In August this year, British Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne travelled to Bogota for the inauguration of the new Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. According to Browne, Santos offered a “fantastic package” that “boded very well for the future of Colombia”. He went on to explain how the British and Colombian governments “are on the same page on a whole range of issues” and declared: “We see things the same way”.
At the same time that he was talking, just a few miles away in southern Bogota, Luz Emilia Carreno, a respected community leader, was assassinated. Browne didn’t mention it.
Two days after Browne left Colombia, on August 12, Alvaro Montoya, a peace campaigner, was pulled from his car, forced to kneel by the side of the road and executed. Later the same day, trade union leader Luis German Restrepo was gunned down in the city of Medellin. And on August 13, three brave women – human rights activist Norma Perez, community leader Jineth Barrios, and indigenous leader Carmen Mora – were all assassinated.
Browne was silent on those killings, too, instead focusing on what he described as the “welcome commitment” to human rights expressed by the regime in Bogota.
It could be that the minister hasn’t been told about the upsurge in assassinations of civil society leaders since President Santos came to power. Maybe his officials haven’t told him that the past month alone has seen three leading members of the political opposition executed, or that the Colombian Army has recently been involved in several cases of rape, torture and murder of young children.
But his ignorance of the situation in Colombia is attracting the attention of others. The Colombian trade unions have asked why the Minister told Parliament on November 8 that only 19 trade unionists were killed between January and June this year.
The real figure, they point out, is 31. His colleague at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Henry Billingham, added fuel to the fire last week when he told Parliament that only one Colombian journalist had been killed so far this year. In fact, four have been killed.
The reality is that little has changed under Santos. Colombia remains the world leader for trade union deaths and is also the most dangerous place in which to be a human rights defender, a member of the political opposition or an indigenous or community leader. And it isn’t just murders; large numbers of government opponents continue to be thrown in jail for long periods without trial – another issue on which Foreign Office ministers have remained silent.
Colombia is in desperate need of international support, but parroting the regime’s line on human rights isn’t helpful to anyone bar those behind the abuses. The simple fact is that the violations will not end until Colombia’s 40-year-old civil war is brought to a close. And the only way to do that is for the Government and the left-wing FARC insurgency that they have been battling for so long, to sit down and start talking.
Britain, with our experiences in Northern Ireland, is uniquely placed to assist with such a peace process. And while the solution must be a Colombian one, it is unlikely to happen without the support and encouragement of the international community.
While the new Santos administration has indicated that the door isn’t closed to peace talks with the FARC, the official line in Bogota continues to be that the insurgency can be defeated on the battlefield. And though the FARC has seen several senior members killed in bombing raids in recent years, the fact is that they are quickly replaced by other experienced guerrilla commanders and the war continues.
For a peace process to succeed, the root causes of the Colombian conflict need to be tackled. As long as young men and women in poverty-stricken rural regions where educational and employment opportunities are negligible continue to have so few options available to them, many will continue to join the insurgency. And as long as peaceful efforts at reform continue to be met with such extreme violence by the state, some will inevitably opt for the armed struggle.
And the international community can, and should, play a role in confronting these challenges. Britain, rather than continuing to provide aid to the murderous Colombian security forces, could be putting those resources into anti-poverty projects.
The sooner we and our partners in the international community start condemning the systematic attacks on opponents of the Colombian regime – and the impunity that those responsible are permitted to enjoy – the sooner such attacks will end.
While the conflict in Colombia is unique, experiences in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Central America and elsewhere show that despite the difficulties, complex conflicts can be resolved. Britain, and in particular the Foreign Office, should be contributing to this search for peace, not repeating the bogus statistics and fanciful claims of an intolerant and abusive regime.
Liam Craig-Best is secretary of Justice for Colombia
