Justice for Colombia
Justice for Colombia (JFC) is the
TUC-backed coalition of 40 national trade unions (including Unite)
that supports the Colombian people and trade union movement in
their struggle for peace with social justice. Numerous union
regions, branches and trades councils, along with a number of NGOs,
academics and MPs, are also affiliated to JFC.
Colombia is overwhelmingly the most dangerous
place in the world to be a trade unionist. Thousands have been
killed in recent years by the Colombian army and their allies in
the paramilitary death squads. JFC campaigns to ensure that United
Nations human rights recommendations are implemented and
International Labour Organisation rules are adhered to. JFC
regularly takes delegations to Colombia and arranges visits by
Colombians to the UK.
Meeting the women in hell - Unite visits
Colombia and meets women living in prison hell, guilty of being
union members
Colombia is the most dangerous place in the
world to be a woman trade unionist. In the past year it has
become even more so, with a dramatic increase in the number of
abuses committed against women. Those responsible for the vast
majority of the attacks are paramilitary death squads that work
with the Colombian military.
Since the rightwing president, Alvaro Uribe
Velez, took power in August 2002 there has been a 600 per cent
increase in human rights violations perpetrated against women trade
unionists and 68 female trade unionists have been
assassinated. The facts speak for themselves. Last year 70
trade unionists were killed, 260 received death threats and three
have disappeared.
Many of those targeted were also tortured and
mutilated by the paramilitaries. Some of the women were killed in
front of their children. In other cases the paramilitaries
threatened the children in an effort to force their mothers to
abandon their union activities.
Women are targeted for a number of reasons –
to sow terror within communities, to force people to flee their
homes and to dissuade others from getting involved in trade
unions.
To make matters even worse, the army are
increasingly using sexual violence against women. According to
Amnesty International rape and sexual mutilation are frequently
used by the security forces and their paramilitary allies as part
of their terror tactics.
Colombia’s prisons currently hold
approximately 320 female political prisoners. Many of them
are trade unionists.
The conditions in Colombia’s jails are dire
and inhumane. There is inadequate medical care, over-crowding,
insufficient sanitation facilities, and prisoners are denied access
to educational and reading materials.
Some prisoners (we currently know of 28
cases) have had their infants imprisoned alongside them. These
children are not recognized by the prison authorities as separate
inmates, so mothers are forced to share the already scarce food
rations with their children, leading to malnutrition and other
health problems.
Justice for Colombia and Unite through
its charity has launched a project to help these women and their
children. The project has two elements – the first will go directly
to the prisoners themselves, for humanitarian aid (nappies,
powdered baby-milk, clothes, reading materials, blankets, etc)
including paying for visits to the prison of a doctor and then
covering the expense of medications.
The second will go towards engaging
specialist trade union and human rights lawyers to take on cases
and get these people released.
Patio talk
Against this background, Unite national
organiser, Sally Kosky went on an escorted visit with Justice for
Colombia reps to a Colombian women’s prison.
“They allowed us directly into the ‘patio’ –
the block for political prisoners,” Sally reports.
“The woman who initially acted as leader for
the group of prisoners I sat with was a teacher and union member.
They created a false case against her and she has been in prison
for nine months accused of rebellion. She knows that there is no
evidence against her but there has been no progress on her
case.
“Many of the prisoners have been here for
four years without trial and 70 per cent on this patio have not
been convicted. There are nearly 80 prisoners and most are
accused of rebellion – all are accused of crimes they have not
committed.
"Half of the women are here simply because
they live in areas where paramilitaries operate and control.
They told us of whole communities being arrested. They told
us of massacres where those that are left alive are arrested and
put in prison.
“They told of Uribe’s policy to pays
informers. Ex-guerrillas and paramilitaries are encouraged to
inform on five other people, accuse them of being guerrillas
(without any evidence) and then to have impunity from arrest
themselves.
“The poor sell themselves to the state with
false information but the authorities don’t care as Uribe has to
produce ‘results’ to show the Pentagon how his policy of fighting
the terrorists is working. He can say that they have arrested and
imprisoned x number of guerrillas when in fact they are innocent
people, and Uribe will continue to receive the US military
aid.
“Over 40 per cent of the women here are heads
of household are many are denied visits from their children as they
cannot afford to travel to see them. Some women haven’t seen their
children in for five years.
