Citizens Victims In Colombia War Crossfire

by Yadira Ferrer

"For the guerrillas, we are paramilitaries, and for the paramilitaries, we are guerrillas," said Rosa, a subsistence farmer in San Pablo, a town located in a conflict-ridden zone along the Magdalena River, who like all of those interviewed by IPS asked not to be identified for safety reasons.

"Half of the country is in the hands of the armed groups, which pressure us and try to co-administer" the villages and towns, said the president of the Colombian Federation of Municipalities, Gilberto Toro. The worst situation is seen in the 200 municipalities that have been completely abandoned by the security forces.

"Threats, the presence of armed combatants in community meetings, summons to local officials and residents, pressure for local authorities to award concession contracts to specific companies, fees charged for vaccinations, and extortion have become routine aspects of life in the towns caught up in the middle of the war," Toro told IPS.

There are few mayors who do not complain of harassment and intimidation by guerrillas or paramilitaries.

JosŽ Antonio Bermœdez, the mayor of Aguachica, in the northern Colombian province of Cesar, told IPS that the biggest problem facing his poor town is the influx of thousands of people displaced by the violence.

The civilian population tries to live with the fear of being caught in the cross-fire of the armed groups involved in Colombia's decades-old civil conflict, fleeing when one or another of the armed groups arrives, seeking refuge in nearby towns, and returning home when things calm down -- only to flee again when the violence flares back up.

Everyone is afraid. Those who live in areas controlled by the insurgents fear reprisals from the paramilitary groups, while the residents of areas where "paramilitary law" reigns can hardly sleep for fear of an incursion by the rebels.

In San Pablo, for example, the paramilitary umbrella group, the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), controls the town, while the surrounding countryside is the focus of a turf war between the AUC militias and the insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN), the two main rebel groups, said a local leader.

"People here can't say what they feel, they can't talk, because they know the armed groups are listening," he added.

No one wants to give their names when talking to outsiders. "The violence has turned Colombia into a country of nameless protagonists, without any identity," he lamented.

For everyone, it is difficult to live like this, "caught between one, two or three command structures," and having to adapt to different rules.

"We want to know what laws we should obey, we want just one boss," says a local shopkeeper in Putumayo, a province in Colombia's southern jungle region, on the border with Ecuador.

The shopkeeper added that the rules change when you simply cross a river, go from one municipality to another, or even cross from one sidewalk to the other.

For example, the town of Puerto Vega is located on one bank of the Putumayo River, across from Puerto Asis. One side is ruled by the "farianos" -- as the members of the FARC are known locally -- while the other bank is controlled by the "paras" or paramilitaries.

"The armed (combatants) don't hurt each other. They hurt us, the unarmed people," and it is civilians who are the casualties of the violence in Puerto Vega and Puerto Asis, said the shopkeeper. Other local residents pointed out that everyone is suspect "on the other side."

Political analysts estimate that around 30,000 combatants are involved in the civil war, counting the 14,000-strong FARC, the 8,000-member ELN and the AUC, which groups around 9,000 armed combatants.

A daily average of 20 civilians are killed in the armed conflict in Colombia, a country of 42 million, according to a report released early this month by local non-governmental organizations.

Life has "come apart at the seams" in the eastern part of the department of Antioquia, in the northwest, which is disputed by the FARC, the ELN and the AUC, one local journalist told IPS.

There are towns where the guerrillas barge in one day, and the "paras" arrive the next, each leaving behind a trail of death. In other towns, the "paras" give the population just a few hours to clear out, while the guerrillas threaten anyone who leaves.

Roadblocks erected by the far-right armed groups often leave farmers without food or medicine for weeks.

A Permanent Assembly for the Humanization of the War was created in Antioquia, and mayors in that region have insisted that the government of President AndrŽs Pastrana authorize them to engage in talks with the ELN and FARC, to ask the rebels to stop blowing up bridges and electricity pylons.

"The situation is very complex, because the three groups want to dominate this region, since 30 percent of the country's energy supply is produced here. Local governments have to answer to each of the groups, and keep all of them informed, and some families even have a son in each faction," said the reporter.

The residents of municipalities caught in the middle of the war say it is easier when the rules are clear, and imposed by just one group, whether insurgent or paramilitary.

Orlando Ardila, mayor of Arauquita, in the northeastern province of Arauca, told IPS that both the FARC and the ELN are active in that area.

Ardila said that although the guerrillas did not want him as mayor, he has been able to ward off their threats by governing with transparency and in close contact with the local community.

The inhabitants of the 42,000-square kilometer area from which security forces were withdrawn as demanded by the FARC, to clear the way for peace talks, say they know which rules to follow.

"The government has other laws, but now the guerrillas are here and I obey them," said a farmer waiting his turn in the office of "complaints and claims" set up by the FARC in San Vicente del Caguan, the main town in the insurgent group's safe haven, which encompasses five municipalities in the southern provinces of Meta and Caqueta.

All disputes between local residents, ranging from squabbles over debts and property boundaries to family feuds, are settled in the local administrative offices opened by the FARC in 1999, when the peace talks started.

"We used to have the paras, the army and common criminals. But now we know who is guilty if anything happens," said one local woman.

Lists of fines and punishments imposed by the rebels can be seen hanging on trees and walls in some villages in the demilitarized zone.

"Insults: 50,000 pesos (25 dollars); gossip: 50,000; knife threat: 100,000; firearm attack: 200,000" reads one such list.

Just as in areas under the influence of rebel groups, the laws in the zones controlled by the paramilitaries are often arbitrary. It is also the irregular groups that design the traffic schedules for highways, roads and rivers.

For example, in Barrancabermeja, a key oil-refining port city on the Magdalena river, AUC commanders forced two teenagers to sweep the streets of the city for days, in punishment for disobeying their orders.

In Santa Rosa, another town on the Magdalena river, the local population had to collect and hand over around $10,000 in late November to save the lives of 40 local residents who were condemned to die after they chased three paramilitaries who had murdered a coca leaf harvester.

Jorge Rojas, coordinator of the Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), said this year has been one of the worst in decades for the civilian population.

The local human rights group reported that around 277,000 people were forced to leave their homes between January and October due to threats from one armed group or another -- a daily average of 1,025 newly displaced people.

Last year, a total of 270,000 people were forced to flee their homes in Colombia, which has one of the largest populations of displaced people in the world.

Rojas stated that the only way out of the war was through political negotiations. However, he said the future did not look promising.

The activist noted that the off-and-on peace talks underway between the FARC and the Pastrana administration since 1999 were showing signs of flagging, before agreement has been reached on any of the 12 points on the agenda drawn up by the rebels and the government.

Political analysts also say there is little reason to feel encouraged by the preliminary talks between authorities and the ELN, with only eight months to go to the end of Pastrana's term.