Colombia’s Indigenous Indians at Risk

By Ryan C. Kossler                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – Amnesty International reports that the indigenous population of Colombia is at risk of disappearing.  Increasing abuses and a lack of government protection has forced thousands of indigenous Indians to flee their homes.  Amnesty International credits this influx in dispersion of nearly 1.4 million Indians to the changing nature of the four decade conflict between the military, leftist rebels, armed gangs, and drug traffickers.

Since the Colombian military increased its offensive against the rebels, the conflict has moved away from the urban centers where the conflicts originally occurred, and more toward remote rural and jungle areas where many indigenous groups live in designated reservations.  The shift in the fighting has increased the indigenous groups’ exposure to attack by armed groups who operate on their lands.  Marcelo Pollack of Amnesty International said, “part of the reason for the increase in human rights violations is to do with the way the conflict in Colombia has changed.  The conflict has been pushed to the margins, to rural areas where many indigenous peoples live.”

According the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), 114 indigenous people were killed last year.  This is a forty percent increase as compared to 2008 figures.  ONIC estimates that armed groups have killed more than 1,400 indigenous Colombians over the last decade.  Right wing paramilitary groups, drug gangs, and Colombia’s security forces have all been accused of committing human rights violations against indigenous tribes such as kidnappings and sexual abuse of women.

Colombia is home to one of the world’s largest displaced population, at an estimated 3.2 million internally displaced people.  According to the U.N., although indigenous groups make up around 3.4 percent of Colombia’s population, they account for seven percent of the country’s total displaced population.  The U.N. estimates that nearly 20,000 indigenous people were uprooted in Colombia last year.  The most recent threat contributing to displacement of indigenous people has been the danger of rebels kidnapping children to fight in their dwindling ranks.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Indigenous Peoples in Colombia, Facts and Figures – 23 February 2010

Colombia Reports – Amnesty International is too Critical – 23 February 2010

Reuters – Colombia’s Indians Face Worsening Human Rights Situation – 23 February 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive