International Tribunal of Opinion Violation of Human Rights in Colombia As a State Crime Brussels, September 15, 16, 17, 2008

Officially, 70 congressmen have gone public about supporting the paramilitary. In 20 years, human rights organizations have recorded over 30,000 forced disappearances, 3,000 extrajudicial assassinations of Union leaders alone, and a series of illegal arrests of Human Rights Defenders. However, key actors in the financial sector cemented their relations with the mass media in order to produce a caricature of the national reality, in spite of their role in the violations already mentioned. The interests behind genocide, forced displacement, and forced disappearance of Union workers, First Nations’ Peoples, Afro Colombians, university students, marginalized women, and intellectuals can as well be understood in terms of the demographic destabilization that currently is taking place, compliments of agro-businesses, multi-national mega-projects, and drug-trafficking. <!--break--> International Tribunal of Opinion Violation of Human Rights in Colombia As a State Crime Brussels, September 15, 16, 17, 2008 Today’s Colombia is the scenario for a State apparatus to play its role of an accomplished performer that displays an unusual ability to create a favorable opinion. The Democratic Security policies of current Head of State, Álvaro Uri be Vélez, have led the collective imagination of Colombians to read reality as if a decade long conflict were not present any longer. The deeply rooted socio-political crisis that affects Colombia today comes not only from the political-paramilitary alliance, a notorious element of the conflict whose complexity is not merely a question of individual behavior. This crisis also compromises a vast array of financial and industrial interest groups nationwide: multinational corporations, public and private armed forces, and the executive, legislative, and, judicial branches of the State. An all encompassing allegiance of political forces, business groups, vast landowners, and extreme right paramilitary groups legitimized their violations by means of hard-line anti-guerrilla rhetoric, achieving impressive levels of manipulation in the majority of the population. Officially, 70 congressmen have gone public about supporting the paramilitary. In 20 years, human rights organizations have recorded over 30,000 forced disappearances, 3,000 extrajudicial assassinations of Union leaders alone, and a series of illegal arrests of Human Rights Defenders. However, key actors in the financial sector cemented their relations with the mass media in order to produce a caricature of the national reality, in spite of their role in the violations already mentioned. The interests behind genocide, forced displacement, and forced disappearance of Union workers, First Nations’ Peoples, Afro Colombians, university students, marginalized women, and intellectuals can as well be understood in terms of the demographic destabilization that currently is taking place, compliments of agro-businesses, multi-national mega-projects, and drug-trafficking. These are the signs of model of exacerbated neo-liberal development that consolidates the concentration of economic and political power, with the subsequent privatization of social services and rights of the State. The legitimacy and credibility crisis of the public institutions and political parties, on the one hand, and the indisposition of the insurgency to come to the negotiating table, on the other, synthesize the magnitude of the conflict. Over the last five years, three International Tribunals of Opinion have taken place in Bogotá. The first one was convened in November 2006, and it focused on the murder of youth, forced recruitment, and militarization of civil life due to the influence of paramilitary groups, military and police forces in Bogotá. The following year, the second Tribunal zeroed in on forced displacement. The State was found responsible for over 4 million internal refugees. In April 2008, the testimonies of the relatives of the forcefully displaced were publicly compiled in three sessions during the third International Tribunal. Regional public hearings took place before the formal sessions, and the grave crimes of multinational corporations were exposed. These regional hearings are the basic tools of investigation in preparation for the Brussels Tribunal; which wants to be the space where the voice of the victims may be heard. Irrefutable proofs shall be presented before the jury, consisting of professors, intellectuals, and human rights defenders from around the globe. Written evidence shall also be presented from the testimonies of several other witnesses, to open the path so as to permit the entrance of justice. The State has previously been responsible for the lives of hundreds of thousands of its citizens, especially those of political dissenters and members of