US embassy cable - 04BOGOTA2764

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 002764 
 
SIPDIS 
 
GENEVA FOR JEFF DELAURENTIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/11/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PINR, PREL, CO, UN 
SUBJECT: UNHCHR PRESENTS ITS 2003 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON 
COLOMBIA 
 
REF: BOGOTA 1748 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood for reasons 1.4 (b) 
and (d). 
 
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Summary 
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1. (U) On March 10, the Colombia office of the UN High 
Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) released its 2003 
report on the human rights situation in Colombia.  The report 
states that although the GOC has made some progress, the 
human rights situation remains critical.  It also claims that 
the GOC has failed to fully comply with a majority of the 27 
human rights recommendations published in last year's report, 
and includes 27 recommendations for 2004, 23 of which are 
carried over from 2003.  The GOC said the report did not give 
its democratic security policy enough credit for improving 
the human rights situation and did not adequately emphasize 
the gravity of the threat posed by the illegal armed groups. 
We will continue to work with the GOC, UNHCHR, and the G-24 
to help with compliance in 2004.  End Summary. 
 
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UNHCHR Releases its 2003 Human Rights Report on Colombia 
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2. (U) On March 10, the Colombia office of the UN High 
Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), under director 
Michael Fruhling, released its human rights report for 2003, 
which states that although advances have been made, the human 
rights situation in Colombia remains critical.  It notes that 
the country's three principal illegal armed groups (the FARC, 
ELN, and AUC) continued terrorizing the civilian population 
through bombings, kidnappings, the recruitment of minors, and 
the use of anti-personnel mines.  Terrorist organizations 
also disregarded international humanitarian law and ignored 
the UN's human rights recommendations. 
 
3. (U) The report acknowledged that the Government made some 
advances.  Declines in homicides, massacres, attacks on 
civilians, indiscriminate attacks, hostage taking, acts of 
terrorism, and forced displacements were noted positively and 
attributed in part to the presence of state security forces 
in all municipalities.  Still, the UN called for other state 
institutions, such as the Inspector General's Office 
(Procuraduria) and the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office 
(Defensoria), to have a similar presence throughout the 
country.  The report also acknowledged the Government's 
willingness to negotiate with illegal armed groups. 
 
4. (C) UNHCHR remains concerned about an increase in 
complaints of arbitrary or illegal detentions, forced 
disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and violations of 
the rights to due process and privacy.  The report reiterated 
concerns about:  links between paramilitaries and government 
officials, particularly by members of the military and the 
Prosecutor General's Office (Fiscalia); significant 
paramilitary influence in certain regions of the country; and 
paramilitary ceasefire violations.  It also expressed its 
concern that the proposed "conditional parole" bill would 
allow paramilitary members to escape criminal sentences.  The 
report noted an increase in complaints of torture and 
mistreatment by government authorities.  (Note: According to 
Max Furrer (strictly protect), Protection Coordinator for the 
Colombia office of the International Committee of the Red 
Cross (ICRC), the ICRC has not seen an increase in official 
mistreatment -- including torture -- of detainees in 2003. 
End note.)  The report also highlighted the critical 
circumstances of "vulnerable" populations, such as women, 
children, indigenous persons, and Afro-Colombians. 
 
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The 27 Recommendations of 2003 
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5. (U) The report acknowledged Government progress on several 
of the office's 27 human rights recommendations for 2003, but 
noted that the GOC began to implement the recommendations )- 
inconsistently -- only in the final months of 2003.  UNHCHR 
said it has had fluid dialogue with diverse GOC entities, 
&but the commitment to put these recommendations into effect 
was rejected by some of the highest officials, which limited 
satisfactory implementation of the majority of them.8  As 
noted in more detail in reftel, the GOC has fulfilled the 
recommendation on anti-personnel mines (13), achieved 
significant progress in improving the effectiveness of the 
Early Warning System (1), and made some, but not enough, 
progress in protecting human rights defenders (2), increasing 
protection for communities at risk (4), and improving the 
public security forces' compliance with international 
humanitarian law (12). 
 
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More Recommendations for 2004 
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6. (U) The High Commissioner proposed another set of 
recommendations for 2004, again grouped under six headings: 
prevention and protection; the internal armed conflict; the 
rule of law and impunity; economic and social policies; the 
promotion of a culture of respect for human rights; and 
technical cooperation and advice from his office.  Nineteen 
recommendations are directed exclusively at the Colombian 
state (including Congress and the independent Prosecutor 
General's Office), four to illegal armed groups, and four to 
the GOC, civil society, and illegal armed groups jointly. 
Twenty-three recommendations are carryovers -- some slightly 
revised -- from the 2003 list.  The four new recommendations 
are: 1) the High Commissioner urges all those directly 
involved in the internal armed conflict to observe the 
humanitarian principles of limitation, distinction, and 
proportionality; 2) the High Commissioner exhorts the 
Prosecutor General to safeguard and respect the independence 
of prosecutors in the performance of all their duties and 
guarantee that detentions and searches are supported by 
sufficient evidence; c) the High Commissioner calls on the 
Office of the Inspector General and the Office of the Human 
Rights Ombudsman to promote and instill respect for 
procedural guarantees for those deprived of liberty whose 
legal situation has not been defined; and d) the High 
Commissioner recommends that the Government and organizations 
of human rights defenders develop and institutionalize stable 
communication channels, at both national and regional levels. 
 
 
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GOC Response 
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7. (U) Carlos Franco, director of the Presidential Program 
for Human Rights, responded to the UN's report for the GOC. 
He said the report failed to give the GOC enough credit for 
human rights progress achieved as a result of President 
Uribe's democratic security policy.  Franco added that the 
report did not sufficiently emphasize the threat posed by 
illegal armed groups, which at present makes it practically 
impossible for the state to fully "guarantee" civilians' 
human rights.  Franco reacted favorably to the report's plea 
for regular interaction between the GOC and UNHCHR, and was 
pleased with the report's acknowledgment of declines in 
various categories of human rights violations and the GOC's 
willingness to dialogue with illegal armed groups.  He 
concluded by stating that the GOC believes that strengthening 
democratic security throughout the country is the best 
guarantee of human rights and that the GOC will continue to 
work on implementing UNHCHR's 27 human rights recommendations. 
 
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Comment 
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8. (C) Comment:  The UN's report was as expected.  Although 
Fruhling noted some progress by the GOC, he continued to 
insist on a strict interpretation of what the GOC must do to 
comply with various recommendations.  For example, despite 
the fact that many representatives of the international 
community disagreed, Fruhling maintained that the GOC did not 
satisfy a recommendation regarding human rights training 
because the training was not conducted specifically by the 
Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman. (Note: For 2004, the 
reference to the Ombudsman's Office as the only entity 
capable of carrying out the training has been removed.  End 
note.)  Among the 23 recommendations carried over to 2004 are 
three with which the GOC has repeatedly stated it disagrees, 
namely, an independent review of military intelligence files 
(although the requirement of a published report has been 
removed), a request not to implement the anti-terrorist 
statute, and the immediate suspension, in advance of 
investigations, of military personnel accused of human rights 
violations.  End comment. 
WOOD