Amnesty International - Report - AMR 23/48/97
October 1997
Colombia

'Just What Do We Have to Do to Stay Alive?' Colombia's Internally Displaced: Dispossessed and Exiled in Their Own Land

Armed opposition groups

"The guerrilla gives you five days to get out while the paramilitary are ordering 'Get out, get out now!' But in the end it's the same, you have to go..."

In May 1996 members of the FARC stopped a bus in the village of Osorio, near Batatá, Urabá, killed the conductor and one passenger and then burned the bus. Shortly afterwards, they brought together the peasant farmers living in the area and told them that they planned to launch an action against the army and paramilitary forces and that they needed to "empty" the region. The rumour of threats by the guerrillas spread around the region like wildfire and triggered the flight of some 2,000 peasants to the town
of Batatá. These were among the lucky ones; they were able to return to their homes some weeks later. However, they continue to live with constant uncertainty over their future.

The clearing of areas of civilians in preparation for military attacks is not the only cause of displacement by guerrilla forces. Civilians accused of collaborating with the armed forces or their paramilitary auxiliaries are frequently told to leave the area or face death. In many cases such threats are followed up by killing those who have failed or been unable to leave. Families also flee their homes to avoid the forced conscription of their children, male and female, by guerrilla organizations, a common practice in
areas controlled by guerrilla forces who demand a "volunteer", some as young as 13, from each family with more than one child. The recruitment of children under 15 is a clear violation of international humanitarian law. Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions, to which Colombia is a party, prohibits both government and armed opposition groups from conscripting children under the age of 15 into their armed forces or permitting them to participate in hostilities.

Other guerrilla attacks against civilian communities have been in apparent reprisal for the community's perceived support for and collaboration with paramilitary forces. In May 1996, 16 people were killed in the villages of Pueblo Bello and Alto de Mulatos, municipality of Turbo in Urabá, during an attack by the FARC. Victims were dragged out of their beds, bound and then hacked to death with machetes or shot dead; their houses were set alight. The victims were reportedly relatives of members of the ACCU
who had been relocated to Pueblo Bello and Alto de Mulatos following the displacement of the original residents after repeated paramilitary attacks which left scores of villagers dead and "disappeared". Many of the surviving villagers fled following the attack. One who remained told a journalist from the newspaper El Colombiano:

"They all left. Some went to Montería, others to Apartadó. Some went to Cartagena, Dabeiba and Medellín. I'm the only one left, with my family... The guerrillas came in May and said we had to go. They didn't explain why. Of course one understands: a week earlier they had arrived at the village and opened fire. It was a big fire fight. They killed seven, almost all paramilitary...I was also injured. A fragment of a bullet which hit the counter is stuck in my body. But I'm still here... This was a good village. Everyone always partying, drinking rum. We used to produce everything here: maize, rice, loads! But with this guerrilla attack and then the warning everyone grabbed what they had and left...The town was and is controlled by the paramilitary. That's why the guerrillas attacked".

Guerrilla forces have also taken reprisal action against civilians who have been forced, under threat of death, to collaborate with the military in counter-insurgency actions. One woman explained:

"The reason I left was that the guerrillas took over my son's house in November [1995] and spent the day there. At 5pm the army arrived at my son's house and took the boy away... They took him to the jungle and mountains. They returned at night. Then the army told us to get out. They said 'You have to leave because the guerrillas will be out to get you'. All the villagers left, no-one stayed. Four young chicks was all we could take. The rest was left behind. We left a horse and two mules."

Two months later her husband returned to harvest the crops. He was killed by the FARC in reprisal because his son had acted as an army guide during a search for the guerrillas. "He died for my son, because as they couldn't find my son, it was my husband who had to pay"