A/HRC/7/39
page 29
members of the Taurema Battalion and the investigation was taken by Military Criminal
Court 13. The investigation of the killing of a peasant farmer on 26 April in Abrego,
Norte de Santander, allegedly committed by members of Battalion 15, was sent to Military
Criminal Court 37.
13. The office was also informed of cases in which prosecutors of the civil jurisdiction sent
case files opened for homicides with characteristics of extrajudicial executions to the military
jurisdiction. In the case of the murder of the president of the Community Action Board of
La Union, Yondó, on 25 June, the Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Barrancabermeja sent the case
to Military Criminal Court 14. In several cases of civilians reported as killed in combat in
Aguazul, Casanare, the Attorney General’s Office remitted the cases to the Military Criminal
Courts.
14. The office was informed that certain judges in the criminal military system who intended
to return case files to the civil courts came under pressure from the commanding officers of the
units.
15. The office also received information on cases in which the work of the justice system was
obstructed. On 15 February, after a clash in which four individuals died in La Gloria, Cesar,
police personnel had no access to the crime scene, and the official reports on the bodies were
prepared by Army personnel.
E. The right to private life and inviolability of domicile
16. On 26 January, a peasant farmer was detained by Army personnel in Fortul, Arauca,
accused of being a guerrilla. He was taken to Bogotá, where he was presented before several
national media. Two days later he was released, due to an error of identification.
17. On 25 January, soldiers of the Mechanized Infantry Battalion No. 3, entered the indigenous
reserve of Chagui Chimbuza, Nariño, and with no judicial order, searched the houses of several
members of the Awá indigenous communities.
18. Human rights organizations in Bogotá, such as JUSTAPAZ (Centro Cristiano para Justicia,
Paz y Acción Noviolenta) and Corporación Juridica Yira Castro, reported that during June,
August and November their offices were broken into, and the hard disks containing information
on their work with victims were stolen from their computers.
F. The right to freedom of opinion and expression
19. The Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP, Foundation for Press Freedom)
recorded 92 cases of death threats against journalists.
20. In Bogotá, in September, the journalists Hollman Morris and Gonzalo Guillén received
death threats over the telephone and by e-mail, as a result of their work on human rights issues
and the process of demobilization of paramilitaries
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