Murders over land threaten peace efforts in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Murders over land threaten peace efforts in Colombia
Victims of militia abuses unprotected

By FRANK BAJAK
The Associated Press
February 04. 2007 10:00AM

She was a plainspoken but determined woman, those who knew her said, seeking justice for hundreds of fellow peasants whose lands were stolen by right-wing militias during a more than decade-long reign of terror in Colombia.

But the contract-style slaying of Yolanda Izquierdo, 43, this week outside her home in Monteria, capital of the northwestern state of Cordoba, raises doubts about whether the government can meet its promises to restore pilfered land to Colombia's tens of thousands of dispossessed.

Izquierdo was just one of a dozen people seeking compensation for paramilitary crimes who have been murdered in the past month in the state, said Rodrigo Ogaza, head of the Committee of Relatives of Victims of Violence in Cordoba.

The fear is palpable, but those seeking reparations won't be intimidated, he said.

"We're pressing on with our heads high because what we're doing is legal - and ought to be protected by the state," Ogaza said.

Under the pact that disbanded Colombia's brutal right-wing militias, paramilitary leaders were supposed to confess to their crimes, which include scores of massacres, and surrender vast tracts of land they stole in return for relatively lenient prison sentences.
(snip/...)

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070204/REPOSITORY/702040388/1013/48HOURS

[Judi Lynn]

1. Murders undermine credibility of paramilitary demobilization

Source: Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Date: 01 Feb 2007
Murders undermine credibility of paramilitary demobilization

(Washington, DC, February 1, 2007) – The murders of two advocates for victims of paramilitary abuses are a major blow to the credibility of Colombia’s paramilitary demobilization process, Human Rights Watch said today.

Yolanda Izquierdo, leader of the People’s Housing Organization (Organización Popular de Vivienda) in the department of Cordoba, was assassinated on January 31 after receiving repeated death threats. Izquierdo had represented hundreds of victims at the demobilization hearing of paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso. Another victims’ representative from Cordoba, Freddy Abel Espitia, was assassinated on January 29. And two weeks ago in the department of Bolivar, the Turbaco office of the League of Displaced Women (Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas) was set afire.

“These murders are clearly intended to intimidate victims and witnesses and prevent them telling the truth about paramilitary abuses,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Victims will find it harder than ever to trust the safeguards set up by the government to facilitate their participation in the demobilization process.”
(snip/...)

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6Y53MA?OpenDocument

[Judi Lynn]

2. Murders Threaten Colombian Peace Process

Murders Threaten Colombian Peace Process

By FRANK BAJAK
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 3, 2007; 5:03 PM



Yolanda Izquierdo is seen in this undated file photo in Monteria, Colombia. Izquierdo, who headed an organization of dispossessed peasants seeking to regain ranches in the Cordoba state, the heartland of the paramilitaries, was killed by unidentified gunmen Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007. (AP Photo/ El Meridiano) (AP)

BOGOTA, Colombia -- She was a plainspoken but determined woman, those who knew her said, seeking justice for hundreds of fellow peasants whose lands were stolen by right-wing militias during a more than decade-long reign of terror.

But the contract-style slaying of Yolanda Izquierdo, 43, this week outside her home in Monteria, capital of the northwestern state of Cordoba, raises doubts about whether the government can meet its promises to restore pilfered land to Colombia's tens of thousands of dispossessed.

Izquierdo was just one of a dozen people seeking compensation for paramilitary crimes who have been murdered in the past month in the state, said Rodrigo Ogaza, head of the Committee of Relatives of Victims of Violence in Cordoba.

The fear is palpable, but those seeking reparations won't be intimidated, he said.

"We're pressing on with our heads high because what we're doing is legal _ and ought to be protected by the state," Ogaza said.
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/03/AR2007020301014.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Oil expansion threatens Colombia's indigenous

Oil expansion threatens Colombia's indigenous
Posted: February 05, 2007
by: Bill Weinberg / Indian Country Today

U'wa territory again targeted in atmosphere of 'ecocide and ethnocide'

NEW YORK - Colombia's U'wa indigenous people, in the forested mountains overlooking the oil-rich and war-torn eastern plains, are facing reversal in a hard-won land rights victory over the state oil company. The move comes just as the company is to be partially privatized to fund a new thrust of expansion. Meanwhile, despite a supposed ''demobilization'' of the right-wing paramilitaries, illegal gunmen continue to threaten Indians and campesinos organizing to defend their lands from oil development.

The U'wa victory came in May 2002, when Occidental Petroleum Corp. announced at its annual shareholder meeting in Los Angeles that it was quitting its oil exploration bloc in the high cloud forest region. The company cited economic reasons for the move, including a negative result from its first exploratory drill. However, the announcement came after 10 years of effort by the U'wa people and their international supporters to halt the oil development. At least two U'wa had been killed when their blockades of access roads to the drill sites were broken by the army.

But the victory may now prove temporary. On Dec. 15, 2006, Colombia's Interior Ministry cleared the way for the Colombian state oil company, Ecopetrol, to begin new explorations in the same territory - this time on behalf of the Spanish firm Repsol. The ministry stated in its decision that the U'wa had refused to participate in consultation meetings it had organized to discuss the question.

In response to the announcement, Luis Tegria, president of the Assembly of the U'wa Indigenous Community, said that the question of oil development was not negotiable and pledged that his people will defend their ancestral lands. He also protested that the ministry's decision was made public before the U'wa were officially notified.

Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe is George Bush's closest ally in South America. His government has received more than $3 billion in U.S. aid since he took office in 2002. With populist governments backed by indigenous movements coming to power across South America, Uribe is the regional pillar of Bush's hemispheric war on terrorism and drugs, as well as his free trade agenda.
(snip/...)

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414449