Silent Crisis Of Internal Displacement

THIS PAPER WAS PREPARED BY WRITENET ON THE BASIS OF PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION, ANALYSIS AND
COMMENT. ALL SOURCES ARE CITED. THIS IS NOT, AND DOES NOT PURPORT TO BE, EITHER EXHAUSTIVE WITH
REGARD TO CONDITIONS IN THE COUNTRY SURVEYED, OR CONCLUSIVE AS TO THE MERITS OF ANY PARTICULAR
CLAIM TO REFUGEE STATUS OR ASYLUM. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS PAPER ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND
ARE NOTNECESSARILY THOSE OF UNHCR.

COLOMBIA: THE SILENT CRISIS OF INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT

By Patrick Costello - WRITENET
AUGUST 1996

WRITENET IS A NETWORK OF RESEARCHERS AND WRITERS ON
HUMAN RIGHTS, FORCED MIGRATION, ETHNIC AND POLITICAL CONFLICT.

WRITENET IS A SUBSIDIARY OF PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT (UK)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
2.1 Guerrilla Movements andCivil War
2.2 The Human Rights Crisis
2.3 Internal Displacement
3. REGIONS IN CONFLICT
3.1 The Magdalena Medio
3.2 Meta
3.3 South of Cesar and Norte de Santander
3.4 Urabá
4.

POLITICAL CRISIS: THE RECORD OF PRESIDENT SAMPER
4.1 Ambitious Proposals
4.2 The Plan in Practice

5. CONCLUSIONS
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. INTRODUCTION
Internal displacement in Colombia has been taking placeover the last forty years.1 However,
the international media has paid little attention to the problem. Wire stories and newspaper
articles on Colombia focus largely on the drugs issue and the political situation. Where the
internal armed conflict is mentioned, the stories usually concern guerrilla attacks on
infrastructure or the kidnapping of foreign nationals.2
Until 1995, there were nouniversally accepted figures on the scale of the problem. A year
and a half of research by the Colombian Episcopal Conference, which made full use of the
parish structures, culminated in a 1995 report which yielded a figure of 586,261 people
displaced from conflict areas between 1985 and 1994 alone.3 The figure excludes migrations
for economic and social reasons by using the following definition ofan internally displaced
person:
Every person who has been forced to migrate within the national territory,
abandoning his place of residence or his customary occupation, because his
life, physical integrity or freedom has been rendered vulnerable or is
threatened due to the existence of any of the following man-caused situations:
internal armed conflict, internal disturbances or tensions,widespread violence,
massive violations of human rights or other circumstances originating from
prior situations that can disturb or disturb drastically public order.4
The levels of internal displacement are continuing to rise. Despite expectations created by
President Samper's human rights proposals which included a number of policies designed to
tackle the problem of displacement, more than25,000 people were forcibly displaced in the
first nine months of President Samper's administration (July 1994 - March 1995) from only
four regions of the country.5
The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the historical roots of the problem of
internal displacement in Colombia and its current manifestations and consider its likely
development in the light of the current politicalcrisis and the intensifying internal armed
conflict.

1 United Nations, Economic and Social Council, Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr.
Francis Deng, Submitted Pursuant to Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1993/95. Addendum: Profiles
in Displacement: Colombia, E/CN.4/1995/50/Add. 1, 3 October 1994, para. 11
2 See Writenet, Latin America and the Caribbean: Review ofCurrent Events, 1 October 1994 - 31 August
1995, (UNHCR/CDR REFWORLD Databases) for examples of media stories already selected for their greater
explanatory value.
3 Exodo [Bogotá], “A Chilling Diagnosis: People Displaced by Violence in Colombia Between 1985 and
1994”, No.1 (July-August 1995), p. 16
4 United Nations, Economic and Social Council, 3 October 1994, para. 12
5 Exodo [Bogotá],...