PBI-Colombia highlights calls for investigation of links between police and armed civilians attacking national strike protests

Photo from Contagio Radio.

On May 31, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted: “While Colombia responds with militarization of protests, the international community @ONU_es, @mbachelet, @CIDH and @UEenColombia request results of investigations of serious crimes, including links between armed civilians and police.”

This refers to the @ONU_es (United Nations), @mbachelet (the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet), @CIDH (the Inter-American Human Rights Commission) and @UEenColombia (the European Union delegation in Colombia).

The PBI-Colombia tweet highlights this article from Contagio Radio that reports:

“Both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed their concern over the events of May 28 in the city of Cali, in which 14 people were killed and nearly 100 injured.

They also agreed that they received information that civilians were found shooting at members of the security forces who did not prevent or arrest the armed men.

The UN’s request stresses that it is essential that those who caused injuries or deaths including state officials ‘are subject to effective and independent prompt investigations’ and that those responsible are brought to justice.”

The IACHR has previously stated: “The IACHR learned of groups of armed civilians who fired indiscriminately at a demonstration composed of indigenous people on May 9 in the city of Cali. The IACHR finds the participation of civilians in acts of repression and attacks with firearms against demonstrators extremely serious.”

PBI webinar this Thursday

On Thursday June 3, Peace Brigades International is convening a webinar with three Colombian human rights defenders to discuss this situation.

To register for the webinar, that will provide simultaneous translation in English and Spanish, please click here.