colombia’s second-largest Pacific port. Much of Tumaco’s rural population lives on land that is collectively owned and governed by what are termed Afro-Colombian “community councils” and on indigenous reserves. Tumaco’s poverty, illiteracy, and infant mortality rates are all more than twice the national average.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the UN independent expert on minority issues have found that Afro-Colombians nationwide face discrimination, socio-economic exclusion, and pervasive violence.

The FARC should immediately end its abuses against civilians in Tumaco and the rest of Colombia, Human Rights Watch said. It should stop using antipersonnel landmines, and disclose information on where landmines are laid so they can be cleared; stop interfering with school safety and children’s education; and reveal the whereabouts and/or return the remains of disappearance victims.

The Colombia government should promptly and effectively investigate, prosecute, and punish atrocities in Tumaco, Human Rights Watch said. It should significantly increase the personnel and resources assigned to the Tumaco prosecutor’s office, and establish a robust witness protection program for Tumaco cases. It should also address the issue of racial discrimination when carrying out policies to improve socio-economic conditions and curb abuses in Tumaco.

“As the FARC discusses peace in Havana with the Colombian government, in Tumaco its members have been brutalizing some of the most vulnerable communities in Colombia,” Vivanco said. “A peace agreement could eventually improve conditions in Tumaco but, in the meantime, the FARC needs to end its abuses against the civilian population, and the government should ensure justice for atrocities by all sides.”

Abuses in Tumaco: Summary of Findings

The following is a summary of the findings of recent Human Rights Watch research in Tumaco, including research on killings, disappearances, sexual violence, forced recruitment, forced displacement, and impunity. It concludes with the details of 10 illustrative cases.

Killings

The FARC and paramilitary successor groups have been responsible for widespread killings in Tumaco. Each year between 2011 and 2013, the annual homicide rate in Tumaco was at least 110 homicides per 100,000 people, more than three times the national rate (which is the 10th highest of all reported national rates worldwide, according to UN data). A range of officials told Human Rights Watch that paramilitary successor groups and guerrillas have committed the vast majority of the homicides.

The government’s Victims Unit, which provides reparations to conflict victims, registered 366 conflict-related killings committed in Tumaco between 2011 and 2013, more than in any other Colombian municipality. The vast majority – if not all – were of civilians. The FARC was presumed responsible for a majority of the killings, according to Victims Unit data Many killings and other abuses by paramilitary successor groups were not registered by the unit or are probably attributed to unidentified perpetrators.

Human Rights Watch documented 17 killings committed in Tumaco in 2013 and 2014, 12 in which there is strong reason to believe the FARC was responsible, 3 in which there is evidence security force members carried out unlawful killings, and 2 in which it is unclear who was responsible. In 5 of the apparent FARC killings, there is evidence the victims were tortured. Tumaco residents Human Rights Watch interviewed described numerous other FARC and paramilitary successor group killings in their communities over the past several years.

Disappearances, Dismemberment, and Kidnapping

Human Rights Watch documented six disappearances committed in Tumaco since 2013, three with compelling evidence of FARC responsibility, and three in which a paramilitary successor group appears to be responsible. The Victims Unit registered 30 conflict-related disappearances committed in Tumaco between 2011 and 2013, the second-largest number of all Colombian municipalities during the period. The unit’s data points to the FARC’s responsibility in a large portion of the registered cases.

Residents of urban and rural areas said that paramilitary successor groups sometimes dismembered people they killed. Residents of two neighborhoods said the Rastrojos maintained three houses there where they repeatedly took victims to dismember them. According to official reports, the dismembered body parts of at least six people have been found in Tumaco since 2012, including Zolanyi Cortés Arroyo, a 14-year-old girl found on the shore of the city in July 2013 after she had been missing for two weeks.

Human Rights Watch documented the kidnapping of a man in Tumaco in 2014 in which there is strong evidence of FARC responsibility.

