Human Rights Issue: Afro-Colombians Are Being Forcibly Evicted In Colombia!

All eyes are focused on the human rights of the Iranian people.People like John McCain say that the president isn't asserting to the world America's strong position on human rights violations.

Is Iran the only place where human rights are being violated? I am sure that we all know that the answer is no.But,what I was not aware of is the plight of Afro-Colombians.

They desperately need the voice of America to be heard concerning their human rights issues.The situation is dire for them in Colombia.How come I haven't heard anything in the media about them?

Here's more from WOLA.ORG:

"The following three developments concerning Afro-Colombians have come to our attention this past week and we ask that you contact the US. Department of State (Tel: (202) 647-0464) and urge them to take steps to help protect the rights of the persons concerned in the following three cases.

1) Announcement of "Social Cleansing" in Buenaventura

Our partners in Buenaventura informed us on March 10th that a paramilitary group is distributing pamphlets announcing that persons deemed undesirable by the paramilitaries (drug dealers, thieves, prostitutes, etc.) will be "socially cleansed." We find this development to be particularly disturbing given the paramilitary demobilization process and recent efforts by the Colombian authorities to increase the presence of the military in this port city.

We ask that State express concern about this development to Colombian authorities and urge them to take steps to protect the residents of this city from harm and to effectively dismantle the military, political and financial operational structures of paramilitary groups present in Buenaventura.


2) New Paramilitary Threats against Human Rights, Ethnic, IDP and Religious Organizations in Quibdó

On March 13th, Adom, Adacho, Asociación Orewa, Asociaciones Comunales, Codegeved, Comisión Nacional de Reparación, Cocomacia, Defensoría del Pueblo, Diócesis de Quibdó, Fedeutch, Foro Interétnico Solidaridad Chocó, Mujer y Vida, Oficina departamental de Paz, Personería de Quibdó, Red departamental de Mujeres Chocoanas. Ruta Pacifica de Mujeres and Unión Desplazada Del Chocó sent out an SOS to the International community asking that action is taken regarding pamphlets containing death threats against civil society organizations in Quibdó and Chocó. These organizations are concerned about the general threat of death and harm that exists against them and others, as well as, the terror campaign that paramilitaries are orchestrating against the civilian population. They note that paramilitaries are threatening to individually and collectively kill, persecute massacre ethnic leaders in order to impose their economic, political and military projects in the region. They are especially concerned for the welfare of the large number of IDPs situated in Quibdó and their leaders since this population is very unprotected and vulnerable to attack.

We ask that State contact the Vice President's office and Acción Social and urge them to put in place mechanisms that will protect IDPs, human rights, religious and other leaders from harm in Quibdó.


3) Situation of Displaced Afro-Colombian IDPs from the Neighborhoods of Brisas de Navarro and Brisas de Cordoba, Cali

On March 9, the city of Cali has begun to evict 495 families containing a high number of children from the neighborhoods Brisas de Navarro and Brisas de Cordoba. The majority of these families are Afro-Colombians internally displaced from different communities in the Pacific Coast who lost their properties and assets. They fled to Cali where they were forced to live in inhuman conditions and to survive by collecting recyclable materials from the municipal dump. The shanty houses containing the IDP families' belongings were demolished with bulldozers. During the eviction process, two women were reportedly injured including an elderly woman. After the eviction these families moved to the side of a road since they have nowhere to go. The authorities proceeded to evict them once again.

This situation has led some persons to demonstrate in front of Cali's City Hall. These families and their supporters are demanding that the Mayor meet with them to find comprehensive solution to their situation. Although some 190 families received at some point a subsidy of US$100 for three months to pay rent, further assistance was not received. Many of these families are internally displaced persons who for more than three years whose needs were not properly attended to by the local authorities.

We ask that State contact Accion Social and urge them to work with the Cali authorities to assist this group to address the basic needs of these persons and meet with the community leaders to find an immediate and appropriate solution to this problem.

For further information on these cases contact:

Gimena Sanchez, WOLA, (202) 797-2171 Ext. 205
Charo Mina Rojas, AFRODES USA, (434) 760-0663
(END OF EXCERPT)TAKEN FROM THIS WEBSITE.