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

VICTIMS OF INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT

Women

"All I want is that they tell me if my husband is alive or dead, that they take me to him. Five children and I am a woman alone. I would be so grateful if they would just tell me if he is alive or dead..."

Tens of thousands of peasant women, many of them recently widowed, have been forced to flee their rural homes with their children, abandon their livestock and possessions, and take precarious refuge in shanty towns surrounding towns and cities. There, they, but particularly their children, may be preyed upon by urban "death squads" or forced into a life of crime or prostitution in order to survive.

Although women are generally not directly involved in the hostilities, they are the most affected by the trauma of displacement. The 1994 report of the Colombian Episcopal Conference showed that 58 per cent of the displaced are women. The majority are heads of families and have fled rural zones affected by the armed conflict.

"On 28 May 1995 at 4 am in the morning, we were woken by loud banging on the door. They shouted for us to open and I did. There was a group of armed men, like paramilitaries. Terrified, my five children and I threw ourselves to the floor. They wanted my husband and when they found him they tied him up and took him out. I threw myself on him. I wanted to protect him and I begged the men to please not kill him. They responded by beating me in front of the children. They beat my husband and then took him away. I went to the police to ask for him, but they said it was the paramilitary. I went to the military base and talked to an army captain. I asked him to help me look for my kidnapped husband. The captain said he knew nothing about it but asked me if I wanted him to arrange for me to talk to the commander of the
paramilitary base nearby.

"I talked to them and told them my husband had nothing to do with the guerrillas, that we had been married 20 years, and that he was a good man not mixed up in anything. Later on, a young paramilitary, the son of a family friend, told me he had seen my husband: 'The paramilitary took your husband for revenge. He was pressured into collaborating.' With my five children I moved to Montería where we are staying with another displaced family from our village. After nearly four months here I still don't know anything of my husband. Is he still alive?"

One of the many thousands of women who have fled their homes and farms in search of safety for themselves and their families.

A study produced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 1996 showed that some 245,000 women had been displaced from their rural homes in the preceding 10 years. In 39,000 cases the women's husbands or one of their sons had been killed. In his 1994 report, the UN Secretary General's Representative for Internally Displaced Persons stated: "Women in their role as mothers have been particularly affected by the violence and the adverse socio-economic situation in the areas of reception. The situation of a large number of widows was one of particular concern to the Representative".

One woman, displaced from her home in the Urabá region of Antioquia department, said:

"I came to this neighbourhood because on 19 November [1994] some men dressed in uniforms like the army wear came to our small holding. They asked my husband questions, then they beat him, tied him up and took him away. My daughter was crying desperately and screaming for them not to kill her father. It's just as well only she and I and the baby were at home and that the other children didn't have to see it...The next day I found him dead, in a spot about three hours' walk from our home."

Another women forced to flee her home said:

"They told me I couldn't stay in the house, that I should leave where I lived. They told me: 'You must leave here' and I believed they were going to set fire to the house so I told them: 'My children are inside in the room' and they said 'No, you can't stay here. You no longer live here'. So I had to gather up my rags and go to a neighbour's house".

The displaced have to start from scratch in their places of refuge, having lost their homes, possessions, livelihood and, in many cases, the main breadwinner. A displaced woman is confronted by a social and cultural vacuum; she faces not only a loss of security but also of identity. Her land, house, community, friendships, family and traditional role in relation to her community and family are gone. In terms of her personal and social identity, displacement to urban centres can produce acute stress and mental
dislocation. Pressure on displaced people often leads to break-downs in relationships; many men leave the families, leaving the women to assume a new role as head of the family.

"The process of displacement begins with the repression. They start to accuse and threaten you...There were constant incursions in the area where we lived. Little by little the families started leaving as the pressure on the population increased. We don't know what happened to those who stayed behind... There are many differences in our lives...In the country, we did not have to worry about work, we all worked on the farm and had everything. The men worked the land and the women helped them. We did the work in the house, looked after the children and we helped with the men's work; we also looked after the animals. The truth is that things were not too bad. If we needed something, we could sell or kill
an animal. There was always enough to survive. Here it's different. You need money for everything; work is really difficult to get and the men can't find any. The women can't go out to work - they have to look after the children. They are stuck in the house and if they have to go out to work sometimes, they have to leave the house, leave the children. [But] one of the advantages of being here is that you feel calmer, you don't feel so persecuted."

Children

Some 75 per cent of internally displaced people are under 25 years old; several thousand are heads of families because of the death of one or both parents. A young boy described the raid in 1995 on his home in Urabá by armed men identifying themselves as army personnel which left him orphaned and homeless:

"They grabbed me and threw me on the floor. Papi also. Then they made us stand up and tied us up. I told them that this was my Papi and they shouldn't harm him or me because there were lots of young children and if they killed my Papi, I would be left to care for them alone. They told me I should go home and I started out for the house immediately. They killed Papi soon after."