Sexual Violence

Human Rights Watch documented the rape of two women and a teenage girl in a Tumaco village by a group of unidentified armed men in 2012, as well as the rape of a teenage girl the same year by a man who identified himself to the victim as a FARC member. In all six disappearance cases Human Rights Watch documented – of five teenage girls and a young woman – families of the victims received information indicating they may have been raped.

Tumaco residents said the Rastrojos had raped women and teenage girls in their communities. The Victims Unit has registered 55 cases of conflict-related sexual violence and abuse committed in Tumaco since 2011, the second highest number in Colombia during the period. According to the Victims Unit’s data, the FARC was presumed responsible in 33 cases, paramilitary successor groups in 2, and unidentified attackers in 20.

FARC and paramilitary successor group members in Tumaco have attempted to make young women and teenage girls their girlfriends or sexual partners through threats and intimidation, according to relatives of the young women and a community leader. Some families have sent their daughters away from areas where these groups have a strong presence to protect them from potential sexual exploitation or abuse.

Forced Recruitment, Recruitment and Use of Children, and Interference with Education

Human Rights Watch documented the attempted forced recruitment of 4 adults and 2 teenage boys by the FARC since 2013, as well as the attempted recruitment of 2 teenage boys by a paramilitary successor group during the period. In several cases, the victims had to flee Tumaco to avoid recruitment. Residents said the FARC is currently recruiting children under age 18 and reported seeing children actively operating as FARC members in their communities, including as gun-carrying members and lookouts.

The FARC and paramilitary successor groups have attempted to recruit children at Tumaco schools. One day in mid-2014, the FARC placed explosives roughly 10 meters from a village school’s entrance when the military was in town, forcing cancellation of classes for the day, residents said. The FARC has held meetings with students and teachers at the same school.

Use of Antipersonnel Landmines

The FARC are planting antipersonnel landmines in Tumaco’s rural areas. The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, to which Colombia is a state party, comprehensively bans antipersonnel landmines and their use is a violation of international law. According to official data, there have been 121 new victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance in Tumaco since 2011, more than in any other municipality in Colombia, which has one of the world’s highest annual rates of new landmine victims. Of the 81 civilian victims, 16 died, and 65 were injured, 6 of whom had limbs amputated.

In one instance in 2011 that residents of an Afro-Colombian collective territory described, a woman stepped on a landmine, and when her husband tried to rescue her, his movement detonated another landmine, which killed him. The woman bled to death because residents were afraid of setting off another landmine if they tried to rescue her, a community leader said.

Community leaders said the FARC usually plant landmines when the military is in the area, or to protect coca crops. According to the UN, in 2013 there were 16,336 acres of coca – the raw material for producing cocaine – in Tumaco, more than three times the area planted in any other municipality in Colombia, which is the world’s second largest coca producer.

Extortion, Restrictions on Movement, Social Control, and Forced Displacement

The FARC and paramilitary successor groups have been responsible for widespread extortion in Tumaco, with victims ranging from large businesses to informal street vendors, as well as community council governments, according to victims, business leaders, and justice officials.

Residents of various urban and rural communities told Human Rights Watch the FARC is imposing severe restraints on their movements and daily activities. In certain communities, the FARC prohibits people from walking around at night and levies fines of roughly US$250 for traveling by river after 6 p.m. It insists on approving visitors to some communities, and prohibits people – including community council leaders – from visiting areas within their own communities. Some residents also said they were forced to attend a FARC meeting under the threat of a fine, and that people – including members of a victims’ association – had been prohibited from meeting in large groups.

Community council leaders described the FARC’s social control and abuses as a direct threat to the autonomy and cultural traditions of Afro-Colombian communities. For example, one leader said people can no longer hunt or fish at night – traditional practices within his community – because of the FARC’s restrictions on movement and use of landmines.

Abuses by the FARC and paramilitary successor groups, and fighting between the FARC and security forces, have driven thousands of Tumaco residents from their homes. Each year between 2011 and 2013, more than 11,000 Tumaco residents were newly displaced, placing it in the top three Colombian municipalities in numbers of people displaced during those years. Human Rights Watch also documented the cases of dozens of Tumaco residents displaced by the FARC and paramilitary successor groups since 2013.

