US embassy cable - 05BOGOTA9087

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 009087 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/31/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, SOCI, CO, Demobilization, Hostages 
SUBJECT: NATIONAL RECONCILIATION COMMISSION GETS UNDERWAY 
 
REF: BOGOTA 8550 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood; reasons 1.4 
(b) and (d) 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
1. (U) Colombia's Justice and Peace (J&P) Law, created to 
process demobilizing illegal armed fighters and compensate 
victims, directed the GOC to create an institution to manage 
the National Reconciliation and Reparations Fund.  Vice 
President Francisco Santos structured the National 
Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (CNRR) with 
representatives from government and civil society to address 
four issues: reparations, reconciliation, institutional 
strengthening, and administrative support.  CNRR will meet 
regularly over the next eight years.  So far, the GOC has 
selected the five members from civil society: Eduardo Pizarro 
Leongomez, Ana Teresa Bernal Montanez, Jaime Jaramillo 
Panesso, Patricia Buritica Cepedes, and Nel Beltran.  Two 
representatives from victims' groups will be selected by 
September 26.  End summary. 
 
2. (U) According to Article 52 of the J&P Law, the CNRR is 
responsible for (1) guaranteeing victims participation in the 
judicial process; (2) ensuring follow-up and verification of 
reintegration and reparations; (3) submitting a report on 
victims' reparation progress; (4) recommending criteria for 
victim compensation; (5) promoting national reconciliation; 
and (6) overseeing regional offices.  It will operate for a 
period of eight years. 
 
3. (C) A representative from the Vice President's Office 
estimated that the group would require at least USD 1.4 
million over the next seven months for administrative costs 
and an additional USD 652,000 for the Reparations Fund. 
These are conservative figures that the GOC has already 
budgeted to cover CNRR expenses.  The Vice President's Office 
is trying to attract private sector financial support for 
CNRR.  Five main trade associations have expressed a 
willingness to contribute. 
 
------------------- 
Who is Represented? 
------------------- 
 
4. (U) Representatives from the Vice Presidency, Prosecutor 
General's Office (Fiscalia), Ministry of Interior and 
Justice, Ministry of Finance, Human Rights Ombudsman's 
Office, and Social Solidarity Network will form part of the 
Commission.  In addition, President Uribe has chosen five 
civil society members: Eduardo Pizarro Leongomez, Jaime 
Jaramillo Panesso, Bishop Nel Beltran, Ana Teresa Bernal, and 
Patricia Buritica.  He will also select two representatives 
from victims' groups by September 26. 
 
-------------------- 
Others Named to CNRR 
-------------------- 
 
5. (S) Eduardo Pizarro Leongomez, CNNR President: 
 
-- Pizarro is an academic expert on conflict.  He has 
extensively researched insurgent groups and violence in 
Colombia and called the conflict a "chronic insurgency."  In 
1987, Pizarro was one of the members of the Colombian 
National Commission on Violence, which published its report 
"Colombia, Violence and Democracy."  According to Semana 
magazine, Uribe recently offered Pizarro the Colombian 
Ambassadorship to Canada. 
 
-- Pizarro's brother Carlos was a leader of the M-19 
guerrilla movement killed in 1990 after demobilizing and 
becoming a presidential candidate.  His other brother 
Hernando was a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of 
Colombia (FARC) guerrillas' dissident movement "Ricardo 
Franco" and involved in the murder of 164 fellow members 
suspected of being infiltrators.  He was assassinated in 
1995.  Eduardo Pizarro was reportedly interrogated and 
tortured by Army intelligence in January 1979 following the 
M-19's theft of weapons from an Army arsenal in Bogota. 
 
-- Pizarro has written books and articles published 
domestically and abroad analyzing Colombia's conflict and 
democracy in the Andes.  He has an undergraduate degree from 
the University of Paris and a postgraduate degree from the 
Colombian Institute for Advance Studies for Development and 
is working towards a doctorate from the University of Paris. 
He has been a visiting professor at Columbia, Princeton and 
Notre Dame in the United States, Tubingen University in 
Germany and at the University of Paris. 
 
6. (C) Ana Teresa Bernal Montanez: 
 
-- Bernal is the director of Colombia's National Network of 
Citizen Initiatives Against War (REDEPAZ), an organization 
advocating peaceful solutions to the national conflict for 
over twelve years.  Bernal also directed the 1997 "Mandate 
for Peace," a non-binding referendum in which almost 10 
million Colombians voted in favor of a ceasefire with 
insurgent groups, respect for human rights, and a negotiated 
solution to the conflict.  The Pastrana Administration 
showcased the initiative and began talks with the FARC in 
1998.  Bernal won national recognition in 1997 for her role 
in laying the groundwork for negotiations with the ELN in 
Germany. 
 