disfavored populations. The presentation of the information as proof of such violations has precise figures and first hand witnesses that present the grim effects of Uribe’s Democratic Security. However, the mere exposition of concrete figures is insufficient. Apart from the theoretical background, the physical presence of both witnesses and the international community is necessary in the process of social transformation. Witnesses include Human Rights Defenders, participants of various social organizations, and direct victims and their families. This is how the construction of alternative international networks is achieved, through the direct interaction of the victims with the mainstream global voices worldwide. Surveillance of the international community over the Colombian government is the ideal mechanism for the preservation of human rights. The effort these victims make to arrive to a foreign continent to expose the magnitude of their tragedy should be compensated by a genuine interest from both participants and observers. This Tribunal also is effort to pursue the freedom of hostages and political prisoners. We openly invite observers and participants to the International Tribunal of Opinion on the Violation of Human Rights in Colombia, which will be held in Brussels, 15 to 17 of September, 2008. The Tribunal shall meet in the European Parliament and give a final verdict on its the last session. The most representative cases of the regional hearings shall be presented at the Tribunal. Sponsored by: Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (ASFADDES) Coordinación Nacional de Desplazados (CND) Red de Organizaciones Sociales de Ciudad Bolívar Proyecto Justicia y Vida Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Cazucá y Comuna 4 Mesa de Organizaciones Sociales de Cazucá Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Ciudad Bolívar (FECODE) Federación Colombiana de Educadores (FENALTRASE) Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Estatales Asociación Distrital de Educadores (ADE) Asociación Nacional de Servidores Judiciales (ASONAL JUDICIAL) Asociación de Abogados Demócratas Asociación de Abogados Laboralistas Comité Colombia de Lucha Contra el ALCA Asociación de Afro colombianos Desplazados - Afrodes Comisión Inter.-Franciscana de Justicia y Paz y Reverencia con la Creación Movimiento Continental de cristianos con Justicia y Dignidad Movimiento Gaitanista Organización Femenina Popular Organizaciones Indígenas de Colombia (ONIC) Movimiento por los Derechos de los Niños y las Niñas Campaña contra la Brutalidad Policial Corporación Humanidad Maestra Vida Campaña Prohibido Olvidar Asociación para la Investigación y Acción Social (NOMADESC) Circulo del Pensamiento Critico Latinoamericano Cátedra Camilo Torres Restrepo, Universidad Nacional Universidad Distrital, Tejer Dignidad Educativa Sindicato de las Empresas Públicas de Cali (SINTRAEMCALI) Sindicato de la Empresa de Teléfonos de Bogotá (SINTRATELEFONOS) Minga Corporación Creciendo Juntos Iglesia Menonita de Ciudad Berna Movimiento de Victimas de Crímenes de Estado Cabildo Indígenas de Toribio Tacueyo y San Francisco Asociación Proyecto Nasa Sindicato de Trabajadores Universitarios de Colombia (SINTRAUNICOL) Corporación de Servicios Profesionales Comunitarios (SEMBRAR) Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria (FENSUAGRO) Central Unitaria de Los Trabajadores CUT-VALLE DEL CAUCA Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Minería en Colombia (SINTRAMINERCOL) Sintramin Sintraminergetica el paso Fenasintrap Sintradepartamento Antioquia Sintrametal Yumbo FCSPP Valle del Cauca Asociación para el Desarrollo Social Integral ECATE Zona Marginal Colectivo Teatral Luz de Luna Casa de la Memoria Tiberio Fernández Mafla Fundación Guagua Palenque Regional El Congal ICES - Instituto Cerros del Sur COS-PACC Corporación Social para la Asesoría y Capacitación Comunitaria PCN - Proceso de Comunidades Negras en Colombia Colectivo Otra Colombia es Posible RED - CUNDECON Victimas del Sector Financiero Comité de Amistad y Solidaridad con la Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela Polo Democrático Alternativo Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Senado Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) Poder Ciudadano Colectivo Otra Colombia es Posible Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Cámara Comisión de Paz del Senado. INFORMATION GET IN TOUCH WITH Proyecto Justicia y Vida: Cra. 7 No.32-85 Of. 801 Bogota – Colombia – South América tel. (571) 285-8912 (571) 382-3571 y (571) 382-3572 tribunalbruselas@gmail.com projusvi@yahoo.com www.justiciayvida.org

