Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I would like to inform you that, in my presentation, I will, for convenience, refer to Peace Brigades International as PBI.
I would like to thank the committee for inviting PBI to present to you today. PBI is an organization that works to protect human rights defenders who are threatened because of their political work on human rights and unpunished crime in the armed conflict in Colombia. We provide physical accompaniment backed by political work, both in Colombia and internationally, to show responsible Colombian authorities that the international community is concerned about the protection of human rights defenders, and to encourage them to take the actions needed to ensure the protection of those activists.
PBI has had a permanent presence in Colombia for 14 years. It provides protective accompaniment directly to 14 organizations and three communities of internally displaced people. PBI does not take a position on the free trade agreement between Colombia and Canada. However, several of the organizations that we accompany have strong opinions and significant concerns about it. We believe that, as international observers, we have a responsibility to come to testify before you today to present our observations and experiences in Colombia.
My name is Gilles-Philippe Pagé, I am a Canadian from the province of Quebec. In April, I returned from spending 18 months providing international accompaniment with PBI in various regions of Colombia.
I would like to begin my presentation by putting into perspective the perception that security and the protection of human rights are getting better in Colombia.
Among the human rights defenders that we accompany in Colombia are men and women who have been working on the issue of extrajudicial, or summary, executions of civilians attributed to the national armed forces. By this, I am referring to military forces, and, in some cases, police forces.
In May 2007, the Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination Group, a coalition of more than 100 organizations, released a report that documented about 955 cases of summary executions of civilians attributed to the country's armed forces. The documented cases occurred between August 2002 and June 2006. This period corresponds to the first term of the Uribe government and the implementation of its national security policy.
The report documents a consistent execution pattern. When soldiers arrive in a community, they accuse civilians of supporting and being part of rebel movements, the guerrilla. Civilians then disappear, and the military simulates a combat action against the guerrilla. The civilians are executed and shown off as members of the guerrilla killed during the action. This method of execution has been documented over and over again, a total of 955 times. It is important to note that the method gives the impression that the number of civilians killed or executed as the result of the conflict is going down. But, in fact, the number is simply added to the number of real guerrillas killed in combat. It is important to understand this.
Of the 955 cases documented in the report, 74 cases, with a total of 110 victims, took place in a region where I worked for almost a year in 2007, called Oriente Antioqueño. This is where I was working to accompany, among others, lawyers documenting cases of human rights abuses, who went into the area to gather statements from the victims' families and to offer legal assistance.
In the months I spent in those communities, I was able to observe the fear that the communities must deal with because of the threats and intimidation designed to prevent people from speaking out. This leads Colombian organizations to state that the number of 955 executions is probably an underestimation. The real figure is likely much higher.
Another way of giving the false impression that human rights are improving in Colombia is the use of alternative means of repression that are less visible. With the organizations that we accompany, we were able, in recent years, to observe an increase in the number of charges of rebelión against human rights defenders. A person supporting, aiding, or sympathizing with the guerrilla is charged with rebelión. These charges have significant consequences for human rights defenders.
These charges have significant consequences for human rights defenders. Although these means of repression are less visible, they are just as effective in paralyzing human rights work and in closing down the political space necessary for human rights defenders to play their important opposition role in a democratic society.
I would also like to tell you about protection. This is a major concern for PBI in Colombia. When referring to protection, human rights defenders distinguish between physical protection and political protection. They also tell us about a double standard, two ways used by the Colombian government to protect them. On the one hand, the government operates programs with physical methods of protection such as surveillance cameras at the entrance to offices, armoured cars and so on. On the other hand, these same government representatives, both civilian and military, use what are called señalamientos in Spanish. These are public statements accusing human rights defenders of supporting the guerrilla. This has been condemned by international human rights organizations, by the United Nations and by the Organization of American States. It exposes the human rights defenders to significant danger in the Colombian conflict. They have to confront illegally armed combatants who are conducting an irregular war against anyone suspected of having links to the guerrilla or of supporting it in any way. The charges are made by government representatives and put the human rights defenders at grave risk. This leads to their belief that the government has no real desire to protect them. I could give examples, but I do not think that I will go into details.
I could talk about what is called parapolitics. You have heard it mentioned a lot in recent weeks. It is a central theme in Colombian politics; as a result, human rights defenders claim that the Colombian government does not have the legitimacy it requires. I could describe for you violations of human rights for economic reasons. We accompany communities who are resisting forcible displacement for economic reasons in the Uraba region of northern Colombia. I will not go into details.
I would like to conclude by telling you about some conversations that I had with human rights defenders whom you probably know, people who have visited Canada in recent months. Liliana Uribe, for example, is a lawyer and human rights activist, working from the city of Medellin. Among other things, she works on extrajudicial, or summary, executions. Because of her work, she is under significant threat. Liliana was very surprised and concerned by the contradiction she sees between the importance that Canada places on values like democracy, human rights and freedom and our interest in supporting the Uribe government by negotiating a free trade agreement.
I could also mention my discussions with Ivan Cepeda, the spokesperson for the National Movement for the Victims of State Crimes, and one of the most threatened activists in Columbia. We have been accompanying him for a number of years. Mr. Cepeda has often told me that, when the Canadian government shows its support of the Colombian government, it is like recognizing the legitimacy of the government and its policies. The policies have failed to protect human rights in Colombia and continue to fail to do so.
These are the comments that I wanted to make to the committee in order to give you an idea of what Colombian human rights defenders think of the situation. I will yield the floor to the other witnesses.