Documento - Colombia: Los paramilitares amenazan una organización de mujeres
UA: 29/10 Index: AMR 23/004/2010 Colombia Date: 04 February 2010
URGENT ACTION
PARAMILITARIES THREATEN WOMEN'S ORGANIZATION
A Colombian paramilitary group has threatened to kill the members of a women's human rights organization. The threat declares them a military target and says there is a plan to kill them all.
The Bogotá-based women's human rights organization Corporación Sisma Mujerreceived an e-mail death threat on 27 January, from the paramilitary group Central Bloc of the Black Eagles Truth and Death (Bloque Central de las Aguilas Negras Verdad y Muerte). The threat was also addressed to other human rights organizations, mainly those working with people forced to flee their homes by the internal armed conflict.
The email read: "…We continue to declare as military targets and [sic] elimination plan against those guerrilla leaders who hide behind the facade of NGOs and organizations of displaced people and those who help you under the banner of the human rights paradigm and who hinder the government’s policies"(… Continuamos declarandolos objetivo militar y [sic] plan de eliminación contra los líderes guerrilleros que se cubren el rostro con la fachada de ONG y Organizaciones de desplazados y quines les ayudan bajo el paradigma de defensores de derechos humanos y quienes obstaculizan la politica del gobierno)
The email included specific threats for a list of more than 30 people, most of whom work with communities forced out by the armed conflict. Some of them had already been threatened in a paramilitary e-mail death threat sent on 29 October 2009. On 17 November, Corporación Sisma Mujer issued a press release condemning the threats.
PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Spanish or your own language:
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Expressing concern for the safety of the members of Corporación Sisma Mujer, named in an email death threat received on 27 January, and urging the authorities to provide them with effective protection, in strict accordance with their wishes;
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Calling on the authorities to order a full and impartial investigation into the threats, publish the results and bring those responsible to justice;
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Reminding them to adhere to their obligations regarding the situation of human rights defenders, as laid out in the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders;
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Urging them to take immediate action to dismantle paramilitary groups, in line with stated government commitments and recommendations made by the UN and other intergovernmental organizations.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 18 MARCH 2010 TO:
President
Señor Presidente Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Presidente de la República, Palacio de Nariño, Carrera 8 No.7-26,
Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: +57 1 337 5890
Salutation: Dear President Uribe/
Excmo. Sr. Presidente Uribe
Acting Attorney General
Dr. Guillermo Mendoza Diago
Fiscal General de la Nación (e)
Diagonal 22B (Av. Luis Carlos Galán No. 52-01) Bloque C
Piso 4, Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: +57 1 414 9108
Salutation: Dear Attorney General/
Estimado Sr. Fiscal General
And copies to:
Sr. Diego Andrés Molano Aponte
Senior Government Advisor, Director of the Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Cooperation
Edificio Principal Calle 7 No. 6-54
Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: +57 1 596 0800 (ask "me da tono de fax, por favor")
Salutation: Dear Director/
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
URGENT ACTION
PARAMILITARIES THREATEN WOMEN'S ORGANIZATION
ADditional Information
The women's rights NGO Corporación SISMA Mujer has been working for more than a decade to support and empower women in Colombia, including those working with communities driven from their homes by the internal armed conflict. There are between three and four million such people in Colombia, which has one of the highest populations of this kind in the world.
In September 2009 Corporación Sisma Mujer provided support for women working with communities driven from their homes, who were negotiating with government representatives to organize a national meeting of such women. The meeting took place, between 8 and 10 October.
On 29 October some organizations involved in this process received a paramilitary death threat from the Black Eagles (Aguilas Negras).
During Colombia’s 40-year armed conflict, members of human rights organizations, trade unions and other social organizations have often been labelled as guerrilla collaborators or supporters by the security forces and paramilitaries. As a result they are often killed, threatened or subjected to enforced disappearance. Guerrilla groups have also threatened or killed human rights defenders they consider to be siding with the enemy.
UA: 29/10 Index: AMR 23/004/2010 Issue Date: 04 February 2010