<p>Officially, 70 congressmen have gone public about supporting the paramilitary. In 20 years, human rights organizations have recorded over 30,000 forced disappearances, 3,000 extrajudicial assassinations of Union leaders alone, and a series of illegal arrests of Human Rights Defenders. However, key actors in the financial sector cemented their relations with the mass media in order to produce a caricature of the national reality, in spite of their role in the violations already mentioned. The interests behind genocide, forced displacement, and forced disappearance of Union workers, First Nations’ Peoples, Afro Colombians, university students, marginalized women, and intellectuals can as well be understood in terms of the demographic destabilization that currently is taking place, compliments of agro-businesses, multi-national mega-projects, and drug-trafficking.</p> <!--break--><p>International Tribunal of Opinion<br /> Violation of Human Rights in Colombia<br /> As a State Crime</p> <p>Brussels, September 15, 16, 17, 2008</p> <p>Today’s Colombia is the scenario for a State apparatus to play its role of an accomplished performer that displays an unusual ability to create a favorable opinion. The Democratic Security policies of current Head of State, Álvaro Uri be Vélez, have led the collective imagination of Colombians to read reality as if a decade long conflict were not present any longer. The deeply rooted socio-political crisis that affects Colombia today comes not only from the political-paramilitary alliance, a notorious element of the conflict whose complexity is not merely a question of individual behavior. This crisis also compromises a vast array of financial and industrial interest groups nationwide: multinational corporations, public and private armed forces, and the executive, legislative, and, judicial branches of the State. An all encompassing allegiance of political forces, business groups, vast landowners, and extreme right paramilitary groups legitimized their violations by means of hard-line anti-guerrilla rhetoric, achieving impressive levels of manipulation in the majority of the population.</p> <p>Officially, 70 congressmen have gone public about supporting the paramilitary. In 20 years, human rights organizations have recorded over 30,000 forced disappearances, 3,000 extrajudicial assassinations of Union leaders alone, and a series of illegal arrests of Human Rights Defenders. However, key actors in the financial sector cemented their relations with the mass media in order to produce a caricature of the national reality, in spite of their role in the violations already mentioned. The interests behind genocide, forced displacement, and forced disappearance of Union workers, First Nations’ Peoples, Afro Colombians, university students, marginalized women, and intellectuals can as well be understood in terms of the demographic destabilization that currently is taking place, compliments of agro-businesses, multi-national mega-projects, and drug-trafficking. These are the signs of model of exacerbated neo-liberal development that consolidates the concentration of economic and political power, with the subsequent privatization of social services and rights of the State. The legitimacy and credibility crisis of the public institutions and political parties, on the one hand, and the indisposition of the insurgency to come to the negotiating table, on the other, synthesize the magnitude of the conflict. </p> <p>Over the last five years, three International Tribunals of Opinion have taken place in Bogotá. The first one was convened in November 2006, and it focused on the murder of youth, forced recruitment, and militarization of civil life due to the influence of paramilitary groups, military and police forces in Bogotá. The following year, the second Tribunal zeroed in on forced displacement. The State was found responsible for over 4 million internal refugees. In April 2008, the testimonies of the relatives of the forcefully displaced were publicly compiled in three sessions during the third International Tribunal. Regional public hearings took place before the formal sessions, and the grave crimes of multinational corporations were exposed.</p> <p>These regional hearings are the basic tools of investigation in preparation for the Brussels Tribunal; which wants to be the space where the voice of the victims may be heard. Irrefutable proofs shall be presented before the jury, consisting of professors, intellectuals, and human rights defenders from around the globe. Written evidence shall also be presented from the testimonies of several other witnesses, to open the path so as to permit the entrance of justice. The State has previously been responsible for the lives of hundreds of thousands of its citizens, especially those of political dissenters and members of disfavored populations. The presentation of the information as proof of such violations has precise figures and first hand witnesses that present the grim effects of Uribe’s Democratic Security. However, the mere exposition of concrete figures is insufficient. Apart from the theoretical background, the physical presence of both witnesses and the international community is necessary in the process of social transformation. Witnesses include Human Rights Defenders, participants of various social organizations, and direct victims and their families.