A/HRC/10/32
page 30
32. OHCHR Colombia received information on arbitrary restrictions imposed by the army on
the transport of persons and goods such as food, medicines and fuel. Since January, for example,
troops of the 20th Mobile Brigade have been restricting the transport of food to several districts
of the municipality of El Dovio, Valle del Cauca, as a strategy in their campaign against the
illegal armed groups.
33. OHCHR Colombia has received reports of injuries to civilians, including children, caused
by crossfire in clashes between the army and FARC-EP in rural areas of the department of
Arauca. In one incident on 15 September, an 18-month-old girl was shot and lost an eye.
3.
Kidnappings
34. The guerrilla groups continued kidnapping people. In one case four students, one of them
a minor, were allegedly kidnapped by FARC-EP on 5 October in San José de Purré in Quibdó,
Chocó. On 22 March a doctor was allegedly kidnapped by FARC-EP in Ocaña, Norte de
Santander.
35. On 31 July five workers at a contractor for Ecopetrol were kidnapped in the town centre of
Orú in Tibú, Norte de Santander, allegedly by ELN.
E. Illegal armed groups that have emerged since
demobilization of paramilitary organizations
36. OHCHR Colombia has noted that offences thought to have been committed by illegal
armed groups that have emerged since the paramilitary demobilization have led to high levels of
violence against the civilian population.
37. Some of the killings allegedly committed by such groups could be characterized as “social
cleansing”, but in some municipalities and departments the rise in the number of killings seems
to be attributable to disputes between the groups themselves over control of territory and illicit
trade. Thus during the reporting period at least 70 people are thought to have died in Córdoba
department alone as a result of clashes between a group apparently headed by someone known
as Don Mario and another group called Los Paisas.
38. In January more than 50 selective killings in the cities of Barrancabermeja, Bucaramanga
and Cúcuta alone were reported to OHCHR Colombia.
39. In May, in the community of Pizarro de Bajo Baudó, Chocó, nine people were allegedly
killed by a group known as Los Rastrojos. The same group allegedly murdered a prostitute in
Orito, Putumayo, on 26 March. A community leader from Curvaradó, Chocó, was murdered on
the day he was to testify against a number of paramilitaries in a Medellín court.
40. On 24 May, the group known as Autodefensas Campesinas Nueva Generación (New
Generation Peasant Self-Defence Forces) (AC-NG) allegedly forced more than 200 displaced
persons who had arrived in Sánchez in Policarpa, Nariño, at the beginning of the month, to return
to their homes. AC-NG are allegedly responsible for death threats against human rights
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