Along with its emotional impact, displacement often breaks up the nuclear family and cuts off important social and cultural community ties. It not only deprives people of a means of supporting their families, but also severely restricts educational opportunities for the children and access to health care. Four children died in a two week period in May 1997 in the Pavarandó Grande camp in Urabá where more than 4,000 people were concentrated in unhygienic conditions. A statement issued by the Consejero Presidencial para los desplazados, Presidential Adviser for the Internally Displaced, said that according to medical
reports "in all the cases the children arrived from their places of origin in a state of chronic malnutrition. Immediate attention was necessary but the families decided to treat the children...according to their beliefs, traditions and culture....this prevented them from receiving prompt attention from the health team in the camps".

Indigenous communities -- caught in the crossfire

A wave of killings of members of the Zenú Indigenous community of El Volao, near Necoclí, in Urabá, Antioquia department, culminated in the killing of the community's leader, José Elias Suárez, in March 1995. This led to the exodus of the almost the entire community of 700 people from their lands. José Elias Suárez was taken from his home by EPL guerrillas, tied to a nearby tree and hacked to death with machete blows.

The death of José Elias Suárez was the latest in a long line of killings of members of the community since a paramilitary offensive to "reclaim" Urabá from guerrilla organizations was launched by the ACCU in 1994. A characteristic of the conflict in Urabá, as elsewhere in the country, is that clashes between armed groups are extremely rare. In the majority of cases paramilitary forces and the guerrillas have directed their attacks against sections of the civilian population believed to support rival armed groups. Both the ACCU and the EPL accused the Zenú community in El Volao of collaborating with their enemies and proceeded to assassinate several members of the community. The El Volao community protested that it had no political allegiance to any party in the conflict and explained that it was impossible for the community to deny food and passage through their lands to armed groups who demanded such assistance.

"The Zenú communities are hard pressed, because the armed forces, paramilitary and guerrillas treat us as informants... They are ignorant of indigenous policy and of our customs of which violence is not a part; simply, what we want is that they allow us to live, that they allow us to die of old age... It is the guerrillas who are harassing us most. We are victims of all the groups".

Rather than dispersing quietly to other indigenous settlements, the Zenú of El Volao marched to the town of Necoclí and demanded action from the authorities. This was one of the rare occasions where the safe return of a displaced community was successfully negotiated. After weeks camped in a park in Necoclí, the Zenú received assurances from the government and the parties to the conflict for their safe return to El Volao and recognition of their neutrality. In a letter sent to the Zenú in August 1995, Francisco Caraballo, commander of the EPL, said:

"The Popular Liberation Army undertakes to unconditionally respect and help the voluntary decision of the uprooted people belonging to this area to return to their lands which are their properties or places of work. This decision is based on the indeclinable position of the EPL to respect the life and the dignity of the people".

For their part the ACCU command said:

"We want to inform the natives of the community of El Volao that we are pleased they want to return to their lands. We guarantee to respect them and allow them to live in peace."

The long-term future of the Zenú community in Urabá, however, is far from certain. The ACCU are establishing territorial control in all areas around the community, surrounding and isolating the indigenous community in an area controlled by paramilitary forces. Although the region of Urabá is heavily militarized -- three army brigades are stationed in the area -- little or no action is taken by the armed and security forces to protect the civilian population or to combat the paramilitary and armed opposition groups.
Indeed, consistent reports have been received that the regular armed forces have not only tolerated paramilitary activity in the region but have, on numerous occasions, directly supported them and have co-operated in joint actions.

In May 1996 the Organización Indigena de Antioquia (OIA) Regional Indigenous Organization of Antioquia, issued a statement on behalf of the Embera, Zenúes, Tules and Chamies communities living in Antioquia department:

"We the Embera, the Zenúes, the Tules and the Chamies, 16,000 indigenous people who live in 25 municipalities, including all those in Urabá and some in the west of the department, under siege from a wave of violence and death only comparable to that suffered by our ancestors during the Spanish conquest, and under pressure from the different armed groups that pass through our territories, occupy our homes and demand that we take part supporting one or the other of
the groups in conflict, have no choice but to declare ... the neutrality of the indigenous communities in the armed conflict and of the different parties to the conflict. This means that we do not accept the recruitment by any armed forces -- whether guerrillas, self-defence [paramilitary] groups or the army. It means we will not act as informants for any of the
combatants, that we will not act as guides, or porters, or guards."

The statement went on to urge the parties to the conflict to declare a cease-fire and open talks to end the conflict. This declaration
of neutrality did not, however, protect the indigenous communities in Urabá from further human rights violations; during the last
three months of 1996 at least 15 indigenous people were killed by the ACCU.

Indigenous communities have been displaced by the armed conflict throughout Colombia. In March 1996 the Consejo
Regional Indigena de Tolima (CRIT), Regional Indigenous Council of Tolima, publicly criticized the displacement of several
indigenous families following the murder of their leaders, military harassment, paramilitary actions and guerrilla attacks. According
to the CRIT, some 100 people abandoned the community of Vuelta del Rio, Ortega municipality, and fled to the regional capital,
Ibagué. In May 1996 more than 2,000 indigenous people from 20 communities around the towns of Nutibara and Murri in the
municipality of Frontino, Antioquia, fled a paramilitary onslaught in the area.