NCJ Number
190933
Date Published
August 2001
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This report documents the human rights abuses of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), the largest guerilla force in Colombia, and presents recommendations that call upon the FARC-EP's General Secretariat to ensure that the conduct of the FARC-EP complies with international humanitarian law.
Abstract
In June 2000, Human Rights Watch representatives met with FARC-EP commanders to discuss the application of international humanitarian law standards to the conduct of FARC-EP troops, which were thought to include some 17,000 members. Yet, faced with an inventory of FARC-EP human rights abuses, the commanders asserted that these standards did not apply to the FARC-EP and were inappropriate to the Colombian context. Among the FARC-EP's gravest human rights violations is the abduction and killing of civilians. Of concern as well is the FARC-EP's use of indiscriminate weapons that cause significant and avoidable civilian casualties. Primary among these weapons are gas cylinder bombs, which are impossible to aim accurately and often strike civilian houses and other civilian buildings. Hostage-taking is another frequent abuse. Persons held for ransom by the FARC-EP may be held for months or even years. Among Human Rights Watch recommendations were that FARC-EP forces cease all extrajudicial killings of civilians; release immediately and unconditionally all hostages within their power and guarantee their safe return to their families; cease using child soldiers; cease holding so-called popular trials that lack minimal due process guarantees; extend humane treatment to all captured combatants; cease the use of indiscriminate weapons; and cease all attacks or threats against medical workers and facilities. 76 notes and the FARC-EP response to Human Rights Watch's letter