Statement of Robin Kirk, researcher, Human Rights Watch

Statement of Robin Kirk, researcher, Human Rights Watch
Statement of Robin Kirk

Researcher, Human Rights Watch

Given before the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related

Programs of the United States Senate Appropriations Committee

192 Dirksen Senate Office Building

February 24, 2000

Chairman McConnell, Senator Leahy, Members of the Subcommittee:

Thank you for inviting me to convey to the Subcommittee our concerns about the human rights implications of U.S. security assistance to Colombia.

I would like to thank the Subcommittee for taking the time to examine in detail the proposed aid package to the Andean countries and specifically Colombia.

No one disagrees that Colombia faces a difficult challenge. A decades-long war and entrenched drug trafficking have exacted a high toll. Human Rights Watch has fully documented the abusive behavior of Colombia's guerrillas, who kill, kidnap, and extort money from the population they claim to represent.

At the same time, however, forces from within the state itself threaten democracy. Paramilitary groups operating with the acquiescence or open support of the military account for most political violence in Colombia today. Yet Colombia's military leaders have yet to take the firm, clear steps necessary to purge human rights abusers from their ranks.

This is not history, but today's reality. Human Rights Watch has detailed, abundant, and compelling evidence of continuing ties between the Colombian Army and paramilitary groups responsible for gross human rights violations, which we have submitted to this Subcommittee. Our information implicates Colombian Army brigades operating in Colombia's three largest cities, including the capital, Bogotá.

Together, evidence collected so far by Human Rights Watch links half of Colombia's eighteen brigade-level army units to paramilitary activity. In other words, military support for paramilitaries remains national in scope and includes areas where units receiving or scheduled to receive U.S. military aid operate.

For that reason, it is crucial for the Congress to place strict conditions on all security assistance to Colombia to ensure that the Colombian Government severs links, at all levels, between the Colombian military and paramilitary groups and prosecutes in civilian courts those who violate human rights or support or work with paramilitaries.

I have submitted for the record additional recommendations for actions that Human Rights Watch believes the U.S. should require the Colombian Government to take before receiving security assistance.

The 28th of February marks the two-year anniversary of the murder of Jesús Valle, a courageous human rights defender gunned down in his Medellín office precisely because he worked to document links between paramilitaries and the Colombian Army. The gunmen paid to kill him are in prison. But the individuals who planned and paid for his murder remain at large.

Even the government's own investigators are under threat. Dozens of prosecutors who have worked on these cases have been forced to flee Colombia because of death threats. In 1998 and 1999, several investigators who worked for the Attorney General were murdered because of their work on human rights-related cases.

The United States has a positive message to send Colombia and should respond to President Pastrana's call for help. But I urge the members of this Subcommittee to recognize that continued collusion between Colombia's military and paramilitary groups will only undermine the effectiveness of the aid you send and sabotage efforts to rebuild democracy.

Thank you. I would be pleased to answer any questions.

As of March 13, 2000, this document is also available at http://www.senate.gov/~appropriations/fops/testimony/KIRK.htm