Colombia
05.06.01
Urgent Interventions
Colombia: kidnapping and presumed forced disappearance of a traditional leader of the Embera Katío
Case COL 050601
The International Secretariat of the OMCT requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Colombia.
Brief description of the situation:
The International Secretariat of the OMCT has just been informed of the kidnapping and presumed forced disappearance of Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernia, principal traditional leader of the Embera Katío indigenous people of Colombia, in the Municipality of Tierralta, Department of Córdoba.
According to information received from various reliable sources, Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernía, 60 years old, was kidnapped on June 2 2001 at 6.20 am, in front of the mayor’s offices (Cabildos Mayores de los ríos Sinú y Verde), in the Municipality of Tierralta, by three heavily armed men on motorbikes, who threatened him with a gun held to his head, handcuffed him and forced him to get on one of the motorbikes between two of the attackers. The third attacker followed them from Tierralta towards Montería. Witnesses claim they heard the victim shout “they caught me”. The reports add that there are serious reasons to fear that this may have been paramilitary action.
Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernía is apparently one of the most renowned men of his ethnic group and is known abroad (Canada and Switzerland) for representing his people before various national and international authorities. He has reported the regular disappearances and massacres of the indigenous people of Tierralta, claiming their rights and denouncing the way in which their human rights and humanitarian law have been repeatedly infringed by the different actors in the armed conflict in Colombia. Furthermore, Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernía was the spokesman during the seizure of the Ministry of Environment of Bogota to protest against the effects of the Urrá dam on his community. According to another Emberá Katío ethnic group leader: “For the guerrilla we are paramilitaries and for the paramilitaries we are guerrilleros. Neither one nor the other, we explain this time and again, but the crimes and disappearances continue”.
The Embera Katío indigenous people have struggled for many years against the construction of the Urra dam because it has resulted in the flooding of their most fertile lands, of several sacred sites and traditional cemeteries, and in the appearance of a large number of diseases linked to stagnant water (malaria, etc.). This dam affects the other populations of the region as well (peasants and fishermen) whose economy depends on the river. The struggle for the rights of the Embera Katío, as well as that of other populations in the region, has taken place in an atmosphere of extreme violence, since several of their leaders have been killed, a number of community members have been kidnapped and others have disappeared.
According to the reports, this abduction is the latest in a series of extremely violent events in the region. On May 21 and 22 2001 a still undetermined number of persons lost their lives in the alto Sinú, jurisdiction of Tierralta. The authorities assert that since last weekend the number of dead has reached 11 persons, who were the ones that dragged the Sinú’s waters to the Urrá dam. Some reports claim the FARC perpetrated the massacre; however, due to the lack of effective security measures, no authority has reached the places where the incursion took place in order to be able to give an official version of what happened.
The International Secretariat of the OMCT strongly condemns this kind of persecution against the civilian population, in particular against the indigenous populations, and the apparent impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. OMCT shares local human rights organizations’ serious concern for the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernía.
Requested Action:
Please write to the Colombian Authorities urging them to:
i. take all measures necessary to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the above-mentioned persons and to bring an end to violence against indigenous communities;
ii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned events, in order to identify those responsible, bring them to justice and apply the civil, penal or administrative sanctions stipulated by law;
iii. fully execute the recommendations made by international and regional human rights organisations, including those of the High Commission for Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the Inter.American Human Rights Commission as well as national and governmental human rights organisations;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental liberties in all the country in accordance with national law and international human rights norms.
Addresses
· S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Presidente de la República, Cra. 8 n .7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 566 20 71
· Consejería Presidencial de Derechos Humanos, Calle 7 n . 6-54 Piso 3, Santafé de Bogotá, D. C. Fax: (+57 1) 337 13 51
· General Fernando Tapias Stahelin, Comandante de las Fuerzas Militares, Avenida el Dorado con Cra. 52, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 222 29 35; e-mail: siden@mindefensa.gov.co ; pilaque@cgm.mil.co
· Mission Permanente de la Colombie auprès de l’Office de las Nations Unies et des institutions spécialisées a Genève. Chemin du Champ d’Anier 17-19, 1209 Genève. Tel : (+41) 22 798 4554, 798 4555. E-mail: mission.colombia@ties.itu.int
Please also write to the embassies of Colombia in your respective country.
