Labour's top brass condemns UK military aid to Colombia

18.06.06

www.guardian.co.uk

British military aid to Colombia is condemned today in a letter to the Guardian signed by two-thirds of Labour’s ruling body.

Twenty-two members of the party’s national executive committee, and senior Labour figures including three former Foreign Office ministers, say the aid should be diverted into social and economic development.

Among the signatories are Dennis Skinner MP, Michael Cashman MEP, trade unionist Jack Dromey and ex-ministers John Battle, Tony Lloyd and Doug Henderson.

“Colombia is the most dangerous place to be a trade unionist in the world. In the last 15 years over 3,500 have been assassinated – virtually all murdered by the Colombian military or army-backed paramilitary death squads,” the letter says.

“We are concerned that the UK government refuses to disclose the total value of its aid to the Colombian military or where it goes. Without knowing which military units the assistance goes to, we cannot be sure that it is not reaching units implicated in human rights violations.”

Mr Lloyd said: “There is a human rights crisis there and the army, which works hand in glove with the paramilitaries, has been heavily implicated.

“We believe that until Colombia has fully implemented the UN’s human rights recommendations and tackled these abuses, it is not appropriate to give direct aid and assistance to their military.”

A Commons early day motion calling for an end to military aid has been signed by another 22 MPs who are on the government’s payroll vote as parliamentary private secretaries to ministers.

They include Mark Hendrick, aide to the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, Ann Keen, who is Gordon Brown’s PPS, and Wayne David and Jim Sheridan, who are both PPSs in the Ministry of Defence.

This month the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions reported that 70 union members were murdered in Colombia last year. The Justice for Colombia campaign puts that figure at 74.

In a written answer in April, the defence minister Adam Ingram acknowledged that training was being provided by the UK to Colombia to tackle the drugs trade but said he was withholding information on it because “its disclosure would be to the detriment of the safety of individuals, the prevention and detection of crime, and international relations”.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “UK military assistance to Colombia is primarily concerned with military education, emphasising human rights and with training the Colombian armed forces in the disposal of a variety of explosive devices.

“The UK government believes that stopping aid would be detrimental to the very people we want to help: those at risk of death or injury by explosive devices targeted against them – not only the authorities but also ordinary civilians.

It also enables displaced families to return to their homes and continue with their lives once the explosive devices have been cleared.”

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