EU warned against military aid to troubled Colombia

Date: 03/07/03

By David Cronin

A LEADING political figure from Colombia this week accused EU policymakers of underestimating the gravity of human rights abuses in her country.

Both the European Commission and the Union's governments are set to take part in a conference on establishing an international cooperation strategy for Colombia in London next week (10 July).

During this forum, Bogotá is expected to raise recent requests by President Alvaro Uribe for European military aid for what he has billed as his own war against terrorism.

The call is considered deeply troubling by Piedad Córdoba Ruiz, co-leader of the opposition Liberal Party.

"The European Union has no clear perception about what is going on in Colombia," said Córdoba, who is also chairwoman of the human rights committee in the Colombian Senate.

"The EU does not perceive that [Colombia] is turning into a dictatorship. This does not seem obvious to [the Union] as Uribe was elected - just like [Alberto] Fujimori [the autocratic ex-Peruvian president] and Hitler."

In Brussels on Monday (30 June), Córdoba berated changes to the 1991 constitution, recently endorsed in a first reading by the Colombian Congress. These are aimed at reducing the independence of the judiciary, while simultaneously giving police powers to the military, a move denounced by the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Violence in the Latin American state has flared up afresh since peace talks between the government and the largest guerrilla group, the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, broke down in February 2002.

A new report by Amnesty International calculates that more than 4,000 civilians were killed for political motives last year, at least 2,700 people were kidnapped and 400,000 were uprooted from their homes due to fighting. Amnesty says it has evidence that the "vast majority" of the killings were committed by "paramilitaries operating with the acquiescence of, and in collusion with, the security forces".

An appeal on Colombia, signed by some 30 campaign groups, has been sent to Italy's EU presidency. It says that any granting of bilateral military assistance would be in contradiction of the joint objective of the EU and the cooperation strategy of the European Commission, which is aimed at alleviating the impact of the armed conflict on civilians and overcoming structural problems.

Córdoba urged the EU to adopt a different stance on Colombia from that held by the US. The country is the third-largest beneficiary of Washington's military aid, receiving €432 million per year. However, the US announced this week it is slashing military aid to countries, including Colombia, that have not signed deals granting US soldiers immunity from prosecution by the fledgling International Criminal Court.

Córdoba accused Uribe of exploiting the international campaign against terrorism for his own political ends, adding: "Understanding what is happening in Colombia is necessary so that European governments can evaluate if the measures adopted address the problems or if the concept of terrorism is ambiguous and the measures have a negative impact on the civilian population."