</p> <p>This is how the construction of alternative international networks is achieved, through the direct interaction of the victims with the mainstream global voices worldwide. Surveillance of the international community over the Colombian government is the ideal mechanism for the preservation of human rights. The effort these victims make to arrive to a foreign continent to expose the magnitude of their tragedy should be compensated by a genuine interest from both participants and observers. This Tribunal also is effort to pursue the freedom of hostages and political prisoners. We openly invite observers and participants to the International Tribunal of Opinion on the Violation of Human Rights in Colombia, which will be held in Brussels, 15 to 17 of September, 2008. The Tribunal shall meet in the European Parliament and give a final verdict on its the last session. The most representative cases of the regional hearings shall be presented at the Tribunal.</p> <p>Sponsored by:</p> <p>Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (ASFADDES)<br /> Coordinación Nacional de Desplazados (CND)<br /> Red de Organizaciones Sociales de Ciudad Bolívar<br /> Proyecto Justicia y Vida<br /> Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Cazucá y Comuna 4<br /> Mesa de Organizaciones Sociales de Cazucá<br /> Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Ciudad Bolívar (FECODE)<br /> Federación Colombiana de Educadores (FENALTRASE)<br /> Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Estatales<br /> Asociación Distrital de Educadores (ADE)<br /> Asociación Nacional de Servidores Judiciales (ASONAL JUDICIAL)<br /> Asociación de Abogados Demócratas<br /> Asociación de Abogados Laboralistas<br /> Comité Colombia de Lucha Contra el ALCA<br /> Asociación de Afro colombianos Desplazados - Afrodes<br /> Comisión Inter.-Franciscana de Justicia y Paz y Reverencia con la Creación<br /> Movimiento Continental de cristianos con Justicia y Dignidad<br /> Movimiento Gaitanista<br /> Organización Femenina Popular<br /> Organizaciones Indígenas de Colombia (ONIC)<br /> Movimiento por los Derechos de los Niños y las Niñas<br /> Campaña contra la Brutalidad Policial<br /> Corporación Humanidad Maestra Vida<br /> Campaña Prohibido Olvidar<br /> Asociación para la Investigación y Acción Social (NOMADESC)<br /> Circulo del Pensamiento Critico Latinoamericano<br /> Cátedra Camilo Torres Restrepo, Universidad Nacional<br /> Universidad Distrital, Tejer<br /> Dignidad Educativa<br /> Sindicato de las Empresas Públicas de Cali (SINTRAEMCALI)<br /> Sindicato de la Empresa de Teléfonos de Bogotá (SINTRATELEFONOS)<br /> Minga<br /> Corporación Creciendo Juntos<br /> Iglesia Menonita de Ciudad Berna<br /> Movimiento de Victimas de Crímenes de Estado<br /> Cabildo Indígenas de Toribio Tacueyo y San Francisco<br /> Asociación Proyecto Nasa<br /> Sindicato de Trabajadores Universitarios de Colombia (SINTRAUNICOL)<br /> Corporación de Servicios Profesionales Comunitarios (SEMBRAR)<br /> Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria (FENSUAGRO)<br /> Central Unitaria de Los Trabajadores CUT-VALLE DEL CAUCA<br /> Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Minería en Colombia (SINTRAMINERCOL)<br /> Sintramin<br /> Sintraminergetica el paso<br /> Fenasintrap<br /> Sintradepartamento Antioquia<br /> Sintrametal Yumbo<br /> FCSPP Valle del Cauca<br /> Asociación para el Desarrollo Social Integral ECATE<br /> Zona Marginal<br /> Colectivo Teatral Luz de Luna<br /> Casa de la Memoria Tiberio Fernández Mafla<br /> Fundación Guagua<br /> Palenque Regional El Congal<br /> ICES - Instituto Cerros del Sur<br /> COS-PACC Corporación Social para la Asesoría y Capacitación Comunitaria<br /> PCN - Proceso de Comunidades Negras en Colombia<br /> Colectivo Otra Colombia es Posible<br /> RED - CUNDECON Victimas del Sector Financiero<br /> Comité de Amistad y Solidaridad con la Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela<br /> Polo Democrático Alternativo<br /> Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Senado<br /> Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT)<br /> Poder Ciudadano<br /> Colectivo Otra Colombia es Posible<br /> Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Cámara<br /> Comisión de Paz del Senado.</p> <p>INFORMATION GET IN TOUCH WITH<br /> Proyecto Justicia y Vida: Cra. 7 No.32-85 Of. 801<br /> Bogota – Colombia – South América<br /> tel. (571) 285-8912<br /> (571) 382-3571 y (571) 382-3572<br /> <a href="mailto:tribunalbruselas@gmail.com">tribunalbruselas@gmail.com</a><br /> <a href="mailto:projusvi@yahoo.com">projusvi@yahoo.com</a><br /> <a href="http://www.justiciayvida.org">www.justiciayvida.org</a></p>