International Criminal Court warns Colombia on paramilitaries

[Judi Lynn]

International Criminal Court warns Colombia on paramilitaries
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 10/31/2009 - 00:25. The International Criminal Court (ICC) Oct. 30 warned both the Colombian government and illegal armed groups that it will not hesitate to prosecute those who commit war crimes in the country's violent conflict. "There are many crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC, including forced displacement, disappearances, the use of child soldiers, sexual violence, torture, killings and hostage-taking," Marcelo Pollack, head of Amnesty International Colombia, told the Bogotá daily El Espectador.

According to Pollack, "although there has been progress in some emblematic human rights cases, mainly because of international pressure, most abuses remain unpunished." Now that the ICC will have jurisdiction it "must decide whether the Colombian authorities are doing enough to bring those responsible to justice." Pollack added: "In the case of abuses committed by guerrillas or paramilitary violations, impunity so far has been almost total." He said Amnesty International believes that in Colombia "there is not a sincere desire to fully uncover the perpetrators of such crimes or punish them for such acts, or of compensate their victims."

Colombia formally begins cooperation with the Criminal Court at the start of next month. "The most important thing is that from 1 November, the ICC will become a deterrent to the guerrillas, paramilitary groups still operating in Colombia, and to the Army," said Alirio Uribe Muñoz, a human rights specialist with the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective and a human rights specialist. According to Muñoz, since Colombia's refusal to ratify with the ICC in 2002, 2 million Colombians have been victims of forced displacement and there have been over 14,000 political killings. Muñoz said that the ICC may demand political responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from senior officials, including President Álvaro Uribe himself.

The ICC has no reason to investigate war crimes in Colombia as the country's courts are already doing so, said Colombia's ambassador to The Hague, Francisco Lloreda.

Colombia recently ratified full cooperation with the ICC, after putting it off for years under cover of the peace process with illegal armed groups. A controversy over Uribe's initial refusal to exempt US personnel from potential extradition to the ICC was resolved in a face-saving compromise. (Colombia Reports, El Espectador, Bogotá, El País, Cali, Oct. 30

http://www.ww4report.com/node/7880

[Peace Patriot]

1. Hm-m. This is interesting...

"Colombia recently ratified full cooperation with the ICC, after putting it off for years under cover of the peace process with illegal armed groups. A controversy over Uribe's initial refusal to exempt US personnel from potential extradition to the ICC was resolved in a face-saving compromise. (Colombia Reports, El Espectador, Bogotá, El País, Cali, Oct. 30"

What was the compromise? I recall this issue arose around the establishment of seven more US military bases in Colombia--but I don't remember for sure what the upshot was. I think it was that US military are immune. So, will US military personnel and assorted mercenaries operating under US auspices be doing the extrajudicial killings in Colombia from now on, on behalf of Colombia's fascist rulers and their big drug operations?

Even more is involved here--what I think is a Rumsfeld-designed oil war plan (Plan B for fueling the US war machine, after Iran got taken "off the table") that is still moving forward.

On the main thrust of the OP, the news report (and maybe the ICC itself) downplays who is largely responsible for death squad killings in Colombia. Amnesty International did an investigation and found that 92% of the murders of labor union leaders were committed by the Colombian military (about half) and its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads (the other half), and only 2% by the leftist guerrillas. A recent UN human rights report found that 75% of overall extrajudicial murders (union leaders and all others) were committed by the same parties--the Colombian military and its death squads.

It's sort of ridiculous to say that the Colombian government "doesn't prosecute" human rights violations by the leftist guerrillas. They just slaughter the leftist guerrillas. They generally don't bother with trials. They are very Bushwhacky in this sense.

[rabs]

2. Face saving compromise

U.S. Ambassador Brownfield and Colombian Foreign Minister Bermudez signing the deal yesterday in Bogota. Many Colombians are outraged that the deal was rammed down their throats by the uribista regime.


Read in Colombian media that the compromise was that regular U.S. military personnel will have immunity. The "contractors" will NOT have immunity. Deal calls for 800 U.S. troops and 600 "contractors," i.e. mercenaries.

But Brownfield said in an interview this week that all U.S. personnel will "have immunity but not impunity." I am still puzzling about that.

There is a 45-page opinion by the Council of State that said the Colombian Congress had to review the accord before signature. But Uribe ignored it and the deal was signed yesterday behind closed doors. The Uribistas said the new accord was merely updating the previous 10-year deal reached under the Clinton administration to fight the drug war. It has now been extended to fight the "war on terrorism."

The accord will be sent to the U.S. House of Representative' and the Senate's foreign affairs committees, so expect there will be fireworks from Dems if the pact comes up for review.

A delegation from the ICC is scheduled to arrive in Bogota tomorrow (Sunday.) It will be investigating cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that have gone unpunished the past seven years. Colombia in 2002 got a seven-year moratoriun on investigating such crimes because at the time, the Uribe government and the FARC were negotiating a peace treaty. The talks, known as the Baguan talks, later collapsed.

The ICC investigating such crimes in Colombia is a HUGE embarrassment for the uribistas because it puts Colombia in the same category as Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Darfur as states where genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes have gone unpunished. (The U.S. is not a signatory of the 2002 Rome Statue (which created the court) so is therefore immune from investigations into war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

In theory, Uribe could be hauled before the court but that seems remote, unless some of the generals, senators and paramilitaries begin to sing and implicate him in the massacres etc. This also explains why Uribe is so desperate for another four-year presidential term.

Spoke to a Colombian friend last night and asked him if the bases accord and the arrival of the ICC were somehow related. He said the possibility had not occurred to him, but that it was an interesting question to investigate with his contacts back in Colombia.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Thanks for introducing something some may not have considered,

another reason Uribe would want to keep the Presidency, again. Absolutely.

Just saw this article:

Friday, October 30, 2009
More on Reelection in Colombia
By Steven L. Taylor
Via Reuters: Colombia re-election ruling could take months:

"It could be done in January or early February, but it could take more time," said Nilson Pinilla, head of the Constitutional Court, which is reviewing the proposal.

In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Pinilla described 18-hour work days in which he and eight other judges examine more than 100,000 pages of documents related to the case.

A ruling after mid-February could make it hard for authorities to organize a referendum in time for the president to win permission to run in the May election.

This has been a remarkably slow-motion process and in which the clock may run out on Uribe even if the referendum eventually passes.

Still, one could envision a rush both in terms of holding the referendum during the March congressional elections and in terms of the congress passing legislation to allow late entries for candidacies.

"If the court rules in his favor by mid-February, the referendum will probably pass and Uribe will run and win because, in practical terms, he has been campaigning for this since he was first elected in 2002," said Mauricio Romero, political scientist at Bogota’s Javeriana University.

Indeed, there is little doubt that should he make it onto the ballot that he will win. One suspects that he would win in a landslide, in fact.

http://www.poliblogger.com/?p=17213