CRINMAIL 166:
In this issue:
To read this CRINMAIL online, click here.
Each issue of this CRINMAIL will begin with a background of a conflict situation in a specific country followed by an analysis of its impact on children. In light of the recent start of peace negotiations between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), this month we focus on Colombia.
Brief historic outline
The internal armed conflict in Colombia dates back to the period of "La Violencia" that followed the assassination of popular leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 1948. La Violencia lasted around 10 years during which the two official parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives fought against each other. The violence is estimated to have cost the lives of at least 200,000 people. The conflict ended in 1958 through a power-sharing agreement known as the "National Front" (1958 to 1974) that eliminated political competition. This resulted in repression and attacks on any political activity outside that of the two official parties, with communists suffering the most.
Attacks on communist enclaves led to a surge of about a dozen left-wing guerrilla movements between the 1960s and 1970s, throwing the government into a protracted military campaign. The most significant actors here have been the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the M-19 movement.
The activities of the guerrillas prompted the emergence of right-wing paramilitary organisations, primarily the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). Whilst denied by the government, there are accusations of links between these paramilitary organisations and the State waging war against guerrillas and protecting landowners, drug lords and local businessmen from attacks and kidnapping by guerrilla forces.
In reality, many of those involved, from left-wing rebels to right-wing paramilitaries are believed to be on the payroll of drug cartels and landowners – both of whom often receive support from Colombia’s police or army. Ironically, the United States provides aid to the Colombian Government with the proclaimed aim of strengthening democracy and combating drug trafficking and terrorism.
Peace negotiations led the M-19 to sign an initial ceasefire agreement with the government in 1990, and again later in 2006 that resulted in the demobilisation of over 32,000 AUC members. But the government never verified whether all AUC members actually demobilised and was unable to dismantle the group’s criminal networks and support system. As a result, some groups or sections never demobilised and others re-armed after the process allowing them to form new groups.
Despite the overall decline in violent incidents since 2002, FARC retains strongholds in parts of the countryside and the capacity to launch sporadic attacks against civilians and human rights workers.
The government’s war against the cartels and close ties with the United States have often generated tensions in its relations with neighbouring countries. For instance, diplomatic tensions with Ecuador started since the Colombian airstrike in 2008 on a FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory. Venezuela broke off diplomatic and commercial relations after the Colombian government claimed that the FARC had camps inside Venezuela allegedly tolerated by the Chávez government. Diplomatic ties with both countries were officially reinstated in 2010.
In May 2011, the Colombian Congress passed a Victims and Land Restitution law which provides for reparations for about four million victims of violence by guerrillas, paramilitary groups and state agents dating back to 1985. It also aims to return some 2,000,000 acres of land to those who lost it as a result of the conflict since 1991.
In June 2012, Colombia's Constitutional Court approved a government proposal to decriminalise the possession of small amounts of cocaine and marijuana for personal use.
Peace negotiations have finally begun between the FARC and the government. On the first day of the much-anticipated peace talks in November 2012, the FARC announced a unilateral ceasefire. But since the start of the talks, the FARC have admitted to breaking the truce in late November and the Colombian government has repeatedly insisted that it will not halt military operations.
Human rights abuses
The internal armed conflict in Colombia resulted in many serious human rights abuses by all parties involved. All armed actors continue to threaten and attack human rights defenders, journalists, and minorities including indigenous and Afro Colombian communities. Human rights violations committed by guerrillas, paramilitaries and their successors include extra judicial executions, enforced disappearances, rape and sexual violence and the recruitment and use of children into the armed groups.
In her 2012 report on the situation of human rights in Colombia, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights "registered a disturbingly high number of crimes committed against children" in many areas of Colombia, mostly cases of "recruitment and threats of recruitment, deaths and injuries caused by explosive artefacts, occupation of and attacks against schools, displacement, homicide, and injuries" attributed to the FARC and the ELN.
Forced displacement
With tens of thousands of Colombians forcibly displaced every year, the country has one of the world's largest populations of internally displaced people (between 3.9 and 5.3 million people, and more than 50 per cent of them are under the age of 18). Many of them have disappeared.
Antipersonnel mines and explosives remnants of war
Colombia also has one of the highest numbers of victims of antipersonnel mines and explosives remnants of war in the world, according to the 2011 landmine monitor. Contributing to this situation is the frequent use by the FARC and ELN of antipersonnel landmines and other indiscriminate weapons. Read a report by UNICEF on the impacts of landmines on children.
Child Recruitment
Children are recruited and used by armed groups, particularly the FARC and ELN; although the ELN pledged in 1998 to stop child recruitment and signed the Puerto del Cielo agreement in Germany. The report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council issued on 26 April 2012 reported "widespread and systematic recruitment and use of children by non-State armed groups" in 2011.
