Porque en Colombia la tortura sí existe

by Brandy Bauer

This past summer, I had the pleasure of participating in a human rights delegation to Colombia under the auspices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. For two weeks, our group of eight visited many persons working to improve human rights, from UN representatives to youth activists to lawyers to village elders. The subject of torture came up frequently; many of those we spoke with were themselves victims.

For example, in the peace community of San José de Apartadó (pictured), we met a man on crutches. A few weeks earlier he had being walking between villages, where he helps to coordinate work assignments, when the military accosted him. For two hours they held the man, beating him up and breaking his bones in an attempt to extract a false confession that he was a member of a guerrilla group. Not long after, we met one of the heads of the military unit assigned to that area. As expected, the man denied any wrongdoing on the part of his soldiers and tried to convince us that he was a good guy, showing off pictures of his family and plying us with juice and bizcocho as he emphasised the problems his men had in dealing with the guerrillas.

For years, many persons (especially those working on behalf of the Colombian state) have tried to simplify the human rights equation in Colombia (state = good, guerrillas = bad). But recent figures released by the Colombian Coalition against Torture point to a more complex picture: whilst torture decreased overall in the country during the past decade, the number of cases of torture directly attributable to the Colombian armed forces rose by 80% between 2003-2008.

What’s even more problematic is the form this torture often takes – a not-so-subtle campaign of fear and threats to a person’s physical well-being and toward their families. At greatest risk are those who criticise the government in any way or work on behalf of human rights or peace. “People cannot relax in this situation,” said a staff member of the IRCT member centre in Bogotá, Corporación AVRE, when describing how these threats are met with indifference by the authorities and the torturers go unpunished.

This past 26 June (the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture) Corporación AVRE, as a partner in the Colombian Coalition Against Torture, initiated a year-long petition to increase attention regarding the crime of torture in Colombia. The petition urges Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to recognise that torture is a crime against humanity, and to take improved measures to prevent, investigate and prosecute torture. It also urges the President to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture.

One of the key messages I learned from the delegation was the power that international monitoring and collective voices have in improving human rights at the local level. If you want to become part of the chorus demanding an end to torture in Colombia, go to AVRE’s website today and send in your petition.

 Originally posted at http://togetheragainsttorture.org/blog/?p=104