UNHCHR INTERNAL REPORT ON EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 003625 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/16/2017 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KJUS CO SUBJECT: UNHCHR INTERNAL REPORT ON EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS SHOWS RECENT DECLINE, BUT SERIOUS PROBLEMS REMAIN Classified By: Political Counselor John S. Creamer. Reason: 1.4(b,d) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) The Prosecutor General's Office (Fiscalia) and the Defense Ministry (MOD) are investigating the deaths of 19 young men who disappeared from Soacha earlier this year and were later declared killed in combat by the military in northeast Colombia. Human rights groups said several of the deceased reportedly died only two or three days after they left Soacha, and suggested they were murdered by the military. Defense Minister Santos voiced concern over the charges, vowing "zero tolerance" for any military found to have committed human rights abuses. UNHCHR representative Javier Hernandez told us some military commanders continue to reward soldiers for body count despite Santos' efforts to end this practice. UNHCHR data on extrajudicial killings shows such deaths peaked in 2006. UNHCHR officials said the decline since 2006 appears to reflect MOD reforms aimed at deterring this practice, but cautioned that the Soacha killings might force them to revise their numbers upward. Hernandez believes Santos needs to take additional action to break the military's persistent "body count" culture, including the dismissal of some senior commanders. End Summary. -------------- EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS OR KILLED IN COMBAT? -------------- ¶2. (U) On September 23, the Medical Examiners Office reported it had identified 19 cadavers in Ocana (Norte de Santander) and Cimitarra (Santander) as young men--ranging from 17 to 32 years old--who disappeared from Soacha in southern Bogota earlier this year. 30th Army Brigade Commander Paulino Coronado claimed the individuals were members of new illegal groups or the ELN killed in combat this year. Still, human rights groups noticed that in several instances, the individuals reportedly died in combat only two to three days after leaving Soacha. The Prosecutor General's office (Fiscalia) is investigating and has detained four individuals suspected of recruiting the deceased. The case is similar to an incident in Sucre last year in which a military unit used a demobilized paramilitary to recruit 11 unemployed youth to work on farms, only to later murder them and report their deaths as combat kills. ¶3. (U) Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos voiced concern over the reports, saying "they tell me there are still some groups within the security forces that demand body count as a measure of success. I do not want to believe that is true." Santos said the Military Inspector General's Office is investigating, and stressed there would be "zero tolerance" for any personnel found to have committed human rights abuses. He also announced that Army Commander Mario Montoya will visit each division to reiterate that "body counts" should not be used to evaluate success. Santos has implemented several steps over the past year to reduce extrajudicial killings, including creating incentives rewarding captures and demobilizations over kills, expediting the transfer of the investigation of alleged human rights violations from the military to civilian criminal courts, and developing clearer rules of engagement. -------------- MILITARY EMPHASIS ON KILLS STILL A PROBLEM -------------- ¶4. (C) UNHCHR Representative Javier Hernandez recognized Santos' and senior military officers' efforts to end extrajudicial killings, but said that message is not being enforced by all commanders on the ground. Some commanders continue to pay up to 500,000 pesos ($250) to soldiers per kill. The payments come from Colombian military funds used to reward performance. Hernandez said the military is making a greater effort to ensure the Fiscalia's Technical Investigative Unit (CTI) surveys the scene of combat deaths, but added that this work is made more difficult by commanders who collude with criminal groups to "preconstruct" the scene. The military's tendency to reassign commanders every 4-5 months also keeps the pressure on to produce results. Hernandez said Santos and senior commanders need to take decisive action to break the culture which encourages "body count," including the dismissal of some senior commanders. -------------- UNHCHR DATA -------------- ¶5. (C) The Soacha case focuses renewed attention on claims that security forces continue to engage in extrajudicial killings. The UNHCHR recently briefed us on its internal data, which shows the number of such killings peaking in 2006 with 287. In 2007, the number falls to 259, an 11% drop. Based on trends so far, UNHCHR projects the total will fall to 160 in 2008. UNHCHR extrajudicial killing specialist Jesus Pena said the increase from 2003-06 could be partially explained by the increased attention to reporting cases, more proactive work by UNHCHR and other groups, and greater willingness on the part of witnesses to testify. He said UNHCHR believes the decline starting in 2007 reflects the Defense Ministry's policy reforms aimed at discouraging this practice. Still, Hernandez told us on September 29 that he fears the Soacha killings may force UNHCHR to revise its number upwards for 2008. ¶6. (C) The UNHCHR also gave us the comparative data on such killings provided by the Vice President's Office on Human Rights, the Fiscalia, and a consortium of international human rights groups headed by the Coordinacion Colombia-Europea. UNHCHR Jesus Pena said some variance in data results from UNHCHR compilation of cases through September 12, while human rights groups' data goes through the end of July. Pena told us he believes the Vice President's Office purposefully underestimated its numbers, noting that the GOC numbers are lower than the UNHCHR's preliminary data. He said the numbers provided by the human rights groups are hard to evaluate, since they represent a diverse range of organizations using different methodology. He said the Fiscalia's 376 figure for 2007 may be inflated and stems from the aggressive Fiscalia effort to investigate such cases starting in mid-2007. This effort may have generated more complaints ("denuncias"),which will prove unfounded. ¶7. (C) The following comparative data in the report is considered confidential and has not been released to the press, GOC, or other foreign missions). 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- UNHCHR Complaints Received 170 189 197 319 357 119 UNHCHR Preliminary Review Data 149 170 166 287 259 85 UNHCHR High Certainty Data/Reported to GOC n/a n/a 38 138 125 16 Vice President's Office on Human Rights 42 112 164 185 112 38 Fiscalia 62 77 100 174 380 24 Human Rights Groups 163 196 197 217 347 48 BROWNFIELD