URGENT ACTION (ISSUED 21 MAY 2002)

On Saturday 18 May, a group of more than 100 men , dressed in military uniforms and bearing the distinctive trademarks of the AUC, entered the villages of San Juan Ito and La Congoja in the municipality of Yondo, Antioquia department.

The paramilitaries detained an undetermined number of campesinos and stopped the transit of vehicles on the road which leads from Yondo to this rural area and suspended all telephone services.

Today (21 May) it is known that 15 rural workers have been assassinated and a woman raped, accused of helping the FARC, and the rest of the inhabitants of these villages have been threatened with the same fate if they do not abandon the region in the next 24 hours.

The Valle del Rio Cimitarra Campesino Association has been denouncing the constant paramilitary incursions into villages in the border region between Yondo and Puerto Berrio. Paramilitaries constantly pass along roads in this region where there are National Army check points. Moreover, the National Army is constantly carrying out military operations here - five this year - without anyone being aware of confrontations or attempts to neutralise these paramilitary groups by the army, even though their military bases are situated very close to the urban centres of both municipalities.

WE DENOUNCE:

1. The lack of guarantees for the exercise of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the inhabitants of the region and especially the members of the Valle del Rio Cimitarra Campesino Association.

2. The collusion between the SECURITY FORCES OF THE COLOMBIAN STATE, through all its institutions and local authorities, with the AUTODEFENSAS UNIDAS DE COLOMBIA - AUC, a paramilitary organisation known to have committed these and other multiple human rights violations in this region.

3. General MARTIN ORLANDO CARRENO SANDOVAL, Commander of the Second Division of the Army with jurisdiction in the region, as being directly responsible for the violations of the fundamental and human rights mentioned in this urgent action against the inhabitants of Valle del Rio Cimitarra.

WE DEMAND of the Colombian State:

1. Respect and guarantees for the fundamental and human rights of the Colombian people.

2. That the material and intellectual authors of the crimes described above be investigated, captured and brought to trial.

3. That genuine mechanisms be established to bring reparation and compensation to the victims of these crimes.

4. The dismantling of paramilitary groups, including the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia-AUC, as these act with your protection, acquiescence and with the collusion of your institutions.

WE ASK NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS, CAMPESINO, INDIGENOUS, DISPLACED, BLACK, POPULAR, TRADE UNION AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS:

1. THAT YOU SEND MESSAGES TO THE COLOMBIAN STATE SUPPORTING OUR DEMANDS.

2. THAT YOU DEMAND UNLIMITED RESPECT ON THE PART OF THE COLOMBIAN STATE FOR THE HUMAN AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THE COLOMBIAN PEOPLE.

3. THAT YOU EXPRESS YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THE VALLE DEL RIO CIMITARRA IN THE LIGHT OF THE TERRIBLE SITUATION THEY ARE SUFFERING.

4. THAT YOU CONDEMN THE COLOMBIAN STATE FOR THEIR GENOCIDE OF THE INHABITANTS OF VALLE DEL RIO CIMITARRA.

5. THAT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MECHANISMS BE ESTABLISHED TO VERIFY THE ACTIONS OF THE STATE SECURITY FORCES AND THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES.

6. FOR INTERNATIONAL ACCOMPANIMENT FOR OUR COMMUNITIES SO THAT THEY CAN FULLY EXERCISE THEIR HUMAN AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS.

VALLE DEL RIO CIMITARRA, 21.5.2002