Rights report: Colombia’s militias guilty of same abuses committed by predecessors

Rights group urges Colombia to control militias

BOGOTA — New militias have arisen to replace Colombia’s notorious right-wing paramilitary groups and they are committing the same sorts of violence as their predecessors, a prominent international rights organization said Wednesday.

More than 31,000 fighters have been demobilized from the paramilitary coalition known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, in recent years, but dozens of newly emerged successor groups have engaged in activities ranging from mass murder to extortion, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The paramilitaries were organized by rural landowners seeking protection from leftist rebels, but they soon became a powerful, lawless drug-dealing force in much of the country. The U.S. government has declared the AUC a terrorist organization.

Government pressure led the paramilitaries to disband between 2003 and 2006.

“According to the government, the (demobilization) process was successful. However, shortly after the demobilization process, new successor groups emerged in the entire country that continued the criminal activities,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch.

The 113-page report said the new militias have attacked rights activists, unionists and community leaders who fail to follow their instructions.

Colombia’s Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said the report was unfair.

“Human Rights Watch has an ideological position that does not accept our objective information; it has misguided and slanted opinions,” Silva said.

Silva canceled a scheduled meeting with Vivanco and said he would release a detailed rebuttal later.

Government officials have acknowledged that the rise of new militias is a problem and President Alvaro Uribe has repeatedly vowed to crack down on the illegal armed groups.

Wednesday’s report, based on nearly two years of research, also suggested that some government officials and state security forces frequently ignore militia violence. Vivanco urged the government to take action to neutralize the militias.

The Colombian National Police say there are about 4,000 militiamen in the new groups in 24 of Colombia’s 32 provinces.

But local rights groups believe as many as 10,000 militiamen could belong to the groups, which are trying to expand their areas of operation despite some recent arrests.

Human Rights Watch said the emergence of the groups was predictable, largely due to the government’s failure to dismantle the paramilitary coalition’s criminal networks when it demobilized its fighters.

The rights group said that militia massacres have increased, with nearly 170 people killed in 37 mass killings in 2008 compared to the 128 victims killed a year earlier.

Some 50 warlords demobilized along with the more than 31,000 fighters between 2003 and 2006. They promised to confess to their crimes, surrender ill-gotten gains and halt illegal activities in exchange for reduced jail terms and protection from extradition.