RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Gov’t Ordered to Respond to Indigenous Cry for Help

By Constanza Vieira Reprint | | Print |

Constanza Vieira

BOGOTA, Jul 13 2004 (IPS) - The Colombian government has until Thursday to report to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights the steps it has taken to protect the Kankuamo indigenous people from mass killings by the right-wing paramilitaries.

The Colombian government has until Thursday to report to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights the steps it has taken to protect the Kankuamo indigenous people from mass killings by the right-wing paramilitaries.

The Costa Rica-based Court, which forms part of the Organisation of American States (OAS) system, ordered authorities in Colombia to adopt, without delay, the measures necessary ”to protect the life and personal integrity” of all members of the Kankuamo indigenous communities.

The Court finally responded with a ruling last week to the cry for help coming from the remote Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain chain in northern Colombia.

”Of the more than 100 members and authorities of indigenous communities who became victims of homicide last year, 50 were Kankuamo political and spiritual leaders,” the plaintiffs in the suit brought before the Court – the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (a local human rights group) and the Kankuamo Indigenous Organisation (OIK) – said in a communique.

Around 90 of the roughly 600 indigenous groups in the Americas are represented in Colombia, where they account for less than two percent of the population of 44 million.

The Washington-based Commission, which also forms part of the OAS system, did so, invoking the need for precautionary measures due to ”the systematic violation” of the human rights of indigenous peoples in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the arbitrary seizure of their territory by armed groups, and their forced displacement.

”When we asked for the precautionary measures, we were talking about 48 murders of Kankuamo Indians, and by the end of last year that total had climbed to 54. This year six have been killed so far,” an attorney belonging to the Lawyers Collective, who preferred not to be identified, told IPS.

The Inter-American Court ruling, issued Jul. 5 and disseminated by the plaintiffs on Jul. 8, demands respect for the right to free circulation of the members of the Kankuamo indigenous community, and says those who have been forcibly displaced to other regions must be allowed to return to their homes if they so desire.

In line with the American Convention on Human Rights, ratified by Colombia in 1973, the Court ordered the Colombian state to protect the Kankuamo, the indigenous group that has been most heavily persecuted in the civil war that has shaken this country for over 40 years.

The Court gave the government 10 days to report on the precautionary measures taken to protect the Kankuamo community.

One-fourth of the approximately 6,000 Kankuamo Indians have been displaced from their ancestral territories by the armed conflict, and many of them can be seen wandering in cities near the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, especially Valledupar, capital of the department (province) of Cesar, on the border with Venezuela.

Since receiving death threats, Kankuamo leader Jaime Arias has carried out his official duties from that city, and communicates with his people through messengers. OIK secretary-general Evelio Rodríguez is also living outside of the indigenous group’s traditional territory.

According to the ombudsman, the 12 Kankuamo communities in the Sierra Nevada are suffering from a food blockade imposed by right-wing paramilitaries, which only allow supplies to get through on Mondays and Tuesdays, “meaning food runs short by the end of each week.”

Since 1990, when the private militias financed by drug traffickers and landowners began to dispute control over the Sierra Nevada with left-wing guerrillas, 166 Kankuamo have been killed, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights – “one third of them in 2003,” as the Lawyers Collective attorney pointed out.

But “The killings are under-represented, and we have documented more than 200 Kankuamo deaths,” ONIC president Luis Evelio Andrade told IPS. The OIK count, meanwhile, is 250.

The Court also demanded that the Colombian State investigate the killings, in order to identify those responsible and impose the corresponding sanctions.

The Lawyers’ Collective reported that up until August 2003, 66 percent of Kankuamo murders were committed by members of the paramilitary umbrella, the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).

Another 13 percent were blamed on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – the main insurgent group – seven percent on the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), and two percent on State security forces. The rest of the deaths were not attributed to any particular group.

But since August last year “all the killings of this ethnic group have been blamed on the AUC, apart from two cases committed by the army and one by FARC,” said the attorney.

In September, the ELN took eight European and Israeli back-packers hostage in the area. They were later freed on the condition that an independent ad hoc commission inform the public of the severe human-rights crisis in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Shortly before Christmas, the commission reported the appalling social conditions and “climate of terror” that reigned in the region.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia has also repeatedly reported that the paramilitaries and State security forces work together.

Moreover, the army practices arbitrary detentions and killings of local people, registering the deaths in official statistics as guerrilla fighters fallen in combat. Groups from all sides of the civil war attack rural indigenous people, accusing them of collaborating with “the enemy.”

The Kankuamo began to be killed in 1990. But attacks have increased since 2001 with the arrival of AUC paramilitaries belonging to the “Northern Block” (BN), which was also responsible for a bloody April killing of Wayúu people, who live on the western side of the Sierra Nevada.

In May, BN leaders were among the AUC commanders who signed an agreement with the government that grants protection to the paramilitaries in exchange for a pledge that they would stop exporting cocaine and would respect a unilateral December 2002 ceasefire that the AUC itself declared.

Human rights organisations have denounced 3,700 killings by AUC since the start of the ceasefire, and “the government has failed to make any emphatic public statement on this situation,” said Andrade.

Along with the Kogui, Wiwa and Arhuaco Indians, the Kankuamo see themselves as “guardians of the wisdom of the mountains.” Their home – the Sierra Nevada – is a mass of hills rising abruptly from the Caribbean beaches of northern Colombia to two snow-covered peaks 5,775 metres above sea-level.

The four ethnic groups claim direct descent from the supreme creator, making them the “big brothers,” while the whites are “the little brothers”, according to their tradition.

They believe they have been responsible for maintaining the natural balance and peace since “the time when there was nothing and everything was darkness”, not only in the Sierra Nevada – “the heart of the world” – but for the entire planet.

They fulfil this mission through “payments” made in spiritual exercises of atonement and thanks to Mother Earth, lasting from 15 to 20 days. The events are organised by their great sages – the Mamos – and are held at some 370,000 sacred sites throughout the Sierra Nevada.

This guarantees “good rains, good summers, sun and clear air,” the Mamos explained in a “Message to the World” in November.

The indigenous groups believe the current disorder in the world is due to destruction of the “payment” sites by the “little brothers,” which has prevented them from carrying out their duties, and to attacks on the people of the Sierra Nevada. The Mamos predict “years of harsh summers, hailstorms, acid rain and all kind of cataclysms and natural disasters.”

“How can we organise the payments, if the Mamos themselves are displaced?” indigenous representatives asked the ombudsman’s office, which demanded that the government take urgent measures to protect the indigenous groups in September 2002.

The grave situation faced by the Kankuamo “poses a serious threat to their identity and future as a people,” warned Andrade.

Only 40 km from Valledupar, the Kankuamo territory on the lower stretches of the south-eastern side of Sierra Nevada was invaded by Catholic missionaries and people from other regions of the country, many of whom were fleeing the violence elsewhere.

The Kankuamo have been the “older brothers” worst affected by the war. Some justify their murders because a few of the Indians have taken up arms for one band or another, but “this cannot justify wiping out a whole people,” said Andrade.

“AUC represents certain economic sectors that have strategic designs on the Kankuamo lands,” he argued.

There are plans to build a dam in Kankuamo territory in order to supply water to Valledupar, which is why “these people are being exterminated, so their land can be taken and controlled,” he added.

“One way to ensure there is no opposition to construction of the Besotes dam is to physically eliminate the people, and another is to displace them, using terror,” said Andrade.