Impunity law for paramilitaries in Colombia

5.7.2005

ORAL QUESTION H-0584/05
for Question Time at the part-session in September I 2005
pursuant to Rule 109 of the Rules of Procedure
by Sahra Wagenknecht
to the Council

The Colombian government has recently passed a law through Congress, with the resounding support of Members with links to paramilitary groups, guaranteeing paramilitaries de facto impunity and thus also enabling known drug traffickers to escape justice.

 

This law has been strongly criticised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' representative in Colombia  and by all human rights organisations.

 

At Cartagena the European Union, and the United Kingdom in particular, made it clear that the continuation of aid to Colombia was conditional upon a legal framework for the demobilisation of paramilitaries.

 

What stance does the Council intend to adopt towards the Colombian government following its decision in support of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and which represents a serious attack on the rights of victims to secure truth, justice and compensation?

 

Does the Council believes that it can continue to encourage police cooperation with a country that makes such generous concessions to known terrorists and drug traffickers?

 

 

Tabled: 05.07.2005

de