Colombian Presidential Election Results in a Runoff

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch News Reporter, South America

President Santos and presidential candidate Zuluaga. Photo courtesy of CNN.com

BOGOTA, Colombia – Colombians will be waiting for the presidential election results until after the June 15 runoff.  As of Friday, the presidential race was too close to call between President Juan Manuel Santos and his challenger Ivan Oscar Zuluaga.

Many believe that the outcome of the presidential race will determine the fate of the country’s half-century guerilla war.  President Santos has staked his reputation on peace talks between the Colombian government and the Marxist rebels.  Hoping that peace talks that began with the FARC rebels in 2012, being held in Cuba, will end the 50-year conflict.

Presidential candidate Zuluaga, wants to implement tougher conditions, fearing that President Santos is being too lenient with the rebels.  His appeal to voters has been that the talks could lead to little or no punishment for guerillas’ war crimes and hand them instant political power.

Imposing tougher conditions could cause the FARC to walk away, leaving a return to the military option the only alternative.  Colombians are desperate for peace, but both candidates are selling extremes, forcing Colombians to choose between handing over the government to the rebels, leaving war crimes unpunished and a potentially endless war.

Since the conflict began in May 1964 at least 220,000 people have died.  President Santos, 62 and Zuluaga, 55 are both economists.  The presidential rivals are former cabinet colleagues under former president Alvaro Uribe and both support free market economics and continued close ties with the United States.

Santos began as a comfortable favorite before Zuluaga surged with the backing of former president Uribe, who is still popular amongst Colombians.

In a Gallup poll the candidates were neck-and-neck, but two other surveys showed a clear lead to Zuluaga or Santos.

The Gallup poll on Thursday showed the candidates in a dead heat statistically given the margin of error, with 48.5 percent for Zuluaga versus 47.7 percent for the president.

On Friday, a Cifras y Conceptos poll showed 43.4 percent of voter respondents would vote for Santos and 38.5 percent for Zuluaga, while the research firm Ipsos Napoleon Franco reported 49 percent to Zuluaga and 41 percent to Santos.

Clara Lopes, a leftist candidate defeated in the first round of voting with 15 percent of first rounds votes, publicly placed her support behind Santos.

FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, widely known by his war alias TImochenko, scoffed at both candidates, releasing a lengthy statement this week, saying they are both warmongers.

“Colombians face a real dilemma, but its not that they must choose between war with Oscar Ivan Zuluaga and peace with Juan Manuel Santos.  It’s clear that either one of them represents war,” he said, calling for a “powerful coalitions” to the left to face whoever wins.

For more information, please see:

Reuters — Polls Show Cliffhanger Presidential Election in Colombia — 06 June 2014

Fecima — Polls Show Cliffhanger Presidential Election in Colombia — 06 June 2014

Newslocker — Polls Show Cliffhanger Presidential Election in Colombia — 06 June 2014

The Economist — Colombia’s Presidential Election: A Vote for Peace — 07 June 2014

The Dozo Brotherhood: Military Entity, or Peaceful Hunting Group?

Following the 2010 presidential elections, Côte d’Ivoire slipped into a deep political crisis as a result of the election outcomes.  After the first round of votes yielded inconclusive results, a second round of voting was held between candidates Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara.  The predominantly Christian south aligned with Laurent Gbagbo, a member of the Bété tribe, and much of the Muslim north aligned with Muslim candidate, Alassane Ouattara, a member of the Dioula tribe. Alassane won the second vote, but former president, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to step down.  As a result, political violence erupted, ethnic tensions ruled, and a space was created for the Dozo, a hunting brotherhood, to become a power-weilding, quasi police force. 

dozo
Dozo Hunters (Photo courtesy of IRIN Africa)

 

 

The Dozo are, traditionally, an ancient hunting brotherhood, rooted primarily West African countries.  Currently though, the brotherhood occupies a unique position in the indeterminate sphere between militant groups and the Ivorian military.  In Côte d’Ivoire, the Dozo back the Ouattara regime; in a unique manifestation of their support, the group has adopted the role of a quasi-military entity.  Armed with AK-47s, members have been implicated in road blocks, security checks, arbitrary arrests, and killings.  While the Dozo have denied these accusations, pointing to the strict moral code members adhere to that would forbid them to engage in such acts, there appears to be a general understanding that the Dozo have, in fact, been involved in the crisis in this capacity.  Côte d’Ivoire has attempted to quell this internal threat to stability by passing cabinet resolutions that forbid Dozo members from bearing arms, and call them to cease roadblocks and security checks, but these attempts by the government have been fairly futile, thus far.  These resolutions may not be considered entirely credible, as this regime has acknowledged the Dozo as influential in moving Côte d’Ivoire towards progress and the Ouattara regime.  Undoubtedly, the government has created a situation that seems to be simultaneously affirming the Dozo, while trying to quell the instability and security threat the group causes.

Ultimately, Côte d’Ivoire will have to address the Dozo and the role the group has assumed in a way that publically condemns the human rights abuses the Dozo have been charged with.  Otherwise, it will be unlikely that the Côte d’Ivoirian people will be able to move forward from this conflict. 

