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RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Don’t Cross that Invisible Line

Constanza Vieira

BUENAVENTURA, Colombia, Jun 1 2007 (IPS) - “We can’t go from one barrio to another. Whoever does that is at risk of losing their life,” a community organiser in this Pacific port city in Colombia told IPS.

“We can’t go from one barrio to another. Whoever does that is at risk of losing their life,” a community organiser in this Pacific port city in Colombia told IPS.

Danelly Estupiñán, a member of a black community organisation, was referring to the rivalries between neighbourhoods in Buenaventura, in the western province of Valle del Cauca on Colombia’s western coast, an area heavily affected by the country’s nearly half-century civil war.

One of the poor barrios or neighbourhoods is dominated by the far-right paramilitary militias. The one bordering it is under the influence of Colombia’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Whoever crosses the invisible line between them runs the risk of being killed, accused of being a spy or informant for the other side.

“The incidents happen in the barrios where the paramilitaries have control. That’s why everyone blames them for the violence,” said Estupiñán. He added, however, that the guerrillas “also commit violations of international humanitarian law.”

The insurgents accuse local residents of being paramilitary collaborators, the paramilitaries accuse them of being guerrilla sympathisers, and the security forces see “everyone in Buenaventura except children under five as paramilitaries or guerrillas. And that’s how they treat us,” said the 26-year-old, who belongs to the Palenque Regional El Congal, of the Proceso de Comunidades Negras community organisation.

“In this triangle, the community is always caught in the middle. The attitude is always the same: aggression against the community, and violations of people’s rights, their lives and their dignity.”

“There is no one to turn to for help, because the level of ungovernability is very high,” added Estupiñán.

The Senate Human Rights Commission held a public hearing in the port city Friday, and some victims began to speak out.

In Buenaventura, which has a population of 324,000 according to the 2006 census, and of 450,000 according to social organisations and local institutions that say the residents of the outlying shantytowns were not counted, the armed conflict has claimed the lives of 1,520 people in the last three years. The population of the city and the surrounding areas is overwhelmingly black.

On Thursday, a demonstration was held outside of city hall, at the foot of the bay, after a march that blocked traffic that morning. Only 1,500 people took part in the march, 1,200 of whom came in from rural areas and small towns around Buenaventura.

The people of the city did not themselves dare to take part in the protest, although the taxi drivers with whom IPS spoke, always a good thermometer of public opinion, reflected a great deal of outrage over the violence in the city.

Among those participating in the demonstration were seven adolescent girls and boys between the ages of 16 and 18 from Bajo Calima, an hour and a half drive to the north, who sang a song they had rehearsed for a month: “Let’s Stop This War”.

To the beat of the “cununo” drum and the rain-like sound of the “guasá” shakers – a hollow cane cylinder filled with seeds or beans – one of the youngsters would sing out a phrase, to which the others responded with the next line.

“Let’s stop this war now/stop now this war/because a bomb is going off/and destroying our city/Today no one wants to go out/on the streets of my port/because a bomb is going off/causing so many deaths.”

“They don’t know what they want/our violent brothers/they don’t discuss things as brothers/there is only confrontation.”

The lyrics to the song, which had a traditional African-derived “currulao” rhythm, were written by the uncle of one of the members of the group, “and we wrote the music,” they told IPS. All of the youngsters are students, and had the support of their school when they set up their group.

“People are killed almost every day in Buenaventura. And since we don’t live here, there’s nothing we can do to solve the problem,” said one of the girls.

That is why they came to sing their song in this city caught up in the violence generated by the turf war between the paramilitaries and the guerrillas.

Despite the relatively small number of participants, the organisers of the demonstration said it was a success, given the level of terror in Buenaventura.

At highest risk are young black men, who account for 95 percent of the victims of the violence. “So instead of staying in Buenaventura to be killed, young men look for other alternatives, to escape the danger,” said one of the currulao singers, Beatriz Helena Viveros.

“Approximately 6,000 people fled their homes last December,” Christian Visnes, a field officer with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IPS.

Informed observers say that when OCHA shows up, it means the situation is really serious.

“Some guys I know don’t really like to work. So they go for easier things, so they don’t have to work. And that’s how you get all this violence,” said Viveros.

“Easy” money can involve carrying out contract killings, for example. Most of the victims are from the shantytowns on the southern fringe of the city, where many of the houses are built on stilts over the water.

The mangroves, which used to be frequented by many people collecting “piangua” or black conch, a local delicacy, or simply enjoying the outdoors, are now avoided. Ever since bodies began to be found tangled in the root systems of the mangrove trees, the fishermen and mollusc harvesters have preferred to stay away.

Locals say the area is “haunted” – not by ghosts, but by shady individuals who stand guard to make sure families do not come to collect the bodies of their loved ones.

They also say that in some barrios there are common graves and clandestine cemeteries. So far this year, more than 50 people have “disappeared.”

Without a body, no funeral or burial is possible. But when there is a funeral, people gather in silence. They no longer sing the traditional “alabaos” or play dominos during the wake to accompany the family, as is habitual in these parts.

Sometimes people are even shot and killed in the cemetery during the funeral itself.

The demonstrators who gathered outside city hall Thursday were accompanied by representatives of the United Nations and the Organisation of American States, and European diplomats.

“We are closely following the situation in Buenaventura and the surrounding areas,” Swiss diplomat Claudia Marti said during the protest. “We express our profound concern over the grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”

The Swiss government is carrying out a strategic programme in Colombia aimed at promoting peace.

OCHA’s Visnes said the first prevention measure “is for the community to organise itself.” If an attacker “has to face an entire community instead of a group of individuals, their actions will often be less severe,” he added.

But “it is the Colombian state that has the obligation to protect – at all levels, and every agency, both military and civilian. Community organisation can only be a complementary measure. We support those efforts,” he added.