“We were told that torture, both physical and
psychological, was a regular feature, particularly in the period
between arrest and being put in prison and included ripping out
finger nails, semi-drownings and being beaten. They believe there
is a lot of drug abuse among the armed forces and many seem crazy
on drugs when carrying out these crimes.
“One woman said she had a bag put over her
head to asphyxiate her until she passed out, they then revived her
and repeated the process five times until she confessed to
something she hadn’t done.
“Torture is commonplace and if you do get to
trial and you say you confessed under torture the authorities say
that’s what all the guerrillas say, therefore you must be a
guerrilla.
“We heard from another woman who had been
beaten and tortured when she had been locked up for five days with
no legal help. She hid the scars over her back from the beatings
from the authorities and demanded medical help. If they knew she
had injuries that could be seen they wouldn’t allow her to see a
doctor. Prisoners are forced to sign that they are treated
well.
“There were so many tragic personal
testimonies that the women gave. It seems a place where no-one can
be trusted. A woman was taken from her home by police after being
informed on by a 16 year old boy who had been living in her house.
This, once very poor young man, is now known to be studying at
university – having been paid for informing.
“Being informed on after personal dispute,
especially after a fall-out between lovers is commonplace. There
were two women who had six-year sentences after their lovers had
informed on them.”
If you’d like more information on details on
how you can help, please contact the International Department on
020 7420 8969
What you can do
1) Write a letter of protest to the Colombian
President expressing concern over the way political prisoners are
being treated -
Draft
letter to Colombian President
2) Affiliate to Justice for Colombia to
assist the work they undertake to support the Colombian people and
trade union movement -
Affliation
to JfC
Unite and Justice for Columbia
Colombia holds the sad record of being the country in the
world where the most men and women have been murdered for their
engagement in trade union activities. 53 unionists were killed in
2006 this year. 99 were murdered in 2004 and 70 in 2005.
Colombian trade unionists, whether leaders or grassroots
members are victims of selective, systematic and persistent
violence. These acts include murders, kidnappings, attempted
assassinations, disappearances, threats, detentions, tortures and
forced displacement.
These attacks are carried out by the Colombian army and their
allies in the right-wing paramilitaries. The extreme right wing
President Alvaro Uribe turns a blind eye to the state security
forces death squad activities accusing human right activists, trade
unionists and community leaders who have been targeted of being
members of the FARC (Spanish for ‘Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia’) guerilla army.
What is Unite doing about the plight of Colombian
people?
Unite supports the work conducted by UK based NGO Justice
for Colombia. JFC is a Trade Union Congress-backed coalition of 40
national trade unions that supports the Colombian people and trade
union movement in their struggle for peace with social
justice.
Justice for Colombia and Unite support a number of projects in
Colombia, for example;
- Unite supports imprisoned women and their children. This
project provides supplies and humanitarian aid to the women and
their children such as nappies, powdered baby-milk, clothes,
reading materials, blankets, etc. The funds are also used to pay
for doctor’s visits to the prison and then medical expenses if
needed.
- Another project also supported by Unite involves engaging
specialist trade union and human rights lawyers to take on cases
and get these people released.
- Lastly ‘REDVIVIR’ is a project which aims to help displaced
union leaders and activists. It brings together displaced trade
union activists and helps them to begin reconstructing their lives
by setting up a number of cooperative business initiatives. This
helps the families of displaced trade union activists to have a
viable and sustainable income.
How can you help?
2007 will see more lobbying to put an end to the UK
government’s policy of providing military aid to Colombia. The UK
began supplying military aid to Colombia in 1989, this was expanded
in 1997. The UK remains the second largest donor of military aid to
Colombia after the United States. As the UK government refuses to
disclose full details of this aid it is impossible to verify the
extent of the military assistance that Colombia receives from the
UK. What we do understand is that UK military personnel provide
training to the Colombian armed forces both in Colombia and the UK.
The UK also grants licenses for the export of lethal military
equipment to Colombia.
Consequently the UK government can not give guarantees that UK
assistance to the Colombian security forces is contributing towards
human rights atrocities. As a result it is possible that the UK is
not contributing to the failure of the Colombian government to
implement UN human rights recommendations.
To join us in our campaign to end UK military aid to Colombia
fill out our online petition addressed to Prime Minister Tony Blair
http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/appeal.html To
get active around Unite human rights activities in Colombia join
our Solidarity Bank, support our solidarity actions and find out
how your union is fighting for trade unionists globally. To inform
yourself with the most recent developments in Colombia log onto
http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/
for the latest reports.
