Thank you, Mr. Neve, for being here with us today.
You've quoted the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. You've quoted the UN a number of times, and I agree that the UN is credible in this, but I'd like to quote the special rapporteur, Margaret Sekaggya, who said, on September 18, 2009:
I...want to commend the Government for the significant improvement in the overall security situation in the country since 2002. Respect for the right to life and the exercise of fundamental freedoms for Colombian citizens have improved.
I want to commend the Government for designing policies and strategies for the protection of human rights defenders.
Furthermore, following the November 2008 visit to Colombia, the UN Secretary-General's representative on human rights of internally displaced people, Walter Kälin, acknowledged a high rate of forced displacement in certain parts of the country, but noted that “important developments have taken place since his earlier mission to Colombia in 2006, noting especially the constructive role of the Constitutional Court in shaping the national response to forced displacement.” He cited the government's “significant increase in...budgetary resources, as well as programming efforts that have resulted in better access to education and health care”.
According to Kälin, “The reasons for forced displacement...are multiple and complex”, including “the lack of respect” for international humanitarian laws “by various armed groups”, including guerrilla groups such as FARC and ELN, “the multiplication of armed actors and criminal activities in the wake of” paramilitary demobilization—in other words, remobilizing his drug gangsters—and “the forced recruitment” by illegal armed groups, “threats and pressures to collaborate” with the illegal armed groups, narco-trafficking activities, to name a few.
What started largely as an ideological battle over 40 years ago—and FARC is part of that—has become a drug war. Why do you think somebody in a poor Colombian community would get involved in FARC or with drug gangsters? Why do you think people get involved in that today, if it's not ideological?