UN EXPERT VOICES CONCERN OVER MURDERS COMMITTED BY COLOMBIAN SECURITY FORCES

An independent United Nations human rights expert today warned that although guerrilla groups in Colombia commit a significant number of murders, more concerning are the so-called 'false positive' slayings performed by Government forces.

The killings involve luring innocent victims under false pretences to a remote location, and the murdered bodies are often photographed wearing guerrilla uniforms and holding a gun or grenade to appear as if the individual was legitimately killed in combat.

"Victims are often buried anonymously in communal graves, and the killers are rewarded for the results they have achieved in the fight against the guerrillas," Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said in a statement issued at the end of a 10-day fact-finding mission.

Mr. Alston said that the term 'false positive' provides a "sort of technical aura to describe a practice which is better characterized as cold-blooded, premeditated murder of innocent civilians for profit."

In addition, he said that the focus on the most publicized 'false positive' case last year in Soacha, a suburb of Bogotá, encourages the view that the killings are limited to a geographic area and to a period in time. "But while the Soacha killings were undeniably blatant and obscene, my investigations show that they were but the tip of the iceberg."

Through interviews with witnesses and survivors who described very similar killings in several districts of Colombia, Mr. Alston determined that a significant number of military units were involved in killings.

"The 'dangerous guerrillas' who were killed include boys of 16 and 17, a young man with a mental age of nine, a devoted family man with two in-laws in active military service, and a young soldier home on leave," said Mr. Alston, disputing some claims that the killings were legitimate.

The military's systematic harassment of the survivors is part of a common pattern, said the Special Rapporteur. "A woman from Soacha described how, in 2008, one of her sons disappeared and was reported killed in combat two days later."

He said that when another of her sons became active in pursuing the case, he received a series of threats and was shot dead earlier this year. Since then, the mother has also received death threats.

Mr. Alston is encouraged by the steps take by the Government since last year aimed at stopping and addressing the killings, including disciplinary sanctions, better cooperation with the UN and other international organizations, more oversight of payments to informers, and requiring deaths in combat to be investigated first by judicial police and modifying award criteria.

There remains a worrying gap between the good faith effort on behalf of the Government and the reality on the ground, said Mr. Alston, with the number of successful prosecutions remaining very low and a serious lack of resources to implement the measures.

In addition, in some areas "military judges ignore the rulings of the Constitutional Court and do all in their power to thwart the transfer of clear human rights cases to the ordinary justice system." He said that the "transfer of information is delayed or obstructed, wherever possible jurisdictional clashes are set up, and delaying tactics are standard."

The delays, often of months or years, devalue the testimony and the evidence is jeopardized, but the "the good news is that there has been a significant reduction in recorded allegations of extrajudicial executions by the military over the last six to nine months."

Mr. Alston added that despite the significant steps taken to reduce paramilitary violence, killings by groups that include formerly demobilized paramilitaries "continue at a disturbingly high rate across the country."

He also highlighted the intimidation, killing and false accusations of being – or being close to – guerrillas or terrorists made against human rights defenders in the South American country.

The expert – who, like all UN Special Rapporteurs, reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council in an unpaid, independent capacity – is expected to recommend a number of reforms, including the removal of all forms of incentives to members of the military for killing, when he presents his report in four or five months time.
________________

URGENT INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY NEEDED IN SRI LANKA, SAY UN RIGHTS EXPERTS

URGENT INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY NEEDED IN SRI LANKA, SAY UN RIGHTS EXPERTS
New York, May 8 2009 11:00AM
A group of independent United Nations experts today called on the Human Rights Council to urgently set up an international inquiry to address the "critical" situation in Sri Lanka amid fighting between the army and Tamil rebels.

"There is an urgent need to establish an international commission of inquiry to document the events of recent months and to monitor ongoing developments," the experts dealing with summary executions, right to health, right to food and water and sanitation said in a joint statement issued in Geneva.

Philip Alston, Anand Grover, Olivier De Schutter and Catarina de Albuquerque said the current humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka gives cause for deep concern, not only in terms of the number of civilians who have been and continue to be killed, but because of a dramatic lack of transparency and accountability.

"There is good reason to believe that thousands of
civilians have been killed in the past three months alone, and yet the Sri Lankan Government has yet to account for the casualties, or to provide access to the war zone for journalists and humanitarian monitors of any type," said Mr. Alston, the UN expert on summary executions.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says over 196,000 people have fled the conflict zone, a shrinking pocket of land on the north-east coastline, where clashes continue between Government troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), while at least 50,000 people are still trapped there.

The experts stressed that "continuing catastrophic situation of civilians" in Sri Lanka trapped in the midst of the fighting, in an area measuring less than 10 square kilometres, must be immediately addressed.

"These civilians do not have sufficient access to food, essential medical supplies or services and safe water and sanitation. Even if they do escape death or injury at the ha
nds of the hostile parties, their continued presence in this area without access to these basic rights is an effective death sentence," declared the experts.

They said shipments of food and medicine to the so-called 'no-fire zone' have been "grossly insufficient" over the past month and the Government has reportedly delayed or denied timely shipment of life saving medicines as well as chlorine tablets.

The experts noted that as a result of the "blackout on independent information sources," it is impossible to verify any of the Government's claims as to the number of casualties to date or as to the steps that it says it is taking in order to minimize the further killing of innocent civilians, and ensure aid delivery.

"When people manage to escape, they reportedly continue to face scant supplies, entirely insufficient access to adequate medical treatment and severely overcrowded hospitals, providing no relief to the horrors they had been living," said Mr. Grover, the UN expert on t
he right to health.

Mr. De Schutter, the UN expert on the right to food, added that access to food has also been hampered by arduous and lengthy registration procedures for the internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Meanwhile, Ms. de Albuquerque, the UN expert on water and sanitation, voiced concern about "water shortages reported at Omanthai and at most of the transit sites as well as inadequate sanitation facilities, which put the health and lives of the population at further risk."

The group called on the Sri Lankan Government to provide "convincing evidence" to the international community that it is respecting its obligations under human rights and international humanitarian law.

They added that it is clear that the LTTE, for its part, has acted in "flagrant violation" of the applicable norms by preventing civilians from leaving the conflict area and having reportedly shot and killed those trying to flee.

________________