Civilians Are Prime Targets in Colombia Conflict, Study Says

Civilians here are under attack from three guerrilla forces, seven private armies and even the national military and police force, which all systematically violate the rules of war, according to a two-year study released Thursday.

The report by Human Rights Watch found that civilians are the biggest casualties of Colombia’s prolonged conflict. Last year, 2,183 civilians were killed for political reasons, compared with the 1,250 lives lost in actual combat.

“Indeed, battles between armed opponents are the exception,” the study noted. “Instead, combatants deliberately and implacably target and kill the civilians they believe support their enemies.”

The lack of respect for civilian lives and rights does not bode well for the success of this country’s nascent efforts to end three decades of fighting, human rights activists warned. “For Colombia to build a lasting peace, it is imperative to incorporate protections for civilians,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch/Americas.

The report is the first to strongly criticize all parties involved in Colombia’s civil war. Previous documents had focused on the role of the army and police and increasingly called attention to abuses by the private armies that call themselves “self-defense forces,” while noting violations by insurgents less prominently.

“All parties to the conflict say they are interested in international humanitarian rights,” Vivanco said. But they also try to justify their abuses by twisting the concept of those rights, he said.

For example, he mentioned that leftist guerrillas--who are believed to rely on ransoms and extortion for about half of their income--call kidnappings “retentions,” using semantics to try to justify their actions.

Still, Vivanco saved his harshest criticism for the self-defense forces, set up by ranchers and merchants to defend themselves against the rebels. “Massacres in Colombia are fundamentally committed by [private armies],” he said.

But the criticism had little effect on supporters of the armies in their stronghold of Monteria in northern Colombia. “Their barbarism is a result of the enemy that they are confronting,” said Rodrigo Garcia, a rancher who survived a bombing attempt two years ago that he attributes to his outspoken admiration for the private armies. “You cannot respond to [the rebels] with prayers.”

The report found that all sides are recruiting children under 15 to fight. “Minors who surrender to the armed forces are used as guides and informants, putting them at great risk,” Vivanco said.

Equally worrying, he said, is the reluctance of the armed forces to punish members involved in human rights abuses. The one exception is the police force, which has taken action against officers convicted of violations, he said.