A new study, "Like Lambs Among Wolves" by Natalia Springer, the dean of the law school at Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogota, has found that in the last four years alone 18,000 children in Colombia have been forced to join guerrilla groups and paramilitaries.
Government security forces were not reported to have recruited children, but it appears that they use children for intelligence gathering despite the legal prohibition against the practice. The report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council has confirmed receiving reports regarding the use of children for intelligence purposes by the Colombian National Army.
Following the demobilisation process, children could benefit from the Disarmament, the Demobilisation and Reintegration programme run by the government. However, since child soldiers were required to identify themselves as members of an armed group, those who escaped or were discharged, and those afraid to reveal their identity, were unable to receive assistance.
The report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council also reported:
"[G]irls continued to be victims of sexual violence attributed to members of non-State armed groups. Girls associated with non-State armed groups were often required to have sexual relations with adults at an early age and forced to abort if they became pregnant" and that "[s]chools were damaged as a result of hostilities as well as by anti-personnel mines and explosive remnants of war."
Sources.
Read the full background.
News and updates
Peace talks in the Central African Republic
On 10 December 2012, the Seleka rebellion launched an offensive from the north east of the country and rapidly captured several towns. The rebels only halted their advance 100km from the capital Bangui after a regional peacekeeping force was deployed.
“Seleka” (meaning “alliance” in the national language Sango) is a coalition of various armed movements that predominantly originate from the north east of the country. Read more.
The Seleka rebels are demanding that President François Bozizé steps down, accusing him of failing to honour a 2007 peace agreement to give insurgents money and jobs in exchange for laying down their weapons. Bozizé, who came to power in a coup in 2003, has since won several disputed elections.
Peace talks organised by regional governments, the UN and the US between the government of the Central African Republic (CAR), the Seleka rebel alliance and opposition parties have opened in Gabon.
The CAR has faced political unrest since gaining independence from France in 1960, including numerous attempted coups.
UNICEF has called on rebel groups and pro-government militias to immediately stop recruiting children to their ranks, amidst reports of increasing use of this practice. Widespread looting and violence has increased across the country. Over 300,000 children have been affected by the violence, including through forced displacement, family separation, recruitment and sexual violence. Full story.
African-led intervention force in Mali
On 20 December, the UN Security Council authorised the deployment of an African-led International Support Mission in Mali, to be known as AFISMA, for an initial period of one year to assist the authorities in recovering rebel-held regions in the north and restoring the unity of the country.
Since a military coup in March 2012 that overthrew the country's president, Islamists and separatists Tuareg rebels have taken over the north, and nearly half a million people have been displaced. The Islamists have since destroyed sites classified as a UNESCO World Heritage and imposed Islamic law in the North. The Islamists have banned secular music, football and alcohol and reportedly imposed harsh punishments, including amputations, to those accused of flouting the prohibition. Read more.
Escalation in the conflict in Syria
Recent months have witnessed an escalation in the conflict in Syria, which is now in its 23rd month.
According to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), more journalists were killed in Syria in 2012 than anywhere else in the world. In total, 41 professional and citizen journalists died in Syria last year since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in early 2011.
The UN human rights commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said that more than 60,000 people died since March 2011. When a new UN report was released last week, the death toll stood at 59,648, but has since risen by several hundred in only a matter of days.
In addition, the report emphasised that the statistics should be considered as minimum bounds, as they warned that many killings have not been documented. The death toll includes civilian victims, including thousands of children, as well as pro- and anti-government fighters, with both sides in the conflict responsible for the killings.
Almost 600,000 people have been displaced as a result of the conflict, with almost half a million fleeing to neighbouring countries where the worst winter storm in two decades as hit with heavy rain and snow.
Opposition activists in Syria, say dozens of refugees have died in the four days of relentless extreme weather. Read more.
The UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict visited Syria in December 2012. She raised strong concerns regarding the ongoing fighting and its impact on children, specifically the use of heavy weapons and bombardment of populated areas. During discussions with Government authorities, she also advocated for the proactive protection of schools and the prevention of their military use by Syrian Government forces and the opposition in the ongoing fighting. Read more.
New countries commit to end the use of children in conflict
Bolivia, Comoros, Guinea Bissau, Kuwait and Yemen endorsed the ‘Paris Commitments’ to end the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and groups, in December 2012, bringing the list of endorsers to 105 Member States.
Despite growing international efforts to reduce the number of children involved in hostilities, tens of thousands of children are still involved in violent conflicts around the world. Girls and boys are used as combatants, suicide bombers, human shields, porters, sex slaves and more. Read more.
The Paris commitments are a political initiative and commitment expressed by States, including a number of conflict-affected countries, to the Paris Commitments and the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated With Armed Forces or Armed Groups, which provide guidelines on the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of all categories of children associated with armed groups. Read more on the Paris principles.
THE LAST WORD
Back to top
|
