Military

DATE=04/13/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= COLOMBIA / UN (L)

NUMBER=2-315002(CQ)

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

/// Re-running w/change from "personal" to "personnel"

INTRO: The U-N's Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights has criticized the Colombian government for undermining the rule of law, and condemned the ongoing violence and killings by Colombia's rebel and paramilitary groups. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports.

TEXT: In his report to the Human Rights Commission, the U-N's top human rights official, Bertrand Ramcharan, presents a grim assessment of the internal armed conflict. He says both guerrilla groups, the FARC-EP and ELN, and the paramilitary groups, continue to kill civilians, take hostages, force people out of their homes, recruit child soldiers and use anti-personnel mines.

Mr. Ramcharan accuses the rebel groups of terrorizing the civilian population through indiscriminate acts of violence, including the kidnapping of civilians and killing of hostages.

///RAMCHARAN ACT///

Paramilitary groups, notwithstanding their alleged commitment to maintain a cease-fire assumed by certain groups, continued to commit massacres and killings of persons who had earlier been deprived of their liberty, tortured and 'disappeared', with the sole aim of terrorizing the civilian population. Our office also received some cases of alleged breaches of international humanitarian law and violations of human rights on the part of members of the armed forces and the police.

///END ACT///

The Acting High Commissioner also has some harsh criticism for the Colombian government which, he says, has failed to uphold the rule of law. He says the armed forces and police, and paramilitary groups more often than not go unpunished for their crimes.

He says anti-terrorist legislation infringes on the human rights of individuals, giving the armed forces judicial police powers, including the ability to arrest and search people without a warrant.

///2ND RAMCHARAN ACT///

Our office in Colombia continued to receive credible allegations of human rights violations, which point to the direct responsibility of public servants, in particular the armed forces and police, and, on various occasions, acting in concert with prosecutors. An increase in the number of allegations was received regarding extra-judicial executions, forced disappearances, torture or degrading treatment, arbitrary or illegal detention, violations of due process and the right to intimacy.

///END ACT///

Mr. Ramcharan has submitted to the commission the same recommendations he had made last year, saying only a few have been implemented. His recommendations call on Colombia to observe international humanitarian laws and respect for human rights. (Signed)

NEB/LS/MAR/MEM/KBK