US embassy cable - 05BOGOTA3523

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 003523 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR WHA, WHA/AND; NSC FOR BARTON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/14/2015 
TAGS: PHUM, CO 
SUBJECT: EUROPEAN EMBASSIES UNHAPPY WITH CHR CHAIR 
STATEMENT ON COLOMBIA 
 
REF: BOGOTA 2650 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) 
 
1. (C) Dutch Ambassador Frans B.A.M. van Haren told 
Ambassador on April 13 that he and other European chiefs of 
mission in Bogota were unhappy with the chair statement on 
Colombia, currently being negotiated between Luxembourg and 
Colombia at the CHR.  van Haren, who serves as EU president 
here in the absence of a diplomatic mission from Luxembourg, 
said EU reps thought the initial draft was too tough and sent 
three pages of suggestions to Brussels to balance it out. 
However, director of the office of the High Commissioner for 
Human Rights in Colombia Michael Fruhling arrived in Brussels 
to attend the COLAT meeting where he made a "persuasive 
pitch" for a tough statement in Geneva.  So far, according to 
van Haren, Luxembourg has refused to take any of the changes 
from Bogota-based EU missions and Brussels is inclined to 
support the Luxembourg/Fruhling approach.  van Haren asked 
that we make USDel aware of this situation and to monitor 
negotiations closely. 
 
2. (C) Ambassador responded that, with High Commissioner for 
Human Rights Louise Arbour scheduled to arrive in Bogota on 
May 11, the chair statement needed to reflect all our 
concerns and had come out right.  If the text came out wrong, 
her visit would also.  He urged van Haren to inform his own 
delegation in Geneva of the situation and ensure they and 
other EU missions in Geneva had the right instructions, using 
two key benchmarks: the EU statement on Colombia released in 
early December and the G-24's Cartagena Declaration of 
February 3, to which the entire EU signed on. 
 
3. (C) Comment:  van Haren said he and his EU colleagues were 
moving to a "war footing" against Michael Fruhling.  He hopes 
to secure an EU consensus that Fruhling needs to move on to 
another assignment before Arbour's arrival in Bogota.  The 
Canadian also expressed frustration with Fruhling to polcouns 
on April 14 over his public criticism of the GOC 
demobilization law which passed the first committees of the 
house and senate on April 12.  Ambassador Jean-Marc Duvall 
said it was inappropriate for Fruhling to be commenting in 
this fashion and had reported this to Ottawa.  Embassy agrees 
with the Brazilian Ambassador that Fruhling acts more like a 
professor administering a pass/fail test than someone 
attempting to constructively improve human rights here. 
WOOD