Targeted
by Both Sides
Since the mid-1990s, the rightwing paramilitary AUC (Autodefensas
Unidas de CórdobaUnited Self-Defense Groups of Córdoba)an
umbrella organization that encompasses most of the paramilitary
groupshas been responsible for most of the killing and forced
displacement of civilians. According to the Colombian Ministry of
Defense, "[They] generate terror and panic. They commit atrocities,
and do so in public view, so that everyone in the community will
flee in a stampede." The paramilitaries were responsible for
76 percent of the 671 massacres committed between January and October
2000. In the first three months of 2001, they massacred some 530
civilians.
The paramilitaries ostensibly depopulate towns and villages to deprive
the guerrillas of support. However, their underlying objective is
to drive peasants from the land for the benefit of their wealthy
patronslarge landholders, business people, and narco traffickers.
Colombias two main guerrilla groups, the FARC (Fuerzas
Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Colombian Armed Revolutionary
Forces) and the ELN (Ejército Nacional de Liberación-National
Liberation Army) commonly target local officials, civic leaders,
and business owners whom they perceive as opponents. Following these
attacks and murders, other civilians flee to avoid a similar fate.
The
FARC and the ELN fund their insurgencies through the kidnap for
ransom of wealthy and middle-class civilians and taxes on coca
growers and narco traffickers in areas under their control. The
FARC frequently recruit minors, some as young as nine years old.
Many families flee guerrilla-controlled areas to safeguard their
children.
The
Colombian army is seldom directly guilty of human rights abuse or
forcible displacement of civilians, but many observers say that
is because paramilitaries now do the dirty work. According to Human
Rights Watch, in 2000 "there continued to be abundant, detailed,
and continuing evidence of direct collaboration between the military
and paramilitary groups."
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Displaced
Colombians Occupying the ICRC
Bogota,
June 2000 |