PRESS BRIEFING BY ACTING SPECIAL ADVISER ON COLOMBIA

PRESS BRIEFING BY ACTING SPECIAL ADVISER ON COLOMBIA

The armed actors in Colombia had to stop murdering, kidnapping, displacing and massacring the Colombian people, James LeMoyne, Acting Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Colombia, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon. 

Reviewing the current situation, Mr. LeMmoyne said it had been a difficult period in Colombia that, luckily, had ended with new agreements to restructure the peace process, giving it a new timetable and specific agenda items.  Together, President Andrés Pastrana and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas had managed to avoid a wider war and had given the peace process a much better chance for success.  He also recognized the role of the Church and the role of regional leaders, particularly Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela. 

Recent international press attention to the situation made it necessary to clarify a few issues, he said.  The United Nations role in the process was limited.  It was a “Good Offices” mission of the Secretary-General and would remain so.  His work took place at the level of discreet facilitation, always in consultation with the parties and without any impositions. 

The resolution of the last crisis had produced an accord between the two parties in an attempt to resolve extremely difficult issues by 7 April.  Those issues included the end of hostilities, a ceasefire, a reduction of violence against civilians in the country, and the issue of the paramilitaries -- a third armed force that had not been given political recognition.  Perhaps not all those issues could be solved before the given date, but incredible progress could be made. 

The conflict had been one of the longest conflicts in the world, spanning over 40 years, and had resulted in the loss of lives of thousands of people.  The forces in Colombia had the weaponry, capacity and economic finances to have a prolonged and destructive war.  The next 11 weeks were critical for the future of Colombia and its people, he said.

When asked whether Colombia was a case of benign neglect when it came to international attention, Mr. LeMoyne said that Colombia had been neglected in the past, but was not neglected any longer.  The human toll and the political, economic and social implications were grave enough to warrant the attention of the international community, he said. 

What was the core of the problem in Colombia? a correspondent asked.  Mr. LeMoyne said that the problem had several cores and was incredibly complex.  It was a longstanding conflict, which in itself gave it a characteristic that was distinct and troubling.  There was a large guerrilla movement and drugs gave the armed actors access to extraordinary amounts of money.  Kidnappings also provided money and had reached levels that were unacceptable and destructive to civil society.  He added that the entire region had been ravaged by the cocaine trade.  Unfortunately for Colombia, much of the cocaine production had moved from Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador into Colombia during the last 10 years.  Once such activities had taken root, it was extremely difficult to end them, he said.

Asked about the role of the paramilitaries, Mr. LeMoyne said that they were treated as an illegal force and they had not been part of the consultations.  Having said that, the paramilitaries were one of the main issues in the peace process.  They had grown exponentially in the last few years.  Statistics showed that they were responsible for three quarters of the internal displacement in Colombia. 

The paramilitaries were a large force, having somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 armed members, he added.  They had publicly admitted that they were involved in drug production, forced displacement, massacres, as well as targeted assassinations of trade unionists, human rights activists, journalists and intellectuals.  Those actions were literally destroying the future of Colombia, although there was evidence that a significant part of the population had sympathies for the paramilitaries. 

Those sympathies could be explained by the length of the conflict and the previous lack of government, he continued.  They began as a local phenomenon defending themselves from the abuses of the guerrillas, but had grown from that into something more complex.  In some areas they were "hired guns", in other areas they had become a political and social independent force of their own.  There were, however, several reports from human rights agencies demonstrating deeply disturbing and continuing operational links between the paramilitaries and elements of the Colombian military. 

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