-- REDEPAZ sponsors an annual Peace Week to gather civil 
society and government actors together to discuss peaceful 
solutions to Colombia's conflict.  Bernal has been an 
outspoken supporter of peace communities and encouraged other 
areas to make a commitment to peace.  She has stated publicly 
in the past that Plan Colombia would destroy the peace 
process and has criticized Uribe's more militaristic approach 
to resolving the conflict.  In her acceptance letter for the 
position on the CNRR commission, Bernal stressed that she 
would prioritize victims' rights in her work. 
 
-- Bernal was forced to leave Colombia after receiving death 
threats in 1999 and spent three months in the United States. 
She joined a leftist movement as a teenager but decided that 
violence would not resolve Colombia's problems.  She is the 
mother of two, both adults, and is 47 years old. 
 
7. (C) Jaime Jaramillo Panesso: 
 
-- Jaramillo is the director of the Antioquia Peace 
Facilitating Commission and a well-published political 
analyst.  He has written on the peace process and advocated 
both the paramilitary negotiations and 2004's discussions 
with the ELN mediated by Mexico. 
 
-- Jaramillo is cited on several paramilitary websites for 
questioning Carlos Gaviria's bid for reelection; for 
criticizing the ex-presidents' Ernesto Samper and Alfonso 
Lopez Michelsen insistence on a "humanitarian exchange"; and 
for warning the FARC against entering areas abandoned by the 
paramilitaries.  Jaramillo also agreed with Uribe's 
assumption of emergency powers in August 2002 in response to 
the FARC's attack on the Casa de Narino (president's 
building). 
 
8. (C) Patricia Buritica Cespedes: 
 
-- Buritica is the Director of the Women for Peace Initiative 
(IMP), a Bogota-based NGO that she helped found in 2002 in 
response to the perception that women's concerns were not 
being addressed by the GOC's approach to the peace process. 
IMP's goal is to include women, particularly victims of the 
conflict, "at the negotiating table" on the issues of 
demobilization and peace.  While IMP is generally supportive 
of the demobilization process, it is critical of the Peace 
and Justice Law for its failure to provide justice and 
reparations to the victims of the conflict.  In particular, 
IMP faults the law for failure to provide to the families of 
person killed or "disappeared" by armed groups full accounts 
of what happened.  IMP sponsors a project to collect 
testimony from women and children affected by the conflict. 
 
-- Buritica has been a well known advocate for organized 
labor since she was a student.  For the last 14 years, she 
has been a member of the National Executive Committee of 
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), the largest, and 
politically moderate, labor federation in Colombia.  She is 
credited with incorporating gender issues into the CUT's 
platform and for organizing a women's labor movement within 
the framework of CUT. 
 
-- While Buritica has written articles (published on labor 
websites) critical of Plan Colombia and the IMF, she is a 
staunch advocate of strong democratic institutions as 
necessary for peace.  Buritica is one of the group of one 
thousand women nominated in January for the 2005 Nobel Peace 
Prize.  She is the mother of two children, speaks English 
fluently, and has visited the United States. 
 
9. (C) Bishop Nel Beltran: 
 
-- Beltran is the Bishop for Sucre Department and oversees 
all congregations in the "Montes de Maria" area of Northern 
Colombia.  In June, one Colombian Navy commander estimated 
that Beltran's area had roughly 1,000 insurgents.  Beltran 
has worked to bring international attention to the plight of 
displaced Colombians and paramilitary massacres that 
terrorized citizens for almost eight years.  In 2001, Beltran 
wrote several editorials demanding that the Pastrana 
Administration either secure a peace with the FARC or take 
away the demilitarized "despeje."  He claimed that the GOC's 
actions were giving the FARC an edge and weakening the 
government's ability to help citizens. 
 
-- In June 2005 during a United Nations visit to the area, 
Bishop Nel Beltran hosted meetings with victims and NGOs in 
his residence.  He told the delegation that the illegal armed 
groups had shifted from conducting massacres to carrying out 
individual assassinations targeted against the military or a 
rival terrorist group.  Beltran opined that the illegal 
groups avoided direct clashes with rival groups and focused 
their aggression on the local population.  In a private 
meeting, he told the group that AUC Commander Salvatore 
Mancuso had saved his life by advising him against 
criticizing narcotrafficking in the region.  Beltran said the 
Catholic Church was allowed to criticize illegal armed groups 
in general, but raising the drug trade in Sucre could prove 
fatal. 
WOOD