The killing of 12 Indigenous Peoples in Colombia, including four children, is a consequence of the failure of the authorities to heed warnings that unless measures were taken to protect the community, more attacks would take place, said Amnesty International today.
“Yesterday, the Awá Indigenous Peoples were victims of the third mass killing in less than [...]

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Amnesty International today condemned efforts by the military justice system to take charge of the criminal investigation against retired army Colonel Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega, currently on trial in the civilian courts for his alleged part in the enforced disappearance of 11 people in 1985.
Luis Alfonso Plazas was arrested in July 2007 in relation to [...]

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US President George W. Bush’s decision to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia is a disturbing example of the Bush administration’s disregard for serious human rights concerns out of zeal to show unconditional support to governments that it views as strategic allies, seven leading nongovernmental organizations said today.
The organizations [...]

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Indigenous Peoples in Colombia are once again paying the price of a seemingly never-ending armed conflict, said Amnesty International today after the killing yesterday, by army troops, of Edwin Legarda, the husband of Indigenous leader Aida Quilcué.
Edwin Legarda was fatally injured after being shot by the security forces while travelling to the city of Popayán [...]

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Amnesty International today called on the Colombian Congress not to approve the draft “Victims’ Law”.  This draft followed the government’s watering down of the original bill, which would have gone some way towards guaranteeing reparation to the victims of the country’s 40-year internal armed conflict.
“The original draft did offer some hope of reparation to the [...]

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US Congress Should Press for Sustained Results on Human Rights, Anti-Union Violence
Colombia needs to do much more to address its human rights problems before the US Congress should consider the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives. The letter was [...]

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President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia should stop making false and dangerous accusations against human rights groups that criticise his government, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today in a joint statement. Colombia should instead address the human rights concerns they raise.
Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued reports in October about the human [...]

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Concerns over Ecopetrol’s activity on the U’wa ancestral lands
Two leaders of Colombia’s U’wa community traveled to New York City last week to meet with investment firms, urging them not to buy shares of the Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol. The U’wa leaders spoke with representatives of JPMorgan Chase to voice their concerns over the bank’s [...]

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Colombia has taken one small step in a long walk to find justice for the thousands of Colombians, victims of human rights violations, said Amnesty International as the Colombian government sacked 25 members of the military accused of killing civilians.
“At last, the Colombian government is admitting there is a human rights problem in the country [...]

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The Colombian government is painting a positive picture of the human rights situation in Colombia, despite increasing reports of forced internal displacement, attacks against social and human rights activists and killings by security forces, said Amnesty International in a report today.
“The Colombian authorities are in absolute denial, even refusing to admit there’s an armed conflict [...]

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