Impunity

Colombia has consistently failed to ensure justice for abuses in Tumaco. There have been more than 1,300 homicides in Tumaco since 2009. The Attorney General’s Office reported that only seven of its investigations into these crimes have led to convictions, and that just 11 are at the trial stage.

Local prosecutors are investigating 285 cases of disappearances and 379 cases of forced displacement committed since 2009 in Tumaco and several other small municipalities nearby. All investigations are in the preliminary stage, with no one charged, let alone convicted. A specialized unit dedicated to investigating disappearances and forced displacement has an additional 210 open investigations into such crimes in Tumaco, all in the preliminary stage. Of prosecutors’ 314 investigations into sexual violence crimes in Tumaco since 2009, only four have led to convictions, and eight are at the trial stage.

The specialized prosecutorial unit dedicated to investigating paramilitary successor groups has not obtained a single conviction against members of such groups for homicides, disappearances, forced displacement, or sexual violence committed in Tumaco since 2009.

The local prosecutors’ overwhelming caseload sets them up to fail. Human Rights Watch interviewed 9 of the 11 prosecutors in the Attorney General’s Office in Tumaco. Eight of them were handling at least 1,100 investigations each. For example, one prosecutor was investigating 1,421 cases, including 402 homicides and 72 cases of sexual violence and abuse. The prosecutor with the lightest caseload had 740 investigations. The Attorney General’s Office has not yet followed through on its January 2014 commitment to assign 10 additional prosecutors to the Tumaco office.

In some cases Human Rights Watch documented, interviews with victims and justice authorities indicated that prosecutors and investigators had delayed – or completely failed – to take basic steps to investigate serious abuses. This included repeatedly refusing to take testimony from a family member about the people allegedly responsible for a disappearance, waiting at least three weeks to assign investigators to a murder case, and failing to interview a murder victim’s nuclear family members. For example, more than a year-and-a-half after unidentified gunmen killed Miller Angulo, a renowned victims’ rights leader in Tumaco, criminal investigators still had not interviewed his family or even verified that he was in fact a victims’ rights leader. Over a nearly year-long span in 2013 and 2014, no steps were taken to investigate the case.

Another obstacle to justice is that many abuses by guerrillas and paramilitary successor groups go unreported due to fear of reprisals, abuse victims, their families, and prosecutors told Human Rights Watch. When cases are reported, pervasive fear of retaliation among witnesses, victims, and their families impedes cooperation with investigations.

Justice officials also face serious security risks in carrying out their work in Tumaco. On July 17, 2014, individuals who identified themselves as FARC members intercepted four Attorney General’s Office officials as they were driving back to the city of Pasto after exhuming bodies in Tumaco, sources in the Attorney General’s Office said. The FARC held the officials captive for roughly two hours, during which they threatened to kill them, told them not to return to the area, and burned their car.

Abuse victims’ families described the devastating consequences of the impunity enjoyed by those who killed or disappeared their loved ones, such as having to endure threats and intimidation from the people responsible for the crimes. A woman said the FARC members who killed her husband in 2014 subsequently walked by her home on repeated occasions, peering inside, intimidating her. She fears her family would suffer reprisals if she reports the men to authorities.

Socio-Economic Exclusion

Many residents believe the high poverty rate, lack of economic opportunities, and limited access to basic services in Tumaco have created an environment in which armed groups thrive by easily recruiting members.

The latest available government figures on Tumaco’s rates of multidimensional poverty[25] (84.3 percent, 2005), illiteracy (17 percent, 2005), and infant mortality (59 deaths per 1,000 births, 2009) are all at least twice the national average.

Even though more than half of Tumaco residents live in the city, just 0.3 percent of its households were connected to the sewage system in 2011, compared with 72 percent of Colombian households nationwide.

Source: Human Rights Watch