'Open confrontation'
As the standoff between the government and guerrilla forces continues, US-inspired anti-terrorist measures are deepening the humanitarian crisis in Colombia, reports Tamam Ahmed Jama
Jumping on the bandwagon after 11 September, the Colombian government declared the FARC -- Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) -- a "terrorist organisation".
Thus FARC's status as a legitimate political actor and its right to participate in peace negotiations were revoked. As one of Latin America's oldest leftist guerrilla groups FARC has been operating in Colombia for more than 30 years, but the group's staying power has been costly. In particular, recent escalation in the conflict following the collapse of peace talks has extracted an enormous human toll in this riven state.
The numbers accounting for this toll tell their own story. According to Amnesty International, more than 4,000 civilians were killed for political motives and over 2,700 people were kidnapped in 2002. More than 500 people "disappeared" and between 350,000 and 400,000 were displaced in the same year.
"These figures are a record high in Colombia, a lot higher than previous years," Marcelo Pollack, Amnesty International's representative for the Americas, said. "About 80 per cent of the killings took place outside combat. They were usually selective massacres carried out either by the army-backed paramilitaries, by the army itself or by guerrilla forces."
Cristina Rojas, a professor of international affairs who taught at Javeriana University in Bogotà, the capital city of Colombia, said labelling the FARC a "terrorist group" and shutting it out of the negotiation process was an erroneous move that carries catastrophic consequences.
"When you deny the political character of a group, the only option left is to fight it militarily," Rojas said. "The delegitimising of the FARC served as a declaration of an open confrontation and endless violence."
The classification of the FARC as a terrorist group interrupted three years of painstaking peace talks. Cycle after cycle of violence has swept the country since.
FARC's classification also has implications for Washington's ties with Bogotà. Last year, the United States extended the limits of its military aid to Colombia. Previously, US military aid to Colombia could only be used -- at least officially -- for activities directly related to fighting the drug trade. A substantial amount of the $1.3 billion a year in aid is now being used for counter-insurgency activities.
"We believe that American military aid to Colombia is exacerbating the armed conflict in the country, and worsening both the resulting humanitarian and human rights crises in Colombia," Pollack said.
The US deployed special forces in the eastern province of Arauca earlier this year, marking the first direct US involvement in the Colombian civil war. The main aim of the US activity was to train Colombian troops and protect a key oil pipeline.
Pollack said military aid to the Colombian army -- a body implicated in serious violations of human rights, including summary executions, torture and arbitrary detention of civilians -- can only be seen as an accomplice to such atrocities.
"Given the very poor human rights record of the Colombian Armed Forces, any kind of military aid to Colombia will only result in rapid deterioration of the situation; nothing good can come out of it," he added.
The humanitarian crisis in Colombia is posed to worsen dramatically as the government goes ahead with serious anti- terrorist measures. Two key policies in particular alarm human rights groups.
The first is the creation of an army of "peasant soldiers" who will fight the guerrillas alongside government forces. The so- called "peasant soldiers" living in their native communities will be dangerously exposed to reprisals as they do not possess the same measure of security afforded to regular soldiers who live in barracks.
"They'll have to go home at the end of their day," Pollack said. "And this puts at risk of reprisal from guerrilla forces not only the individuals involved, but also their families because they'll be seen as participating directly in the conflict."
Given the precarious economic situation many Colombians find themselves in there is a great temptation for many to join these peasant brigades as a way of generating an income.
"Joining the armed groups is practically the only source of employment for young people in rural areas," Rojas said. "They do this out of economic desperation, not because of ideological alignment".
The second measure is a plan to create what the government is calling "a million-strong" corps of paid civilian informants. Like the "peasant soldiers" the informants will be exposed to reprisal attacks from the guerrillas for "siding" with the government.
The state policy to use more and more civilians in its fight against the guerrillas is in breach of a key aspect of international humanitarian law. This body of law -- which deals with the protection of the individual in armed conflicts -- demands that a clear distinction be made between combatants and the civilian population. Under international humanitarian law anyone who is not taking a direct part in the hostilities enjoys civilian status and should not be targeted.
"The government is increasingly blurring the important distinction between civilians and soldiers and is doing all it can to bring the civilian population further into the conflict," Pollack said. "We are not talking about civilians simply being caught in the crossfire; we're talking about a civilian population that is deliberately pulled into the conflict as a matter of policy. This has serious implications."
The civilian population is often the biggest victim of internal armed conflicts. This has especially been the case in Colombia as all parties to the conflict treat the civilian population as possible partisans of the opposing side.
The government also intends to grant the security forces, the army and the police special powers allowing them to arrest, carry out raids on homes and offices and intercept communications without any kind of judicial order. This measure has been condemned by many international organisations, including the United Nations and the Organisation of American States.
Human rights groups are worried that the security forces will use their increased powers to harass human rights defenders. Pollack said even though the measure has not been approved yet, the number of arrests and raids on offices of human rights organisations and trade unionists has increased dramatically since last year.
"We think it is part of a strategy designed to frighten into silence those who denounce human rights violations," he said.
Pollack said grave human rights violations are being committed in Colombia under the cloak of the "war on terrorism". He added that in the prevailing obsessive focus on security the concept of human rights has been forgotten.
"We are seeing systematic erosion of basic human rights in the name of security," Pollack said. "And that is a very dangerous road to go down. You cannot have security -- not only in Colombia but everywhere else in the world -- without the full respect of human rights. The two go hand-in-hand."
