Interesting Timing of Colombian Paramilitary Leaders Extradition to US
Fourteen Colombian paramilitary leaders were extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking charges. However, human rights experts are not pleased about it.
As reported in IPS News: "The militia chiefs were safe from extradition as long as they respected the 2005 "justice and peace law" that governed the demobilisation of the far-right paramilitary groups, which are blamed by the United Nations for 80 percent of the human rights crimes committed in Colombia’s four-decade civil war.
"President Álvaro Uribe said the 14 leaders were extradited because they continued committing crimes after demobilising, were not providing full confessions as required by the justice and peace law, and had failed to compensate their victims, "by hiding assets or delaying their handover."
According to one of the extradited chiefs lawyer, "Hernando Bocanegra, the paramilitary leaders were confessing to their crimes "little by little" because that is how the justice and peace law was designed.
" 'They were talking,' said Bocanegra, who added that there was a "timeframe that was being followed. In the stage of confession, they had gotten to the chapter of murders, massacres and genocidal crimes."
"Some had started to give details on joint actions carried out by paramilitary groups and military units, another point on the agenda. Others had already announced that they would implicate local businessmen in their testimony.
"Iván Cepeda, spokesman for the Movement of Victims of Crimes of the State (MOVICE), complained to the press that the extraditions would "seriously affect" the rights of survivors, and said they were aimed at keeping the paramilitary leaders from continuing to provide the names of military, political and business accomplices and allies.
"Eduardo Carreño, vice president of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective, a human rights group, told IPS that 'this move confirms what we have said from the start: that a Congress with a strong paramilitary presence legislated on its own behalf, and that the victims are the forgotten ones in this process.'
"More than 60 lawmakers, nearly all of them pro-Uribe, are under investigation for their ties to the paramilitaries, as part of what has been dubbed the "parapolitics scandal."
"They include the rightwing president’s cousin and main political ally, former senator Mario Uribe.
" 'This is a mockery,' Gustavo Gallón, director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, another leading human rights organisation, told IPS.
" 'It was clearly spelled out: if they were really committing crimes after demobilising -- as they were doing -- they were to be referred to the ordinary courts, as established by the justice and peace law," where they would face sentences of up to 40 years rather than the light sentences, of no more than eight years, provided for by the agreement with the government,' he said.
"Leftwing Senator Gustavo Petro said President Uribe "dealt several blows in one" with the extraditions.
" 'The first blow,' he told IPS, 'is against truth.'
" 'If Uribe says there is a pact with the United States" for the prosecution of war crimes to continue in that country, which does not recognise the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, 'it is a secret pact, because no one knows about it. The only thing the U.S. is interested in is curbing drug trafficking,' he said.
" 'The second blow is against the victims and the possibility of compensation, which becomes even more remote if the truth is not revealed," and "the third is against Colombian justice," because with this decision, the president is "disregarding the Colombian justice system and recognising the U.S. system,' said the senator.
So, is the timing of the extradition just coincidental or is the right wing Bush administration providing cover for the right wing Uribe regime?
As reported in IPS News: "The militia chiefs were safe from extradition as long as they respected the 2005 "justice and peace law" that governed the demobilisation of the far-right paramilitary groups, which are blamed by the United Nations for 80 percent of the human rights crimes committed in Colombia’s four-decade civil war.
"President Álvaro Uribe said the 14 leaders were extradited because they continued committing crimes after demobilising, were not providing full confessions as required by the justice and peace law, and had failed to compensate their victims, "by hiding assets or delaying their handover."
According to one of the extradited chiefs lawyer, "Hernando Bocanegra, the paramilitary leaders were confessing to their crimes "little by little" because that is how the justice and peace law was designed.
" 'They were talking,' said Bocanegra, who added that there was a "timeframe that was being followed. In the stage of confession, they had gotten to the chapter of murders, massacres and genocidal crimes."
"Some had started to give details on joint actions carried out by paramilitary groups and military units, another point on the agenda. Others had already announced that they would implicate local businessmen in their testimony.
"Iván Cepeda, spokesman for the Movement of Victims of Crimes of the State (MOVICE), complained to the press that the extraditions would "seriously affect" the rights of survivors, and said they were aimed at keeping the paramilitary leaders from continuing to provide the names of military, political and business accomplices and allies.
"Eduardo Carreño, vice president of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective, a human rights group, told IPS that 'this move confirms what we have said from the start: that a Congress with a strong paramilitary presence legislated on its own behalf, and that the victims are the forgotten ones in this process.'
"More than 60 lawmakers, nearly all of them pro-Uribe, are under investigation for their ties to the paramilitaries, as part of what has been dubbed the "parapolitics scandal."
"They include the rightwing president’s cousin and main political ally, former senator Mario Uribe.
" 'This is a mockery,' Gustavo Gallón, director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, another leading human rights organisation, told IPS.
" 'It was clearly spelled out: if they were really committing crimes after demobilising -- as they were doing -- they were to be referred to the ordinary courts, as established by the justice and peace law," where they would face sentences of up to 40 years rather than the light sentences, of no more than eight years, provided for by the agreement with the government,' he said.
"Leftwing Senator Gustavo Petro said President Uribe "dealt several blows in one" with the extraditions.
" 'The first blow,' he told IPS, 'is against truth.'
" 'If Uribe says there is a pact with the United States" for the prosecution of war crimes to continue in that country, which does not recognise the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, 'it is a secret pact, because no one knows about it. The only thing the U.S. is interested in is curbing drug trafficking,' he said.
" 'The second blow is against the victims and the possibility of compensation, which becomes even more remote if the truth is not revealed," and "the third is against Colombian justice," because with this decision, the president is "disregarding the Colombian justice system and recognising the U.S. system,' said the senator.
So, is the timing of the extradition just coincidental or is the right wing Bush administration providing cover for the right wing Uribe regime?
Comments