For more information, please visit:

Geo Currents- Ethnic Dimensions of the Conflict in Ivory Coast-28 April 2011 

IRIN- Ivoirian Hunters Accused of Abuses- 14 January 2014

The Eagle- The Harp Is the Hunter’s Qur’an: Text, Performance, and Narrative in Dozo Hunting Songs of Northwest- 24 February 2014

TV/C News- UN wants to end impunity for Ivory Coast’s “Dozo Killers”- 7 June 2014

Transportation Strike in Bolivia Leads to Clashes

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SUCRE, Bolivia – A transport workers strike caused chaos in the Bolivian city of El Alto on Tueday during a protest against the local government’s plans to regulate the transport system. The demonstrators, who are also demanding higher wages, blocked a main avenue in the city.

Bus drivers block an avenue during a previous transport workers’ strike in La Paz in 2012. (Photo Courtesy of AP)

Riot police arrived on the scene and fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse the protesters. Local media reported 58 bus drivers were arrested for damaging passing vehicles that would not support the protesters.

Bolivian Police were able to clear the roads after protesters set fire to tires in the middle of the road. Approximately 1,200 police officers guarded the highways that lead to the city’s main airports.

The protesters, who run a network of privately owned minibuses, stated that the strike would continue indefinitely if local authorities do not back down on their plans to modernize public transport systems.

A leader of a drivers’ union in El Alto, Marcos Tito Cabrera, said bus drivers have been charging the same fare for the past few decades. “Since the creation of such vehicles (minibuses) for the last 30 or 40 years we have been operating by charging only one Bolivian (peso) as passage. This government in eight years has raised the wages of workers four times, perhaps we are not part of the state but we are also the people,” Cabrera said.

The local government is implementing four modern transport systems in the metropolitan area of two million residents, which the drivers fear will affect their own services in the cities.

An exclusive bus system with special routes is planned, along with a multimillion-dollar cable car system that will link the two mountain cities of La Paz and El Alto. The system will change the way Bolivians transport around the city. The cable car and bus system will aim to offer a faster service than existing modes of city transportation, authorities say.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera — Bolivian transport strike causes chaos – 4 June 2014

The Washington Post – Clashes in Bolivia over transportation regulations – 4 June 2014

AOL News – Clashes in Bolivia  – 3 June 2014

Boston.com – Clashes in Bolivia – 3 June 2014

Sri Lankan Government Rejects Devolution of Power That Would Ease Tensions with Tamil Minority

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Managing Editor

SRI JAYAWARDENEPURA KOTTE, Sri Lanka – On Wednesday the government of Sri Lanka once again rejected a policy devolving police powers to the nation’s providence as requested by India’s new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and required by the Sri Lankan Constitution as a means of easing tensions with the state’s Tamil minority.

Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa (in white) takes part in a War Victory parade in Matara May 18, 2014 celebrating the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War. Rajapaksa has been criticized by the international community for his government’s failure to investigate alleged war crimes committed during the country’s 26 year civil war. (Photo courtesy of Refuters)

Sri Lanka reached an agreement with the Indian government in 1987 to devolve powers, including power over policing and land, to regional governments as a means to improve relations between the Tamil minority and Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka. “Police power is important for provinces to maintain law and order,” Primus Siraiva, a northern Provincial Councillor, said. “Otherwise, there could be lawlessness in provinces and the Provincial Council won’t be able to control it.”

Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister G.L Peiris told Parliament that President Mahinda Rajapaksa did not have an in depth discussion on constitutional issues during his meetings Modi. Last week during a meeting between Modi and Rajapaksa, the Indian prime minister stressed the need for the complete implementation of the 13th amendment of the Sri Lankan constipation which was intended to grant more political recognition to the Tamil people, even recognizing Tamil as an official state language.

The Sri Lankan government design to keep policing powers out of the hands of local authorities, including the Tamil minority, is a sign that tensions between the government and Tamil population remain high five years after the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War which ended in 2009.

The Sri Lankan Civil war, which raged on for more than a quarter century left more than 100,000 people dead and thousands more, mainly front the minority Tamil population in the North, are still missing. During the Civil war Tamil rebels fought for a homeland in the country’s northern region. Ethnic Tamils have faced discrimination in Sri Lanka for decades; while many Tamils are indigenous to the island many more were brought to the island by British Colonists to work on tea farms and were seen by members of the Sinhalese population as foreigners who had taken Sinhalese land.

Last month President Rajapaksa, who is under international pressure to investigate war crimes in the battle after the United Nations approved an international probe into the war crimes allegedly committed by both Sri Lankan state forces and members of the Tamil Tigers during the conflict. Members of Minority ethnic Tamils said they had been banned from commemorating the deaths of their relatives five years ago in the final battle of the war with Sri Lanka’s military, a charge denied by the army.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – Sri Lanka Says No to Devolution of Powers – 5 June 2014

Reuters – Sri Lanka Again Rejects Devolving Police Powers to Ease Tension With Tamils – 4 June 2014

Reuters – Tamils Say Barred From Commemorating War Dead, Sri Lanka Denies – 18 May 2014

BBC News – Sri Lanka Blocks Tamil Memorials amid War Parade – 18 May 2014

Government of Sri Lanka – Thirtieth Amendment to the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka – 14 November 1987