Dear Attorney General Ashcroft:
I am writing to urge you to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Colombian nationals currently within the United States. Given the serious dangers they would face were they to return to Colombia, Human Rights Watch believes that the U.S. government should grant them safe haven from deportation to Colombia at this time.
Colombia's armed conflict has intensified over the past year, since the breakdown in peace talks between the government and the country's largest guerrilla group. Unfortunately, as both Human Rights Watch and the U.S. government have documented, civilians bear the brunt of the current violence.
The TPS mechanism was designed to deal with precisely this sort of crisis. Colombia clearly meets the standard for TPS set forth in 8 U.S.C. § 1254(b)(1), since there is "on-going armed conflict" and since requiring the return of Colombian nationals "would pose a serious threat to their personal safety." Moreover, the widespread and systematic nature of the killing means that many Colombians who might not be granted protection under the individualized asylum process (INA §§ 208 and 241(b)(3)) would nonetheless face serious threats to their safety back in Colombia.
Earlier this month, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe recognized the exceptional need of Colombians for special protection when he formally requested that Colombian nationals in the United States be granted TPS. In addition, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has recommended that the United States grant TPS to Colombians. Others who support this measure include members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and the U.S. Committee for Refugees.
A review of the human rights situation in Colombia clearly demonstrates why the grant of TPS is necessary. In its 2002 country report on human rights, the State Department noted that Colombia's human rights record "remained poor… government security forces continued to commit serious abuses, including extrajudicial killings… Members of the security forces collaborated with paramilitary groups that committed abuses, in some instances allowing such groups to pass through roadblocks, sharing information, or providing them with supplies or ammunition. Despite increased government efforts to combat and capture members of paramilitary groups, security forces also often failed to take action to prevent paramilitary attacks."
These paramilitary groups, the State Department noted, "killed, tortured, and threatened civilians suspected of sympathizing with guerrillas in an orchestrated campaign to terrorize them into fleeing their homes, to deprive guerrillas of civilian support and allow paramilitary forces to challenge the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) for control of narcotics cultivations and strategically important territories."
Unfortunately, impunity for these human rights abusers has become more, not less entrenched. As Human Rights Watch has documented, the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of human rights crimes deteriorated markedly in 2002 as Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio, who took office in mid-2001, undermined or derailed key cases. His hostility to human rights investigations was evidenced, most notably, by his purge of prosecutors and investigators willing to pursue such cases. In practice, that has meant that the perpetrators of these crimes in many instances remain at large and able to continue to target civilians.
For their part, guerrillas have escalated attacks on civilians, subjecting them to killings, kidnapping, and forced recruitment as combatants. A tragic example was the case of Boyajá, Chocó, one of the worst slaughters of the entire Colombian conflict. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC-EP, clashed with paramilitary forces there on May 1, 2002, and during the fighting launched at least one gas cylinder bomb at a church where displaced persons had taken refuge. The explosion killed 119, including at least forty-eight children.
The Boyajá attack was the most lethal such incident, but it was hardly the only one. In the first ten months of 2002, the FARC-EP used gas cylinder bombs in over 40 attacks on cities and towns, causing numerous civilian casualties. The group has also begun spreading terror through the use of remote-control, book, and car bombs, most recently in attacks in Bogotá in December 2002.
Civilians are frequently subject to kidnapping at the hands of the FARC. According to País Libre, a nongovernmental organization that collected information on kidnaping, guerrillas were responsible for 58 percent of the 2,253 kidnapings recorded in the first nine months of 2002. As of this writing, presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, seized in February 2002, remained in FARC-EP custody along with the governor of Antioquia; the former governor of Meta; a former defense minister; and hundreds of Colombians kept for ransom. Victims included children as young as three years old, such as a girl kidnaped on July 18, 2002, in an effort to force her father, a mayor, to resign.
In another new and disturbing development, church leaders who speak out in favor of peace and human rights or who protest abuses are targeted by both sides, often during mass or prayer services. For instance, guerrillas were believed responsible for the murders of two Protestant pastors as they were preaching in a hall near San Vicente del Caguán, Caquetá, the unofficial capital of the zone previously ceded to guerrillas for peace talks. José Vicente Flórez, a member of the United Pentecostal Church, was shot and killed on July 14; Abel Ruiz, also a Pentecostal minister, was shot and killed in the same spot two weeks later. On March 16, a gunman killed Cali Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino, who frequently spoke out against corruption. In the first eleven months of 2002, eleven other priests, one nun, and eighteen Protestant pastors were killed in Colombia, more church leaders killed than in any comparable period in the country's recent history.
This horrific violence causes Colombians to flee their homes, their regions and, often, their country. According to the Consultancy for Human Rights and Internal Displacement, over 200,000 Colombians were forcibly displaced in the first eight months of 2002, most by paramilitaries. In addition, at least 1.2 million Colombians have permanently left the country over the past five years, according to the International Organization on Migration. In 2001 alone, 23,000 Colombians sought refugee across international borders, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees.
The Colombian American Service Association estimates that some 80,000 Colombians nationwide are currently living in the United States without legal status. Many are fleeing violence and hope to return home once it is safe. The number of Colombians seeking asylum in the United States reflects this crisis. In 2000, 3,400 Colombians applied for asylum in the United States. That number jumped to nearly 7,300 in 2001. Many asylum applicants include Colombian political officials, civic leaders and business owners targeted by paramilitaries or rebel forces.
In 2002, your office took steps to promote greater stability in Colombia by indicting top leaders of Colombia's paramilitary and guerrilla organizations implicated in grave human rights abuses as well as in drug trafficking. We urge you to complement these measures by granting TPS to Colombians who are threatened by these same groups.
Granting TPS to Colombians would serve the important goal of promoting human rights in the region by protecting the lives of civilians. Given the urgency of the current crisis, we hope that you will consider Colombians' need for TPS status as a matter of priority.
Sincerely,
José Miguel Vivanco
cc Secretary of State Colin Powell
