URGENT ACTION FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE LIVES OF HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN THE
DEPARTMENT OF RISARALDA (COLOMBIA)

The Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CPDH) denounces
before national and international public opinion and before social and human
rights organisations everywhere the threats issued today (21 August) to a
large group of human rights activists in the Department of Risaralda,
situated in the heart of the coffee-growing region in the centre of the
country.

THE FACTS:

On 21 August, the Risaralda Teachers Union (SER) received via fax a leaflet
signed by the ³Cacique Calarca Block² of the ³Autodefensas Unidas de
Colombia², warning them to ³leave the region within 15 days. If you do not,
our units will act according the conditions set out by our general command²
(sic).

The people threatened are:

DIEGO OSORIO, President, Branch of the Central Trade Union Federation (CUT)
CARLOS VALENCIA, Treasurer of the Executive Committee of the Branch of the
CUT
AIDE TRUJILLO, President of the Risaralda Teachers Union, SER
RODRIGO LOPEZ, Vice-president of the SER
VICENTE VILLADA, Treasurer of the Executive Committee of the SER
GERARDO SANTIBANEZ, General Secretary of the Public Company Workers Union,
SINTRAEMDES
GUILLERMO CARDONA, President of the Risaralda branch of the CPDH
DOMINGO TABORDA, Vice-president of the Risaralda branch of the CPDH
ADRIANA GONZALEZ, General Secretary of the Risaralda branch of the CPDH and
member of the national executive committee of the Association of Defence
Lawyers ³Eduardo Umana Mendoza²
MARIA TERESA HENAO, from the Risaralda branch of the CPDH
GUSTAVO MARIN, Risaralda branch of the CPDH
DOVER HOYOS, Risaralda branch of the CPDH
HERNANDO AGUIRRE, Risaralda branch of the CPDH

BACKGROUND

The threats against this large group of human rights activists have been
unleashed at a time when trade union organisations are preparing to defend
their position against the destabilising labour and social security reforms
undertaken by the government of President Alvaro Uribe Velez.

In the case of the members of the Risaralda branch of the CPDH, the threats
have come after a long period of condemning the emergence and operations of
paramilitary groups in this department and in the entire coffee-growing
region, as well as making emphatic demands that the national, regional and
local authorities dismantle them, investigate them and bring them to
justice, as they have said they would in their various statements both
publicly and in the context of the Intersectorial Commission for the
Monitoring of the Situation of Human Rights and International Humanitarian
Law in the Coffee-Producing Heartland, which is co-ordinated by the
Vice-president of the Republic.

PLEA FOR HELP

We call on brother organisations and the international community to condemn
the threats against the life and physical integrity of the human rights
activists in the Department of Risaralda and to reject any form of
harassment or pressures designed to prevent the legitimate exercise of the
integral defence of human rights, demanding that the national authorities
take the required measures to protect them as well as undertaking exhaustive
investigations to identify and bring to justice those responsible.

PERMANENT COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS (CPDH)

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

BOGOTA, 21 AUGUST 2002