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June 20, 2005
An Unjust Demobilization
by Garry Leech
Paramilitary leader Diego Fernando Murillo demobilized more than
400 of his fighters in a ceremony in northern Colombia last week.
At the ceremony, the man who ordered the killing of a Colombian
congressman only two months ago had the nerve to declare: “Only
a peaceful and constructive dialogue will make it possible to build
a harmonious and prosperous country.” He then returned to
the ranch where he is being held “captive” by the government
to await the outcome of a congressional debate on a government-sponsored
leniency (virtual amnesty) bill.
 When
the Colombian government arrested Murillo for ordering the assassination
of a congressman and his two companions in April, President Alvaro
Uribe promised that the imprisonment of the accused would not be
a repeat of the Pablo Escobar fiasco. In other words, he would not
be imprisoned in a country estate. Lo and behold, the very next
day Murillo was placed in a ranch in the northern department of
C�rdoba, the heartland of Colombia’s largest paramilitary
organization. Even more outrageous is the fact that he is being
held there instead of a prison because the Colombian Congress is
deciding whether Murillo and his fellow paramilitary leaders will
benefit from a government-sponsored leniency bill.
If the bill passes, paramilitary leaders including Murillo could
serve as little as 22 months in prison (most likely on ranches),
not have to confess their war crimes, and be permitted to retain
the wealth they have accumulated from drug trafficking. While such
leniency for paramilitary leaders responsible for most of Colombia’s
human rights atrocities makes a farce out of any concept of justice,
it is especially galling that it will also apply to Murillo.
Murillo has a long history of involvement in drug trafficking and
criminal violence. He was formerly employed as an assassin for Pablo
Escobar’s Medell�n cocaine cartel. The U.S. State Department
has called him the ‘top leader of one of the world’s
largest cocaine cartels.’ In fact, until very recently, he
operated as a criminal in the world of drug trafficking; he was
not involved in Colombia’s armed conflict.
Murillo represents everything that is unjust about President Uribe’s
paramilitary demobilization process. He only joined the paramilitaries
one year before the demobilization negotiations began and yet, as
a result, he will likely escape any serious prison time for two
decades of violent criminal activities unrelated to the country’s
civil conflict.
Even more disturbing is the fact that President Uribe has permitted
Murillo to continue in his role as a paramilitary negotiator after
he blatantly violated a cease-fire by ordering the assassination
of a Colombian congressman. That he wasn’t immediately disqualified
from the demobilization process and required to stand trial for
his criminal act illustrates to what extremes President Uribe is
willing to go to accomodate the country’s worst human rights
abusers.
Even more disturbing is the message that President Uribe is sending
to other paramilitary leaders involved in negotiations: That they
can kill Colombians with total impunity. Although, in reality, the
government has been sending the same message throughout the negotiations
by allowing paramilitaries to repeatedly violate the cease-fire
with impunity through their targeting of the civilian population.
Human Rights Watch recently proposed changes to the leniency bill
that would only allow reduced sentences in return for confessions
on the part of paramilitary leaders that are verifiable and under
conditions that are enforceable. Essentially, any leniency bill
must guarantee an end to the violent actions perpetrated by the
paramilitaries and provide a sense of justice and closure for victims
and their families. The five essential changes to the bill called
for by Human Rights Watch are as follows:
- First, entirely eliminate provisions that (1) force prosecutors
to bring all charges within 24 hours after receiving statements
from demobilized individuals and (2) limit the time for investigation
to 30 days after charges are brought. Such limitations in the
time for investigation will virtually guarantee impunity, as most
cases will either be closed or will result in acquittals.
- Second, in exchange for sentence reductions, paramilitary commanders
should be required to give a full and truthful confession and
to fully disclose their knowledge of their groups’ operational
structure, sources of financing and illegally acquired assets.
Otherwise, it will be practically impossible for the government
to obtain the necessary information to uncover the truth about
atrocities and dismantle these groups.
- Third, the bill should provide that paramilitaries will lose
all their sentencing benefits if they are found to have lied to
the authorities about their crimes, operations and finances, or
to have kept illegally acquired assets. This provision is necessary
to ensure that the requirements of turnover of assets, confession
and disclosure of information are meaningful.
- Fourth, top paramilitary commanders should be barred from receiving
sentencing benefits through “individual” demobilization
until the troops they command fully demobilize and cease engaging
in atrocities. This provision is essential to ensure the credibility
of the process.
- Fifth, the time paramilitary leaders have spent negotiating
should not be considered as time served on their sentences.
As the Murillo case illustrates, President Uribe has exhibited
little desire to hold paramilitary leaders accountable for their
criminal activities and war crimes. As Colombian Senator Wilson
Borja, a critic of the leniency bill, recently stated: “What
[Murillo] gets is no extradition and the same benefits he would
have received had he not just assassinated someone.” Clearly,
there is a double standard in Colombia with regards to the Uribe
administration’s strategy towards the illegal armed groups:
impunity for those ideologically aligned with the government; and
the full-weight of the law for those opposed to the government.
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