Afro-Colombians convene for rights

by Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes

From Oct. 1-4, 2008, nearly 100 different groups, including national advocacy organizations and community councils, will be represented in Tumaco, Colombia, at the First Assembly of Black Community Councils of the Colombian Southern Pacific Region. They aim to build solidarity across the region and create collective ways of participating democratically to resist the daily violence that confronts Afro-Colombian communities. They face systematic displacement, arbitrary detainment, killings and massacres.

The Assembly announced that they will convene "toward a consolidation of territory with autonomy and self-government" in the face of state, paramilitary and guerrilla aggressions founded on racism and systematic marginalization that targets Black communities in Colombia. They write, "Despite the situation generated by the armed conflict internal to the country, the Black communities resist annihilation and we continue a permanent labor to recreate life, self-affirmation, and [libertarian] identity inherited from our ancestors."[1]

In 1993, Colombia instituted Law 70, which recognized the right of Black Colombians to collectively own, occupy, and live on their ancestral lands. The law was ratified in order to "establish mechanisms for protecting the cultural identity and rights of Black Communities of Colombia as an ethnic group and to foster their economic and social development. . ."[2]

According to a 2007 University of Texas School of Law Rapoport Center report, almost 15 years later Law 70 has not been upheld by the Colombian State. "[I]ts realization has been hampered by a number of obstacles, including pervasive systemic discrimination"[3] as well as the infiltration of Afro-Colombian lands by agro-export businesses, tourism mega-projects, and targeting by paramilitary violence--for which the state offers no protection.

While Afro-Colombians are a small fraction of Columbia's population, they make up about two thirds of Colombia's four million internally displaced, and remain among the poorest. Furthermore, 119 Afro-Colombian civilians were killed and another 98 injured in 2002 at Bojaya, one of the worst massacres in 40 years. Despite organizing efforts to demand justice, U.S. military funding through Plan Colombia and violence between factions in Colombia's internal war means the massacres, disappearances, and forced displacement of these communities are still rampant.

The Assembly plans to meet at a time when the Bush and Uribe Administrations are colluding to pass the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which would allow further violence against Afro-Colombian communities in the name of economic expansion. Already, Afro-Colombians must deal with paramilitary forces who perpetrate violence against their communities and allies. For example, in Curvarado (Choco), paramilitaries have "violently and illegally usurped" Afro-Colombians' land, and specifically, the paramilitary "Black Eagles" have threatened members of the Inter-Church Peace and Justice Commission, a human rights organization that works with Afro-Colombian community council leaders to ensure "that these territories are fully and justly returned to their rightful holders."[4]

To join others in signing a declaration of solidarity with the First Assembly of Black Community Councils of the Colombian Southern Pacific Region, go to http://www.petitiononline.com/FABCCSPR/petition.html.

NOTES:

1. "Toward a Consolidation of Territory with Autonomy and Self-Government" statement of First Assembly of Black Community Councils of the Colombian Southern Pacific. (pacificosur152008@gmail.com)

2. See Law 70 of Colombia (1993): In Recognition of the Right of Black Colombians to Collectively Own and Occupy their Ancestral Lands. English Translation. April 2007. Translated by: Dr. Norma Lozano Jackson and Dr. Peter Jackson. Benedict College, Columbia, SC 29204. Retrieved at http://news.afrocolombians.com/news/?sectionid=11.

3. See "Colombia Memo, Afro-Colombian Human Rights: The Implications for U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement." The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. University of Texas, Austin. http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/humanrights/publications/Colombia.html.

4. See Sept. 4, 2008, "Urgent Action URGENT ACTION! Human Rights situation in Curvarad— is worsening," http://news.afrocolombians.com/news/?sectionid=8.

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