CPTnet
June 28, 2003
COLOMBIA: Letter from community in response to death threat on June 22, 2004
CPT's Colombia team accompanies communities along the Opón River in
northeastern Colombia that are pressured by armed groups operating in their
area. Guerrilla forces from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -
People's Army (FARC-EP) often obligate peasants to bring them food and other
supplies. Paramilitary groups of the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia
(AUC) also threaten the civilian population.
CPT Colombia laments the violence brought by both of these opposing groups.
Below is an open letter written by the community after a paramilitary
incursion on June 15 (described below, also see June 20 release, "They're
going to kill my Daddy.) Residents told CPT that if the team had not
arrived at that moment, the paramilitaries would have killed the man that
day.
Community of Caño Ñeques, Municipality of Barrancabermeja, Santander,
Colombia.
To: Development and Peace Program of the Middle Magdelena River Region
Christian Peacemaker Teams
People's Defender [Government ombudsman that investigates human
rights abuses]
Regional Human Rights Defense Agency
Municipal Ombudsman's office
Solidarity Network
Other interested persons
Because of the events that occurred recently in our region, we, the civilian
population, denounce the violence perpetrated against us and call upon human
rights organizations and the responsible government authorities to come to
our community and address our concerns. We are tired of threats, pressure,
verbal abuse, and in some cases losses and deaths of people from our
community. As we assert our insistence on respect for our status as
civilians, we need your support, which will give us more strength
to continue with our process. Right now, we are accompanied by God and the
CPT team.
Here is our account from June 15, 200:
In the morning, upriver from our community, we heard a shootout at about
8am. Later, at about 1pm, a group of paramilitaries arrived. They had a
guerrilla fighter with them, apparently captured in the shootout because he
was injured, who directly pointed out a man from our community as a
guerrilla collaborator. The paramilitaries were threatening the farmer and
preparing to kill him when the CPT team arrived. CPTers had been monitoring
the paramilitaries from a distance, but when they heard the shouts and cries
of the marked man's daughters and others in the house, they ran and stood
between the man and the paramilitaries, trying to find out what was
happening. So the paramilitaries left the farmer alone, after hurling
immoral insults at him. Then they continued down the path, following the
route of the river, and supposedly arrived at a guerrilla camp.
We heard another shootout. We later learned from the CPT team, which was
very attentive to our community, that a motor canoe picked up the
paramilitaries at the edge of our community, taking along the captured
guerrilla. A member of our community told the CPT team this information.
We are more afraid now than before the farmer was threatened, which puts us
all under death threat. With all the conflict that has happened lately, we
have hope in God and the CPT team, which has worked arduously for us. But
again, we reiterate, when the CPT team is not in the region, what will
happen?
We are waiting for your presence as soon as possible, before a massacre
occurs, and not after lamentable events occur.
Signed by forty-four residents of Los Ñeques, including eight minors.
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