Another early rise for a 5am departure. This time we are not going by bus but in a convoy of jeeps with bodyguard protection to the mountain region of Sumapaz not very far from Bogota but because of the terrain a three-hour journey is in front of us. Our police escort do not accompany us - it is too dangerous as there is an outside chance of guerrilla activity in the region and policemen would undoubtedly be targeted. We are accompanied though by the Mayor of Sumapaz, Magnolia AGUDEL.
The journey is an uncomfortable one, made enjoyable by the incredible scenery and vegetation. We encounter two military roadblocks who question our driver intensely. We had previously been advised not to engage with these soldiers and to say and do nothing that might be construed in the wrong way. Higher and higher we climb into the mountain ranges where the signs of rural Colombian life are all around us. We climbed through the clouds and eventually reached a height of some twelve thousand feet. We stop at the town of San Juan for our meeting with the locals.
There are around three thousand people living in the sparsely populated region. Many of them had come a long way, dressed in their traditional cowboy hats, ponchos and knee-length boots to tell us their tales. There is a British-trained unit of the Colombian army (this is where British Military aid is being spent) - the High Mountain Battalion - in the region and it is accused of a series of human rights abuses. We are given a breakfast of omelette, bread and coffee and commence our meeting.
The Mayor opened by thanking us for our visit, introduced community and trade unionist representatives and gave us some background on the region. The hall we were meeting in was a recent community project, which provided not only a meeting place for the people but an entertainment venue (its modern brick construction was in stark contrast to the other buildings around what was no more than a tiny village but yet the main town of the region). Sumapaz, she told us, was renowned for its organisation of its communities and had a long history of struggle and resistance against imposed change to their way of life. Because of its resistance the community had been stigmatised and the arrival of the army in the 90´s had transformed their way of life and was the precursor to the removal of farmers from their land and the building of a huge dam and reservoir, which we had seen on the way up.
There were now three soldiers to every civilian in the region and their activities of harassment and intimidation on the population was placing huge barriers in the path of their traditional way of life. The communities fear that the government strategy is to clear them from their land by attrition either to facilitate further expansion of the reservoir or to to allow multi-national companies onto their very fertile land for the purpose of growing bio-diversity crops. Despite this the political will of the community had not been broken and had borne results. One hundred percent of the children were being educated and the community supported peaceful dialogue to end the conflict. We were asked to do what we could to stop the government stigmatising their communities and their way of life.
We then heard from various community representatives. From families of victims of abuse and murder, from the President of the area’s agriculture workers union, from union members themselves, from the President of the organising committee and from a youth leader who very poignantly spoke of the intimidation that young people were facing from the army. As is my way in these blogs I’ll relate just one.
A father told us that in March 2005 his two sons aged 23 and 21 had gone into the mountains with a 23 year old friend to bring the cattle down. The three young men had left on a Friday and were expected back the following Friday, a regular occurrence in their way of life. They were loaded with provisions and a small hunting knife, which they needed to undertake their tasks.
When the three lads failed to return the following Friday the parents were not unduly concerned as this was not unusual. When they failed to show on the Saturday, however, they began to worry. When they heard reports about three guerrillas being shot and killed in the mountains their fears multiplied. Contact with army assured them that it was not their sons. When the lads still did not arrive home further contact was made with the army who this time confirmed that it was the three boys. The army said that they had been killed in combat with the counter-insurgency unit of the High Mountain Battalion, the British-trained unit.
It took three days for the bodies to be returned to the families. One had 12 bullet wounds, one had 11 and the other had 9. All the bodies had broken bones in the legs and arms and were severely bruised. One of the boys had had his testicles cut off.
When the army was asked to explain they said that the three lads were killed in combat, that they could not explain the other injuries and as to the cut off testicles, a dog must have done that. The perpetrators of this act have faced no form of justice, indeed one has been promoted.
The families contend, not unnaturally, that the three young men were tortured before being shot.
We heard from the heart-broken mother of the other lad. Not only was he her son, he was the father of two young children one of whom was just a few months old. She said her beautiful and tranquil place had changed in the 90´s with the arrival of the army. Since then there had been no peace only frequent harassment and arrest for the local people. She tearfully pleaded with us to show our solidarity with her and demand justice not for herself but so that no other mother would have to go through what she had gone through. It was hard to hold back tears.
We trailed back down the route we had earlier taken, some warmth seeping back into our bodies, but with heavier hearts. At one of the army checkpoints we were ordered out of our jeep and the soldiers started to bodysearch us. I don’t know if they discovered that the first one they searched was a member of the European Parliament but they let the rest of us off.
We arrived back two hours behind schedule and as a result were an hour late for our meeting with the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. I can’t report in detail what was said but we did discuss the Justice and Peace laws, extra-judicial executions, the use of torture, the upcoming October elections and the re-emergence of para-military groups.
In the evening we had dinner with representatives of various NGOs and Human Rights organisations followed by bed and a well-earned sleep at ten o’clock.
