Community of Resistence once again faces threats from Colombian Government

international | crime and justice | news report Friday October 21, 2005 12:41 by Amnesty International cearbhuilf at yahoo dot ie the bridge lispole, dingle 086 0554665

Community leader abducted

I don't know how the other people in the communities
there must be coping - the fact that he was
taken in broad daylight with the apparent overt
complicity of the police, has left everyone very
shocked. and I guess the accompaniers who were with him will be forever wondering what they could have done differently to try and stop this terrible thing from happening. and I just keep thinking about how
this can happen here, like it was ordinary, like it was normal. i didn't know orlando, but i met him last week when he was filling in the forms for his visa. I just keep thinking of that big smiling man sitting in the corner of the office, his sunglasses pushed down
his nose, chatting about his trip, wishing him a safe journey. and now when i pass by the office all i see is a photocopied sheet with his photo, and the word 'desaparecido'.

PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 23/037/2005
17 October 2005

UA 272/05 Fear for Safety/Possible "disappearance"

COLOMBIA Orlando Valencia (m)
Other members of the Afro-descendant communities of
the Jiguiamiandó and Curvaradó River Basins

Orlando Valencia, who is standing for election to be a
legal representative for one of the Afro-descendant
communities in the department of Chocó, in the
north-west of the country, was reportedly abducted by
army-backed paramilitaries on 15 October, and has not
been seen since. The army are reported to have
threatened Afro-descendant communities in the region,
and they too are believed to be in grave danger.

On 15 October Orlando Valencia was heading for the
community of Despensa Media, where the elections were
to be held for the Curvaradó River Basin community
legal representative, an important post whose
responsibilities include upholding the Afro-descendant
communities' rights to their land. He was travelling
with nine members of the Curvaradó River Basin
community, as well as a member of the non-governmental
human rights organization Comisión Intereclesial de
Justicia y Paz, Inter-church Justice and Peace
Commission, and a member of an international
non-governmental organization working with the
Curvaradó communities.

On their way from the town of Belén de Bajirá,
department of Chocó, to the riverside town of Brisas,
where they were planning to catch a boat to Despensa
Media, their vehicle was reportedly stopped by police.
Orlando Valencia and the two NGO members were ordered
into a police vehicle, and the other nine people were
ordered to follow it to the police station in Belén de
Bajirá. Witnesses apparently saw three paramilitary
gunmen in the area where the police stopped them.

At the police station, police officers reportedly
accused Orlando of having been a member of the
guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
Colombia (FARC), Revolutionary Army Forces of
Colombia. By 12.30pm Orlando and the others had all
been released, and they went to the house of an
acquaintance in Belén de Bajirá. Orlando Valencia was
reportedly stopped outside the house by two
paramilitaries travelling on a motorcycle. The member
of Justicia y Paz reportedly tried to intervene to
protect Orlando, and the paramilitaries threatened
him. They then ordered Orlando to get onto the
motorcycle: “vamos o si no lo pelamos aquí”, “let’s go
or we’ll finish you off here,” and left on the road
leading to the municipality of Chigorodó, in the
neighbouring department of Antioquia. Orlando Valencia
has not been seen since. Paramilitaries reportedly
kept the others in his group under surveillance after
he was abducted.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
In recent years many Afro-descendant communities have
sought to secure title over land on which their
communities have lived for many years. Among these
communities are those of the Curvaradó and
Jiguiamiandó River Basins. Despite securing land
titles the communities of Curvaradó and Jiguiamiandó
have faced repeated death threats from paramilitaries
and the security forces. Paramilitaries have attempted
to force the Afro-descendants to grow plantations of
African Palm, a cash crop used in products ranging
from cooking oil to soap, and have reportedly occupied
some of their land. Orlando Valencia had publicly
denounced the presence of African Palm plantations,
and the presence of paramilitaries together with
members of the security forces in the Curvaradó River
Basin. Guerrilla forces have also repeatedly
threatened Afro-descendant communities in Chocó and
killed members of the communities they accuse of
siding with their enemies.

Soldiers from the army's XVII Brigade have reportedly
warned communities in the Jiguimiandó river basin that
they should expect a paramilitary raid. On 10 October,
soldiers reportedly ransacked several homes in the
community of Nueva Esperanza, and threatened the
inhabitants: “en tres días vienen los que van a cortar
cabezas”, “in three days the ones that chop heads off
are coming”. The army has made similar threats
elsewhere in the country to warn of possible
paramilitary incursions. In late September army units
had reportedly destroyed homes in another Jiguiamiandó
River Basin community, Bella Flor Remacho. On 15 March
2005, after being told of repeated death threats by
paramilitaries operating with the support of the XVII
Brigade, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
(IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS)
issued a resolution calling on the Colombian
authorities to guarantee the safety of the communities
of Curvaradó and Jiguiamiandó.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as
quickly as possible, in Spanish or your own language:
- expressing concern for the safety of Orlando
Valencia, who was reportedly abducted by
paramilitaries backed by the security forces on 15
October;
- urging the authorities to conduct a full and
impartial investigation to establish his whereabouts
and guarantee his safety and safe release;
- expressing concern for the safety of other
inhabitants of the communities of the Curvaradó and
Jiguiamiandó River Basins, who have recently been
threatened with a paramilitary raid, and urging the
authorities to take all measures deemed appropriate by
the communities themselves to protect them, in line
with repeated IACHR resolutions;
- urging that all those responsible for killings or
Adisappearances@ in the area be brought to justice;
- calling for a full and impartial investigation into
links between the security forces and paramilitary
groups operating in Chocó, urging that the results are
made public and those found responsible for supporting
and participating in such groups are brought to
justice;
- urging the authorities to take immediate action to
dismantle paramilitary groups, in line with United
Nations recommendations.
APPEALS TO:
President of the Republic
Señor Presidente Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Presidente de la República, Palacio de Nariño, Carrera
8 No.7-2, Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: + 57 1 337 5890
Salutation: Excmo. Sr. Presidente Uribe/ Dear
President Uribe

Attorney General
Dr. Mario Germán Iguarán, Fiscal General de la Nación,
Fiscalía General de la Nación,
Diagonal 22B 52?01 (Ciudad Salite), Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: + 57 1 570 2000 (a message in Spanish will ask
you to enter extension 2017)

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Dra. María Carolina Barco Isakson, Ministerio de
Relaciones Exteriores, Calle 10 No 5-51, Palacio de
San Carlos, Bogotá, COLOMBIA
Fax: +57 1 562 7822
Salutation: Sra Ministra/Dear Minister

COPIES TO:
Non-governmental human rights organization
Comisión Intereclesial Justicia y Paz, Calle 50,
No13-19, Oficina 203
Bogotá, Colombia

and to diplomatic representatives of Colombia
accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the
International Secretariat, or your section office, if
sending appeals after 28 November 2005.