CPTnet
24 December 2006

COLOMBIA: Colombian armed forces place civilian populations at risk in
Tiquisio, Southern Bolivar

>From Thursday, 14 December to Saturday 16 December 2006 CPTers Shirley Way
and Julián Gutiérrez visited Puerto Rico and Tiquisio Nuevo, two
villages in the municipality of Tiquisio, in the Sur de Bolivar (southern
Bolivar province.) During this visit, the CPTers observed and heard reports
of various violations of International Humanitarian Law committed by both
the National Police and the Colombian Army in the region.

On Friday 15 December, Way and Gutiérrez visited a temporary encampment of
troops from the Nariño battalion in the midst of the houses of civilians
in Tiquisio Nuevo. The military has placed a permanent base on a hill in
the middle of the town, only fifty meters from civilian homes. Nearby,
some military tents share walls with civilian homes.

In Puerto Rico, the municipal capital, so many Colombian
Armed Forces personnel are present that the town appears to be under
military occupation. According to various community members, personnel of
the Armed Forces have taken advantage of their experience and status to
seduce and/or coerce young women of the town into having sex, provoking a
crisis of undesired pregnancies and abortions.

On Saturday, 16 December at 4:00 a.m., more than fifteen National Police
boarded the private truck in which Shirley Way and Julián Gutiérrez were
traveling, ignoring the protests of the driver. The police traveled in
the truck for thirty minutes, endangering the driver and his passengers.

In the Sur de Bolivar, guerrilla groups are at war with the Colombian
armed forces. The situations described above mean that if hostilities
between guerillas and the military were to break out there, civilian lives
would be at risk. These situations also represent a violation of the
`Principle of Distinction' in International
Humanitarian Law.