Human Rights Watch strongly condemned the January 28 kidnaping of four human rights defenders in the city of Medellín, Antioquia, and called for their immediate, safe release.
"This is the first time in our experience in Colombia that human rights defenders have been kidnaped in such a brutal and open manner," said Jos?Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch. "Colombia continues to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world for human rights defenders." Vivanco added that last year alone, five human rights defenders were murdered in Colombia.
Over a year ago, the Colombian government authorized one million dollars to be spent on an emergency fund meant to protect human rights defenders from attack. Nevertheless, until now, little or nothing has been done to protect the offices of human rights groups despite the urgency expressed by national and international monitors.
The employees are Jairo Bedoya, the director of the IPC; Claudia Tamayo, planning and development coordinator; Jorge Salazar, human rights investigator; and Olga Rodas, office manager.
According to information received by Human Rights Watch, a group of well-armed individuals in Chevrolet Luv pick up trucks blocked off the IPC offices at about 4 p.m. yesterday. Five of them -- one woman and four men -- entered the offices and seized the approximately 25 people gathered there. Although the armed group identified itself initially as members of a guerrilla-linked militia, they later said that they were paramilitaries and that they would “not permit the growth of Communism?in the IPC. In the past, Colombia’s paramilitary groups, which often work with the tacit or open support of Colombia’s military, have accused human rights groups of supporting leftist insurgents.
After asking for the directors of the IPC, the group selected four individuals and bound their hands before taking them away. The group also took two portable computers and the identity cards of nine of the other men present.
"When I spoke to President Pastrana in the presidential palace last October, I told him of my deep concern for the absence of government action to protect human rights defenders," said Vivanco. "Today, I ask myself: How many more defenders have to suffer before the authorities take the necessary measures to protect them?"
Human Rights Watch urgently called on Colombian authorities to adopt the necessary measures to bring about the safe release of these four human rights defenders. The organization also stressed to the forces currently holding them that these individuals are not combatants in Colombia’s armed conflict and therefore are explicitly protected by the laws of war.
For More Information:
In Washington, D.C.: Robin Kirk, 1-202-371-6592, ext. 117
