Colombia, social and human rights organizations warn of violence against indigenous communities

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In Colombia, international organizations such as the U-N, social and human rights organizations warn of violence in indigenous communities. Our colleague Hernan Tobar tells us the details. teleSUR

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00:00And in Colombia, international organizations such as the UN Social and Human Rights Organizations

00:05warn of violence in indigenous communities.

00:08Our colleague, Hernando Barr, with the details.

00:12The United Nations Human Rights Office in Colombia, through this communique,

00:16reports on the violation of indigenous communities, particularly the NUQAC,

00:20rejecting the displacement caused by fighting between the armed actors presented in the Department of Guaviare,

00:25where this community has hit settlements, and which the Constitutional Court declared as subject of special protections

00:32against their imminent extermination in 2009.

00:38Indigenous families of the NUQAC people have been displaced by armed groups.

00:45This indigenous people has been declared by the Constitutional Court that they are in the process of physical and cultural extermination.

00:52Therefore it is required that all armed groups and the state commit themselves to respect this population.

01:03We as the Colombian indigenous movement group in the NUQAC vehemently reject and condemn this atrocious violation of human rights

01:10and the international humanitarian law.

01:13Therefore we call on the Colombian state, headed by the president, to take action on the matter.

01:18Mr. President, Gustavo Petro, tome cartas en el asunto.

01:23Otro de los departamentos afectados por los intereses de los armados.

01:25Another of the departments affected by the interest of the armed groups is Cauca.

01:30The most recent violent event is related to the kidnapping of eight government officials

01:34by four-packed dissidents who claim responsibility for the kidnapping,

01:39arguing that the officials were carrying out military tasks,

01:41while the government, through a communiquet, rejected the event and also maintained

01:46that its officials were carrying out humanitarian and social missions.

01:49This act constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law

01:57and a direct attack against the exercise of civilian functions

02:00and the protection of the victims of the armed conflict.

02:03Any attempt to justify these acts under arguments of supposed military legitimacy

02:09is categorically rejected.

02:11No cause authorizes the kidnapping or instrumentalization of public servants,

02:16much less when they perform tasks associated with the fundamental rights of the population,

02:21such as attending to victims.

02:23These acts only benefit those who seek to perpetrate the war

02:26and strengthen the drug trafficking networks in the department of Cauca.

02:35In this context, in the number 38 massacre committed in Yondó, Antioquia Department,

02:42where three people were murdered,

02:44there are present, according to the NGO Institute for Development and Peace Studies,

02:49several groups such as the National Liberation Army

02:51and the narco-paramilitar group Colón del Golfo,

02:53in addition to the Gaetanist, self-defense of Colombia.

03:00It is clear that in the middle Magdalena we also had the murder of a woman the day before,

03:05which shows that in this sub-region the armed groups are in full dispute

03:08and are also affecting people of the civilian population.

03:12Violating the principle of distinction,

03:14we call on the authorities to prevent this type of events with different capacities

03:18and manage to maintain coexistence, peace and tranquility

03:22of the civilian population of the middle Magdalena, Antioquia.

03:33While these situations are occurring,

03:35the government is seeking legal solutions for the armed groups

03:38and in the framework of the last legislative period

03:42will present a bill to subdue the armed organizations

03:45in a final push to its policy of total peace.

03:48Hernán Darío Tobar, Gaitán Telesur, Bogotá, Colombia.

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