CPTnet
 15 June 2007
COLOMBIA: Security forces persecute the Awa people

At the request of the Council of Awa Elders of Ricaurte (CAMAWARI), whom CPT
has been accompanying, we are relaying this public denunciation against the
National Police and the district attorney. The Awa people are aboriginal
peoples who are perhaps suffering the impact of the armed conflict most.
They require immediate attention from the national and international
community to ensure that the Colombian state fulfills its duties to them
under the national constitution and legislation.

*****

>From the Association of Traditional Authorities of the Awa -- CAMAWARI
Organization

We are hereby informing organizations concerned with human rights and
international humanitarian law of the persecution of the indigenous
communities of CAMAWARI by the National Police and the District Attorney's
office.

Communique 2

30 May 2007

CAMAWARI hereby informs the Colombian state and the national and
international community of the aggressions recently committed by the
National Police operating in the municipality of Ricaurte and the sector of
Ospina Perez against the organization CAMAWARI and members of the Palpi
indigenous community.

On the 24th of May, members of the National Police filmed and photographed
the office in Ricaurte from a [truck] parked in front of the building. At
no time did the police inform CAMAWARI of their actions, but instead acted
suspiciously, leaving their windows half-closed, with only the video and
still cameras visible.

On May 25, in the community of Palpis, members of the National Police
operating in Ospina Perez verbally attacked CELIO PAI, member of the
Governing Council of Palbi Gualtal, and representative of the Awa indigenous
communities on the health authority board, accusing him of being a guerrilla
and intimidating him by shooting into the air when he refused to accompany
them.

On May 26th, the National Police from Ospina Perez detained ten governors in
the community of Palpis. The police immediately called the District
Attorney's office, and officials shortly arrived in a yellow civilian
vehicle. They asked for identity documents from the governors, took their
fingerprints and photographs, and filmed them, transferring all this
information to laptop computers that they carried.

In recent days, members of state security forces have been circulating in
civilian vehicles, which causes uncertainty in the indigenous community (and
violates international humanitarian law.)

Since the municipality of Ricaurte has a heavy presence of different armed
actors, we are concerned by these actions of the security forces. In the
past people have been detained and months later assassinated in unclear
circumstances. A concrete case is the massacre of Altaquer, perpetrated on
August 9, 2006.

We condemn these actions by the National Police and the District Attorney's
office, just as we have in the past condemned violations committed by the
insurgency. As a matter of policy, CAMAWARI does not agree with the armed
conflict taking place on indigenous territory, which has caused the deaths
of many in the indigenous community, and currently has displaced eighty
families who cannot go back to their reserves because of the armed
confrontation.

AWA INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES, COUNCIL OF AWA ELDERS OF RICAURTE, CAMAWARI,
DEPARTMENT OF NARI