New death threats against members of the Yira Castro Legal Corporation and sabotage of the Yira Castro web site

22.02.09

New death threats against members of the Yira Castro Legal Corporation and sabotage of the Yira Castro web site
Incidents follow earlier attacks against Colombian human rights NGO

On February 4th, a new death threat was sent by email to the Yira Castro Legal Corporation and the National Coordination of Internally Displaced People. The threat was directed against the lawyers Irene Lopez and Claudia Erazo, members of the Yira Castro Legal Corporation, and Rigoberto Jimenez, a leader of forcibly displaced people in Colombia. The email was sent by “aguilas.negras@yahoo.es”. [Aguilas Negras, or Black Eagles, are “new” paramilitary groups in Colombia.]

The email reads [with repeated spelling mistakes in the original Spanish]: “Members of Yira Castro Irene Lopez and Claudia H, in 2008 we were following you and watching what you do every day, and we have found that you still support the National Coordination of Internally Displaced People, and specifically the FARC guerrilla Rigoberto Jimenez, who thinks that because the state if protecting him, he’ll get away from us. We have express orders from the Capital Block of the Aguilas Negras to kill him as soon as possible, and if we have to take out his bodyguards, too bad for them, and if Yira Castro keeps supporting that Guerrilla we won’t be responsible [for what could happen].

Sincerely,

Aguilas Negras AUC Capital Block”

This is the eighth email that we have received since July 2007 with the same language, the same purpose, and apparently the same sender. However, so far we have not received any response from the state investigative bodies that would allow us to identify where the emails come from and who is responsible for them.
In addition to this situation, from Tuesday February 3rd to Sunday February 8th, our web site was blocked. The web server administrators informed us that this was due to manipulation and sabotage by a hacker.

These recent incidents follow a series of attacks and repeated harassment against the Yira Castro Legal Corporation in the past year and a half. In June 2007, the Yira Castro Legal Corporation was the victim of a break-in at their office and the robbery of important information related to legal proceedings concerning forced displacement and land theft. These proceedings were filed in defense of the right to truth, justice and comprehensive reparation for victims of forced displacement, in legal actions initiated through the so-called Justice and Peace Law. In addition, from July 2007 until the present, the leader of forcibly displaced people Rigoberto Jimenez and ourselves have received a series of death threats by alleged paramilitares operating in the city of Bogota.

It also highlights the lack of guarantees for the defense of human rights in Colombia that the incidents of attacks, harassment, and intimidation which we suffer only lead to the formal opening of criminal investigations, without the diligence and competence demanded by the seriousness of these events. As is to be expected, the cases concerning the criminal abuses we have reported have been closed, without any substantial decision having been made.

Regarding the blocking of our web site, we would like to emphasize that one of the Yira Castro Legal Corporation’s emails was the object of a controversial order to intercept emails, issued by the Antiterrorism Unit. The intercept order, which came to light in November 2007, was based on a report by police intelligence agency SIJIN, which indicated an alleged network of support for guerrilla groups. This reveals once again the strong official stigmatization of our work. Although in theory this order was revoked, we are unaware of the multiple criminal processes in which, based on these reports, our communications have been under surveillance. This incident revives the long-standing request by the human rights movement that intelligence archives with information about NGOs and people linked to NGOs be made public and purged. This is part of the already reiterated human rights recommendations made by the international community, and in particular by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the Colombian government.

Therefore, we believe that it is urgent to bring the following requests to the Colombian state:

1. Carry out criminal investigations which would clarify these incidents and sanction those responsible.

2. Offer the protection measures necessary to guarantee the life and physical integrity of Rigoberto Jimenez and his family, as well as that of the members of the Yira Castro Legal Corporation.

3. Give current information about the process of discovery and purging of intelligence archives in which individuals and organizations linked to human rights work are involved, especially those in which the Yira Castro Legal Corporation and its members are mentioned.

4. Make a public statement against these attacks and recognize the legitimacy of our work, as well as of the work carried out by victims of forced displacement and their organizations.

Yira Castro Legal Corporation

February 9th, 2009

Bogota – Colombia

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