DUTCH-FUNDED COLOMBIAN ANTI-IMPUNITY PROJECT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BOGOTA 002854

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/28/2015
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KJUS CO
SUBJECT: DUTCH-FUNDED COLOMBIAN ANTI-IMPUNITY PROJECT
LOOKING FOR NEW DONORS


Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood for reason 1.4(d).


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SUMMARY
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1. (U) For the past six years, the Government of the
Netherlands (GON) has supported GOC efforts to investigate
and prosecute high-profile human rights cases. In June
2003, the GON agreed to donate 340,000 USD to finance a
two-year Anti-Impunity Project focused on resolving
prominent cases and developing an official GOC policy to
combat impunity. The Project is administered by the local
office of the UNDP and managed by two special committees:
the Technical Committee (TC),which selects cases for
funding, and the high-level Special Impetus Committee
(CEI),which establishes policy and reviews progress. The
TC has designated 170 cases as eligible for Project
funding, including a majority of the last decade's most
notorious massacres and political murders. The cases are
divided proportionally among alleged abuses by the State,
paramilitaries, and guerrillas. The Dutch, who participate
in the committees as observers, have asked that the Project
prioritize cases of alleged State misconduct. In December
2004, the CEI produced a document outlining the GOC's new
public policy against impunity. The GON is hiring outside
experts to evaluate the Program, and will probably continue
to fund it -- although perhaps at reduced levels -- if the
evaluation is positive. The GON is encouraging other
governments interested in human rights, including the USG,
to support the Project. End Summary.

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Background
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2. (C) In 1998, the Government of the Netherlands (GON),in
consultation with relevant Dutch NGOs, decided to dedicate
a significant percentage of its foreign assistance to
Colombia to address the issue of impunity. To accomplish
this goal, the GON worked with the administration of former
President Andres Pastrana to subsidize, beginning in 2000,
the investigation of high-profile human rights cases
stalled in the Colombian judicial system. The GON provided
piecemeal assistance for specific cases, but was generally
disappointed by GOC officials' seeming lack of enthusiasm
for the initiative and reluctance to face unpleasant
realities about corruption and inefficiency in the judicial
system. Dutch DCM Arno Ambrosius, who managed the initial
phases of the GON initiative, said the GON was "unhappy
with the response [it] received from the Pastrana
administration and its lack of will to go after important
cases. Instead, [the GON was] left seeing results from
only minor cases." With the Uribe administration's
inauguration in August 2002, the GON began to notice a
gradual improvement in the GOC's motivation to address
sensitive human rights cases. As a result, in June 2003
the GON and GOC designed a new two-year plan to address
high-profile cases and develop a permanent public policy to
address impunity.

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Funding
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3. (SBU) The GON financed its new Anti-Impunity Project
with approximately 340,000 USD, administered locally by the
Colombia office of the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP). Local UNDP officials distribute funds for
investigations to relevant GOC entities such as the
Prosecutor General's Office ("Fiscalia") and Inspector
General's Office ("Procuraduria") consistent with the
project's case priorities. According to Ambrosius, the
Anti-Impunity Project's flexibility in funding needs as
diverse as investigators' per diem, gasoline, and forensic
tests "eliminates any excuses the GOC might have not to
pursue these cases."

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Case Selection and Program Coordination
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4. (C) Two special committees manage the Anti-Impunity
Project. The Technical Committee (TC) selects the cases
the Project will fund. It meets about four times a year
and is composed of working level representatives from the
Presidential Program for Human Rights (PPDH),the Fiscalia,
the Procuraduria, and the Colombia office of United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). The GON
participates as an observer without voting privileges.
According to Alberto Lara, the PPDH's director of the
Anti-Impunity Project, the TC has designated 170 cases as
eligible for Project funding, including nearly all the
high-profile massacres and political murders that have
occurred in Colombia over the past decade. The 138 cases
listed in the TC's latest report (December 2004) are
distributed roughly evenly among abuses blamed on
Government forces, paramilitaries, and guerrilla
organizations such as the FARC and ELN. Ambrosius told
Embassy officials the Dutch have emphasized the need to
prioritize investigations of alleged State misconduct,
arguing that such inquiries are the surest way to
demonstrate the legitimacy and value of the Project. He
added, however, that the GON is disinclined to take overt
credit for this emphasis or the success of any particular
investigation, noting that his Embassy's security is not
what it could be.


5. (U) The Special Impetus Committee ("Comiti Especial de
Impulso," or CEI) is a high-level group that meets at least
twice a year to establish Project priorities and policies,
coordinate inter-agency cooperation, and review progress on
specific cases. The members of the CEI are the
Vice-President, the Inspector General ("Procurador"),the
Vice-Minister of Justice, the National Director of Public
Prosecutors (the third-ranking official in the Fiscalia),
the President of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary
(CSJ),the National Human Rights Ombudsman ("Defensor del
Pueblo"),the Director for Justice and Defense Issues at
the National Planning Department, the Director of the
Fiscalia's Human Rights Unit, the Director of the
Procuraduria's Human Rights Office, the Director of the
PPDH, the PPDH's Anti-impunity Project Director, the PPDH's
Human Rights Coordinator, the GOC's External Advisor for
the Anti-Impunity Project, the Director of the Colombia
office of the UNHCHR, and the Director of European Union's
Colombia Cooperation Office, with the Dutch DCM and
Technical Cooperation Officer present as observers. The
Vice-President and senior Fiscalia officials must attend
every CEI meeting. The CEI met five times in 2004.

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Public Anti-Impunity Policy
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6. (U) In December 2004, the CEI satisfied a GON priority
by producing a document outlining the GOC's public policy
to combat impunity, which will govern the investigation and
prosecution of prominent human rights crimes. Some
noteworthy elements of the new public policy include
improving training for investigators and prosecutors,
strengthening coordination between the Fiscalia and
Procuraduria and other national and local government
entities, strengthening protection programs for victims,
witnesses, investigators, and prosecutors, and enhancing
the financial and organizational resources available for
special field investigations.

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Future Funding
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7. (U) Both the GOC and GON told Embassy officials they are
cautiously optimistic about the Project's potential to help
improve the human rights environment over the long term.
Ambrosius said the GON hopes that other governments,
including the USG, will join it in supporting the
Anti-Impunity Project. Current GON funding for the Project
will expire in June 2005. The Embassy of the Netherlands
plans to hire a team of three outside experts beginning in
May 2005 to evaluate the project. If the critique is
positive, the GON will most likely continue some level of
funding. However, Ambrosius emphasized that it is in the
interests of the entire international community,
particularly those countries focused on human rights, to
support the Project and build momentum with the GOC to
overcome the institutional inertia of impunity.

WOOD