CRISIS IN COLOMBIA
DIARY OF A HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATION
JANUARY 23, LARANDIA:
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The Colombian army shows visiting human rights groups a "human rights lane."
Photo © Chuck Call
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We spoke to the Colombian second-in-command of the counternarcotics battalions and one of the U.S. Special Forces trainers. The training is specific, presentable, and probably expensively designed in Washington and Fort Bragg. The army has even set up a "human rights lane," where soldiers act out human rights scenarios for visiting journalists and human rights workers to show that they are applying these rules with respect.
Yet throughout this entire trip, we gained the clear impression that a lot of the supposed respect for human rights - by all sides - is little more than role playing. The facts on the ground are quite different. There, the roles appear all too fixed, and devastating. The role of anyone with a gun is to shoot, and those without - the civilians - pony up the dead.
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