 [20] P_NEWS (1:375/48)  P_NEWS 
 Msg  : #3708 [50]                                                              
 From : pnews@igc.apc.org                   1:343/70.10     Mon 18 Apr 94 16:04 
 To   : All                                                                     
 Subj : COLOMBIA/USA: End military assista                                      

Date: Mon, 18 Apr 1994 17:04:29 -0700
From: Hank Roth <pnews@igc.apc.org>

/* Written 11:07 pm  Apr 15, 1994 by hnaylor@igc.apc.org in igc:ai.general */
/* ---------- "COLOMBIA/USA: End military assista" ---------- */
Amnesty International USA
322 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10001

Thursday April 14, 1994

       AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR SUSPENSION OF U.S. MILITARY
                          ASSISTANCE TO COLOMBIA

       International human rights organization maintains that U.S.
              aid may contribute to human rights violations

Washington D.C. -- Amnesty International today called on the United States
Congress to maintain its hold on current, and to suspend future, military
assistance to Colombia because of its grave concerns that past assistance
has contributed to the human rights crisis in that country.

Amnesty International is troubled by the evidence -- not least of which
comes from the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) -- that U.S.
military assistance has gone to Colombian units responsible for the killing
of unarmed civilians, as well as other human rights violations.

Since 1986, over 20,000 people have been killed for political reasons in
Colombia - the vast majority by the armed forces and their paramilitary
proteges during counterinsurgency operations.

In a letter to Secretary of State Warren Christopher on April 14, William
F. Schulz, Executive Director, AIUSA formally communicated Amnesty
International's call for a suspension of U.S. aid to Colombia, and
reiterated the five questions which Amnesty International considers central
to any discussion on US military assistance to Colombia:

     1)  To what extent has there been a diversion of
     U.S. funds designated for counternarcotic programs
     to counterinsurgency?

     2)  What are the units of the Colombian armed
     forces that currently receive or have received
     U.S. military assistance?

     3)  To what extent has the U.S. Government funded
     Colombian units (both counternarcotics and
     counterinsurgency) that have been implicated in
     human rights violations?

     4)  What steps has the U.S. Government taken to
     ensure its aid does not end up with Colombian
     units implicated in human rights violations?

     5)  What investigative and/or corrective measures
     were taken to address the results of the GAO
     investigation on counternarcotics aid to Colombia
     made public in August 1993?

This letter to Secretary of State Christopher follows the March 16 launch
of Amnesty International's worldwide campaign to end political killings and
"disappearances" in Colombia, and comes as the U.S.  Congress begins its
deliberations on the U.S.  Administration's FY 95 US foreign assistance
requests.

Amnesty International USA, while awaiting a response from the Department of
State to its March 10 letter to the Bureau of International Narcotics
Matters, and its March 16 letter to Secretary Christopher requesting
information on the above questions, feels the urgency of the situation
necessitates immediate action.  AIUSA is therefore calling on members of
the Appropriations Committees of the U.S.  Congress not to release the hold
on FY 1994 military assistance to Colombia and not to grant the requests
for FY 1995, at least until adequate responses are received.

Since August 1989 when President Bush approved the Andean Drug Initiative,
Colombia has received more military assistance from the USA than any other
country in the Western Hemisphere.  In the first three years of the
initiative over two hundred million dollars in military assistance was
provided to Colombia.  Although the bulk of this aid has been sent under
the aegis of counternarcotics initiatives, Colombian military officials
have admitted in the past that much of the aid has been used for
counterinsurgency.  This fact has also been made clear in the September
1991 Government Accounting Office study Drug War: Observation on
Counternarcotics Aid to Colombia and in the past few Congressional
Presentation for Security Assistance documents of both the Clinton and Bush
Administrations.

Successive Colombian governments have hidden behind the myth that
drug-trafficking is at the root of the massive- scale political violence in
Colombia.  Amnesty International recognizes the seriousness of
drugs-trafficking related violence in Colombia, as well as the threat that
the narcotics trade poses to the international community.  But there is
strong evidence that some U.S. aid intended to fight it is not being used
for that purpose, and is being used to commit human rights violations.

"If the Colombian government will not take responsibility for its army and
their paramilitary auxiliaries, it is high time that the U.S.  Government
take action to show it will not be complicit in these killings.  That is
why we are calling on the U.S.  Government now to suspend future military
aid," said Dr.  Schulz.

Amnesty International's recent report, Political Violence in Colombia: Myth
and Reality, documents the severity of the human rights situation including
widespread political killings and disappearances, criticizes the Colombian
government for not taking decisive action to make the armed forces act
within the law, and demonstrates a pattern of impunity for human rights
violators.

At the launch of Amnesty's campaign, Dr.  Schulz emphasized that "it is the
responsibility of the U.S.  Government to ensure that funds provided to
foreign governments do not contribute to human rights violations.  We are
deeply chagrinned that the US government has persistently failed to
question whether the end-use of military aid it provides has contributed to
the deadly spiral of violence in Colombia," he said.

                                 -- 30 --

---
 * Origin: Helix: FidoNet<>Internet - Seattle (206)783-6368 (1:343/70.10)

