1. COMISIÓN COLOMBIANA DE JURISTAS
Organización no gubernamental con estatus consultivo ante la ONU
Filial de la Comisión Internacional de Juristas (Ginebra) y de la Comisión Andina de Juristas (Lima)
PERSONERÍA JURÍDICA : RESOLUCIÓN 1060, AGOSTO DE 1988 DE LA ALCALDÍA MAYOR DE BOGOTÁ
PRESS RELEASE
Urgent call for the protection of the Awá people
The Colombian Commission of Jurists expresses its repudiation of the massacre of at least 27 members of
the Awá indigenous people committed by presumed members of the 29 th Front of the FARC. On February
4, members of that guerrilla group entered the locality of Tortugaña-Telembí, municipality of Barbacoas
(Nariño). A first group of at least 17 Awá indigenous persons, among them women and children, were
tortured and assassinated with knives. Another group of approximately ten indigenous persons who were
fleeing the February 4 massacre were assassinated last week near the community of Guangarial. At this
time no news are known about the corpses of the indigenous persons, which lie in a mountainous jungle
region of difficult access.
The attacks against the civilian population, infringing the principle of distinction between civilians and
combatants1, caused the recent forced displacement of almost 200 indigenous persons, who have arrived
in the municipalities of Samaniego and Buenavista fleeing the violence in their communities. The
indigenous people, whose health is in a delicate state, were forced to carry out a long and perilous journey
through mined regions toward the receiving municipalities, whose infrastructure is too limited to welcome
them.
It is important to point out that the Early Warning System of the Public Defender’s Office had
warned the authorities of the danger the civilians in the region were facing. However, there was
no response to guarantee the protection of the population. 2 The Awá people, one of the 87 indigenous
groups of Colombia, faces a serious risk of extinction as a consequence of forced displacement and of the
actions of the armed groups that take part in the internal armed conflict.
The Colombian Commission of Jurists condemns the massacre against the Awá people and reiterates its
demand to the FARC guerrilla group to respect international humanitarian law. Additionally, it requests
the authorities to carry forward the investigation of these assassinations and respond to the reports of the
Early Warning System. Likewise, it urges the Colombian government to fulfill its obligation to protect the
civilian population, guarantee the integrity of the indigenous peoples, and prevent the militarization of the
indigenous territories.
Bogotá, February 17, 2009
For more information, please contact: Gustavo Gallón Giraldo, Director CCJ (Tel. 376 8200, ext.115).
1
Principle of distinction between civilians and combatants in international conflicts. It is enshrined in the Additional Protocol II
of the 1977 Geneva Conventions, Article 13, Paragraph 2; in the amended Additional Protocol of 1996 of the Convention
regarding certain conventional weapons, Article 3, Paragraph 7; in the Additional Protocol III of 1980 of the Convention
regarding certain conventional weapons, Article 2, Paragraph 1; in the preamble of the Ottawa Convention; and in the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court of 1998, Article 8, Paragraph 2, among other norms.
2
The Public Defender’s Office, by means of its Early Warning System (SAT in Spanish) published on January 8, 2009, its
Monitoring Note No. 001.09 on Risk Report 029 of 2007, in which it warned about factors causing vulnerability and threats
against the Awá indigenous community settled in the municipalities of Barbacoas, Roberto Payán and Magui Payán, through the
armed actions of the FARC and ELN guerrilla groups and of armed groups that continue to act even after the demobilization of
the self-defense groups that call themselves Campesino Self-Defense Groups of Nariño (Autodefensas Campesinas de Nariño,
ACN) and "Los Rastrojos," - actions that include homicides, forced displacement, disappearances, and accidents through land
mines, among other violent acts. Additionally, by means of its Defense Resolution 53 of 2008, the Public Defender’s Office
reported human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law against the Awá people to the competent
authorities of the Colombian State.
Calle 72 Nº 12-65 piso 7 Tel: (571) 3768200 – (571) 3434710 Fax : (571) 3768230
Email : ccj@coljuristas.org Website: www.coljuristas.org Bogotá, Colombia