Colombia fails on rights record

THE CATHOLIC LNSITTI:TE for International Relations (CIIR) has joined Colombian human rights organisations in condemning the human tights record of President Cesar Gaviria's government.
In the week before President Gaviria comes to London to meet with Prime Minister John Major, CIIR issued a stinging condemnation of the "complicity of government forces in the political violence" that troubles the country.
Though President Gaviria's war on drugs has earned him the praise of Mr Major and other 'Western leaders, CIIR warns that counter-narcotics legislation is in fact used to suppress legitimate political opposition.
With ten political killings a day in Colombia, and state forces and paramilitary groups responsible for 70 per cent of the killings, Colombia's portrayal as a stable democracy is "tragically and danger ously false", according to the CUR briefing published this week.
Since 1988 more political murders have taken place in Colombia than in the 16 years of Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Most of the victims are peasants, indigenous peoples, trade unionists and members of legal opposition political parties.
According to the briefing, "Colombia's hidden human rights crisis", the muchheralded 1991 constitution has "brought little real change in practice".
CIIR spokesperson Phil Bloomer told the Catholic Herald that Mr Major's meet
with the Colombian leader was a very clear signal from the British Government that there was support for the war on drugs in Colombia. But he said he hoped that "this support was not unconditional, as drug legislation was used to clamp down on political opponents."