Acknowledgements

This report is based on field research in and around Bogot and Cartagena in July and August 2004 and September 2005, with additional research from New York and Bogot by Michael Bochenek, Jhon Bermdez, Haidy Duque, and Mara Eugenia Ramrez.Michael Bochenek is counsel to the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.Jhon Bermdez is executive director of Fundacin Dos Mundos.Haidy Duque is executive director of Taller de Vida.Mara Eugenia Ramrez is a consultant on human rights issues.Former Human Rights Watch associate Ximena Casas and Barbara Sartori, and Katherine Zeisel, all former interns with Human Rights Watch, provided additional research assistance.

Michael Bochenek wrote the report.Lois Whitman, executive director of the Children's Rights Division; Marianne Mllmann, researcher with the Women's Rights Division; Wilder Tayler, Human Rights Watch's legal and policy director; and Ian Gorvin, of Human Rights Watch's program office, edited the report.Ophelia Field, acting refugee program director of Human Rights Watch; Bill Frelick, refugee program director of Human Rights Watch; Maria McFarland, Colombia researcher for the Americas Division; and Joanne Mariner, deputy director of the Americas Division, also reviewed and commented on the manuscript.

We are grateful to the nongovernmental organizations and individuals who assisted us in the course of our field research, among them Matthew Alexander; Alexis Alisa, Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas, Cartagena; the Asociacin de Madres Comunitarias de Cartagena y Bolvar; Jon Balcom; Dr. Mara Cristina Caldern, Patricia Ospina, Ndia Melo, and Elsa Garca, Asociacin Probienestar de la Familia Colombiana (Profamilia) in Bogot and the staff of Profamilia in Cartagena; Amalia Eraso; FEDES; the Liga de Mujeres con la Paz y la Libertad, Cartagena; Mdicos sin Fronteras Espaa; Marta Skretteberg, Norwegian Refugee Council; the Red de Empoderamiento de Cartagena y Bolvar; Harvey Surez, Codhes; and the numerous teachers we spoke with in Cartagena, Cazuc, Ciudad Bolvar, and Usme.

We would also like to express our appreciation to officials with the Attention and Orientation Unit in Soacha, the Defensora del Pueblo, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Organization for Migration, the Ministry of Social Protection, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Procuradora General de la Repblica; the Red de Solidaridad Social, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and those with other governmental and intergovernmental agencies who asked not to be named.

Finally, we would like to thank the children and parents we interviewed.All names of children have been changed to protect their privacy.

Human Rights Watch gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Malcolm Hewitt Foundation, the Independence Foundation, the Oak Foundation, and the community of people who support Human Rights Watch's work to defend children.

Human Rights Watch Reports on Colombia

Smoke and Mirrors:Colombia's Demobilization of Paramilitary Groups, 2005

http://hrw.org/reports/2005/colombia0805/

You'll Learn Not to Cry:Child Combatants in Colombia, 2003

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/colombia0903/

A Wrong Turn:The Record of the Colombian Attorney General's Office, 2002

http://hrw.org/reports/2002/colombia/

The "Sixth Division":Military-Paramilitary Ties and U.S. Policy in Colombia, 2001

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/colombia/

Beyond Negotiation:International Humanitarian Law and Its Application to the Conduct of the FARC-EP

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/farc/

The Ties That Bind:Colombia and Military-Paramilitary Links, 2000

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/colombia/

War Without Quarter:Colombia and International Humanitarian Law, 1998

http://www.hrw.org/reports98/colombia/

Colombia's Killer Networks:The Military-Paramilitary Partnership and the United States, 1996

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/killertoc.htm

Generation Under Fire:Children and Violence in Colombia, 1994

State of War:Political Violence and Counterinsurgency in Colombia, 1993

Political Murder and Reform in Colombia:The Violence Continues, 1992

The "Drug War" in Colombia, 1990

The Killings in Colombia, 1989

Human Rights in Colombia as President Barco Begins, 1986

The Central-Americanization of Colombia?Human Rights and the Peace Process, 1986

The "MAS" Case in Colombia:Taking on the Death Squads, 1983

Human Rights in the Two Colombias:Functioning Democracy, Militarized Society, 1982

Human Rights Watch Reports on Forcible Internal Displacement

Coming Home:Return and Reintegration in Angola, 2005

http://hrw.org/reports/2005/angola0305/

"Still Critical":Prospects in 2005 for Internally Displaced Kurds in Turkey, 2005

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/turkey0305/

"If We Return, We Will Be Killed": Consolidation of Ethnic Cleansing in Darfur, Sudan, 2004

http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/darfur1104/

Claims in Conflict:Reversing Ethnic Cleansing in Northern Iraq, 2004

http://hrw.org/reports/2004/iraq0804/

Spreading Dispair:Russian Abuses in Ingushetia, 2003

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/russia0903/

Struggling Through Peace:Return and Resettlement in Angola, 2003

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/angola0803/

Abducted and Abused:Renewed Conflict in Northern Uganda, 2003

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/uganda0703/

Into Harm's Way:Forcible Return of Displaced People to Chechnya, 2003

http://hrw.org/reports/2003/russia0103/

Displaced and Disregarded:Turkey's Failing Village Return Program, 2002

http://hrw.org/reports/2002/turkey/

Bosnia:Unfinished Business:The Return of Refugees and Displaced Persons to Bijeljina, 2000

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/bosnia/

War Without Quarter: Colombia and International Humanitarian Law, 1998

http://www.hrw.org/reports98/colombia/

Liberia:Emerging from the Destruction, 1997

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/liberia/

Failing the Internally Displaced:The UNDP Displaced Persons Program in Kenya, 1997

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/kenya2/