Geneva, June 5, 2001
The International Secretariat of the OMCT requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Colombia.
Brief description of the situation:
The International Secretariat of the OMCT has just been informed of the kidnapping and presumed forced disappearance of Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernia, principal traditional leader of the Embera Katío indigenous people of Colombia, in the Municipality of Tierralta, Department of Córdoba.
According to information received from various reliable sources, Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernía, 60 years old, was kidnapped on June 2 2001 at 6.20 am, in front of the mayor’s offices (Cabildos Mayores de los ríos Sinú y Verde), in the Municipality of Tierralta, by three heavily armed men on motorbikes, who threatened him with a gun held to his head, handcuffed him and forced him to get on one of the motorbikes between two of the attackers. The third attacker followed them from Tierralta towards Montería. Witnesses claim they heard the victim shout “they caught me”. The reports add that there are serious reasons to fear that this may have been paramilitary action.
Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernía is apparently one of the most renowned men of his ethnic group and is known abroad (Canada and Switzerland) for representing his people before various national and international authorities. He has reported the regular disappearances and massacres of the indigenous people of Tierralta, claiming their rights and denouncing the way in which their human rights and humanitarian law have been repeatedly infringed by the different actors in the armed conflict in Colombia. Furthermore, Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernía was the spokesman during the seizure of the Ministry of Environment of Bogota to protest against the effects of the Urrá dam on his community. According to another Emberá Katío ethnic group leader: “For the guerrilla we are paramilitaries and for the paramilitaries we are guerrilleros. Neither one nor the other, we explain this time and again, but the crimes and disappearances continue”.
The Embera Katío indigenous people have struggled for many years against the construction of the Urra dam because it has resulted in the flooding of their most fertile lands, of several sacred sites and traditional cemeteries, and in the appearance of a large number of diseases linked to stagnant water (malaria, etc.). This dam affects the other populations of the region as well (peasants and fishermen) whose economy depends on the river. The struggle for the rights of the Embera Katío, as well as that of other populations in the region, has taken place in an atmosphere of extreme violence, since several of their leaders have been killed, a number of community members have been kidnapped and others have disappeared.
According to the reports, this abduction is the latest in a series of extremely violent events in the region. On May 21 and 22 2001 a still undetermined number of persons lost their lives in the alto Sinú, jurisdiction of Tierralta. The authorities assert that since last weekend the number of dead has reached 11 persons, who were the ones that dragged the Sinú’s waters to the Urrá dam. Some reports claim the FARC perpetrated the massacre; however, due to the lack of effective security measures, no authority has reached the places where the incursion took place in order to be able to give an official version of what happened.
The International Secretariat of the OMCT strongly condemns this kind of persecution against the civilian population, in particular against the indigenous populations, and the apparent impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. OMCT shares local human rights organizations’ serious concern for the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Kimi Domicó Pernía.
Requested Action:
Please write to the Colombian Authorities urging them to:
i. take all measures necessary to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the above-mentioned persons and to bring an end to violence against indigenous communities;
ii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned events, in order to identify those responsible, bring them to justice and apply the civil, penal or administrative sanctions stipulated by law;
iii. fully execute the recommendations made by international and regional human rights organisations, including those of the High Commission for Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the Inter.American Human Rights Commission as well as national and governmental human rights organisations;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental liberties in all the country in accordance with national law and international human rights norms.
Addresses
· S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Presidente de la República, Cra. 8 n .7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 566 20 71
· Consejería Presidencial de Derechos Humanos, Calle 7 n . 6-54 Piso 3, Santafé de Bogotá, D. C. Fax: (+57 1) 337 13 51
· General Fernando Tapias Stahelin, Comandante de las Fuerzas Militares, Avenida el Dorado con Cra. 52, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 222 29 35; e-mail: siden@mindefensa.gov.co ; pilaque@cgm.mil.co
· Mission Permanente de la Colombie auprès de l’Office de las Nations Unies et des institutions spécialisées a Genève. Chemin du Champ d’Anier 17-19, 1209 Genève. Tel : (+41) 22 798 4554, 798 4555. E-mail: mission.colombia@ties.itu.int
Please also write to the embassies of Colombia in your respective country.
Geneva, June 5, 2001