28 November, 2000

Colombia's "Never Again Project"

Rights Action [formerly Guatemala Partners] sends this information concerning the important "Nunca Mas" project in Colombia.

• Please reproduce and distribute this information
• Please act upon the "urgent action" request
• Please contact ICCHRLA for more information

Introduction
Press Release
Urgent Action

INTRODUCTION

Canadian churches and human rights activists were present in Bogota today, November 28, to lend both physical and moral support when 'at risk' human rights groups made public the explosive report of Colombia's "Never Again" Project."

It is a very timely project, as the US government has agree to a $1.3 billion military package [weapons, military equipment, training, intelligence, and direct US military involvement], that will worsen the already extremely bad human rights situation, as set out in the Nunca Mas Project.

This information was produced by ICCHRLA, the Toronto-based Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America.

PRESS RELEASE

November 27, 2000

ICCHRLA - Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America
Contact: Kathy Price, Media Coordinator
Phone: (416) 921-0801, ext. 23
Email: icchrla@web.ca

More than 20 national churches and religious orders that together form the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA) are sending a strong message of support for Colombia's Never Again Project, a joint effort of 16 prominent church, human rights and social organizations who are courageously about to release the first two volumes of a massive and potentially explosive report on crimes against humanity in Colombia.

As a concrete symbol of their support, the Canadian churches will be present at a ceremony in Bogota on Tuesday, November 28 when "Colombia: Never Again" is to be made public.

The first two volumes of this report, that comprise some 2,000 pages, document 3,500 cases of extra-judicial executions, forced disappearances and torture committed by state security forces and their allies in two zones of the country. Stated ICCHRLA director Bill Fairbairn, before his departure for Bogota:

"The number of cases documented in these first two volumes is less than 10 percent of the more than 38,000 crimes against humanity in the combined data base of the Never Again Project. Yet even this first partial report contains more than the total number of crimes documented by the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Chile which documented abuses perpetrated during the Pinochet dictatorship, a regime now recognized throughout the world for its barbarity.

"The sheer number, together with the horrendous nature of the atrocities perpetrated by the Colombian police, army and their paramilitary allies that will be brought into the open by Colombia's Never Again Report should spur the international community to take strong action to press for an end to these abuses."

Colombia Never Again not only documents cases, it identifies more than 80 mechanisms it says enabled those responsible for committing crimes against humanity to avoid being brought to justice. Impunity rates for politically-motivated crimes in Colombia -- a country whose human rights crisis has largely escaped both international attention and international sanction -- is more than 97 per cent.

States Bill Fairbairn: "We're calling on the Canadian government to carefully read and analyze the information contained in Colombia Never Again and the implications of that information. If the Colombian government has been responsible for systematic policies of repression against all legal political opposition over the last three decades, as Colombia Never Again shows, the Canadian government needs to undertake a profound revision of its bilateral relations with Colombia.

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Concerns about reprisals

Colombia's Never Again Project follows in the footsteps of similar projects carried out by so-called Truth Commissions in countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and El Salvador.

"The Canadian churches are very concerned about threats of reprisals against the people and organizations involved in the Never Again Project, and we are taking those threats very seriously," stated Bill Fairbairn, Coordinator of ICCHRLA. "No one has forgotten that in Guatemala, Bishop Gerardi was murdered less than 48 hours after presenting Guatemala's Never Again report."

Continued Fairbairn: "The Canadian churches are making representations to our own government and to President Pastrana, calling for immediate and concrete action to ensure the safety of those courageous Colombians who exercise their legitimate right to call for truth, justice and the implementation of concrete measures to end a terrible and ongoing history of human rights abuses."

International Tribunal

Growing support in Canada for efforts to address Colombia's crisis Last year, huge awareness was generated in Canada about crimes against humanity in Colombia as a result of international opinion tribunals held in both Toronto and Montreal.

The Canadian tribunals found the Colombian government legally responsible and ruled that Canada has jurisdiction to prosecute the perpetrators of the massacre. That verdict prompted the Canadian Parliament to hold hearings last December on the human rights situation in Colombia and to issue a forceful resolution calling for the intensification of "multilateral and bilateral efforts to bring an improvement in the situation in Colombia".

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR INTERVIEWS:

On November 27 and 28, Bill Fairbairn can be reached for interviews in Bogota, by calling cell phone number 011-57-3-285-5880.

For more information about events in Toronto and Montreal, and support in Canada for Colombia's Never Again Project, please contact: ICCHRLA Communications Coordinator, Kathy Price: (416) 921-0801, ext. 23 icchrla@web.ca.

Introduction
Press Release
Urgent Action >