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PRESS
RELEASE
Nº24/02
the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights appeals to the parties to the
armed conflict in colombia to cease indiscriminate attacks on the civilian
population
1.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) vehemently rejects
the recent indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population in the
municipalities of Bojayá and Vigía del Fuerte in the Department of Chocó,
Republic of Colombia. In
particular, the Commission is dismayed by the events of May 2, 2002, when
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) launched a cylinder of gas
into the Catholic Chapel of Bellavista, where the civilian population had
sought refuge during an armed confrontation between that group and an AUC
(Colombian United Self-Defense) cell. This
outrageous violation of the principles enshrined by international
humanitarian law–the nature and severity of which entail individual
criminal liability at the international level for the FARC members
involved–left at least 117 civilians dead, many of them minors, and a
similar number of wounded victims. 2.
The Commission is concerned over the humanitarian crisis besetting
the population of that part of the Department of Chocó, which has had to
move in the crossfire between the FARC and the AUC.
In addition, the IACHR continues to receive complaints on the
consequences of a recent military counter-offensive allegedly taking the
form of indiscriminate aerial attacks, affecting the inhabitants of
Bellavista, Vigía del Fuerte, and the Afro-Colombian communities of Napipí
and Murindó, and threatening to affect other communities nearby. 3.
In view of the situation in the Department of Chocó, the IACHR
renews its call to the parties to the conflict, in particular to the FARC,
to respect the fundamental standards and principles of international human
rights law and international humanitarian law and to refrain from
indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population. Washington,
D.C., May 10, 2002 |