Colombia’s rights defenders under fire - U.N. [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia’s rights defenders under fire - U.N.
Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:00 GMT
Source: alertnet // Anastasia Moloney

By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Killings of human rights defenders and land campaigners are spreading across Colombia, and the government must do more to protect them from growing violence and displacement attributed to criminal groups, the United Nations says.

Nearly five decades of conflict - between government troops, drug-running rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and right-wing paramilitaries initially created to fight leftist rebels but later heavily involved in the cocaine trade - have uprooted more than four million Colombians and left tens of thousands dead.

Yet as the government and FARC rebels sit down to peace talks in Havana, it is Colombia’s criminal gangs who are increasingly responsible for forcing people off their land and committing rights violations, according to an annual U.N. human rights report released Friday.

“Attacks and threats continued against human rights defenders and those involved in land restitution programmes. In many areas, the majority of these violations can be attributed to illegal armed groups that emerged after the demobilisation of paramilitary organisations (post-demobilisation groups),” the U.N. report said.

More:
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/detail.dot?id=f01f488d-3bce-4b31-8345-50ed356e723a