September 19, 2000

Canadian churches hold Colombian government responsible for Embera Katio disappeared by paramilitary and call for prompt intervention to save their lives

Toronto – In a strongly worded message to President Pastrana sent today, more than 22 Canadian churches and religious communities called for quick intervention by the Colombian government to save the lives of 21 members of Embera Katio communities disappeared by paramilitary forces on September 16.

“Today we received alarming news that four members of the Embera Katio nation from the department of Cordoba were murdered and 21 others among them several Embera leaders and people whom Canadian church representatives met with this summer during a visit to Colombia have been forcibly disappeared, their whereabouts still unknown,” states the letter, signed by Joe Gunn of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on behalf of other Catholic and Protestant churches and religious congregations.

The letter to President Pastrana was a prompt response to reports from Canadian church partners in Colombia that 22 Embera Katio travelling in three canoes were stopped at the Mouth of the Verde River on September 16 by heavily armed men who seized their supplies and abducted them.

Taken away were Ricardo Bailarin and Nariño Domico (both subsequently released), Efrain Chamarra, Elkin Rubiano, Amado Domico, Rigoberto Domico, Alvaro Rubiano, Rubit Domico, Miguel Domico Garcia, Saul Bailarin, Oraime Domico, Martin Casama, Algarin Domico, Domicilio Guasaruca, Luis Alberto Cabrera, Agustin Pernia, Irenia Domico Chara, Loliria Domico, Diana Domico, Maritza Domico, Horacio Bailarin and German Domico.

Later that day, gunmen also abducted from his home Maximiliano Domico, leader of the Embera community of Dosá.

On Sunday, September 17, paramilitary forces arrived by helicopter in the Upper Sinu Embera community of Widó and abducted Aquilino Jarupia Bailarin and Antonio Domico. Their bodies were found hours later as was the body of Miguel Bailarin, another Embera leader who was abducted in Tierralta on September 16 by four armed men who beat him up in front of his wife and took him away in a taxi.

Embera health promoter Januario Cabrera Lana was also abducted and murdered on September 16 in the community of Sorandó by four armed men.

“The Canadian churches are deeply alarmed by this latest assault against the Embera people,” states the letter by the Canadian churches to President Pastrana.

Continues the letter: “The Canadian churches have received credible and overwhelming evidence including from officials employed by the Urra Dam — of the cosy relationship between state security forces and paramilitary groups operating in the region. For this reason, we hold the Colombian government responsible for what happens to those Embera whose whereabouts remain unknown and call for your immediate intervention to ensure their safe release.”

The Canadian churches also called on President Pastrana to “conduct a thorough investigation into the murders and disappearances which have occurred, take energetic measures to prosecute those responsible and furthermore, to sever all ties between paramilitary groups and state security forces.”

Canadian links with Embera Katio: The Canadian churches, members of the Canadian Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America and a broad Jubilee 2000 coalition have adopted the Embera Katio of the Upper Sinu as part of an action campaign to address violations of indigenous land rights by corporations, megaprojects and government bodies.

“Canadians are particularly sensitive to the plight of the Embera Katio people as it was with Canadian money (channelled through the Export Development Corporation) that the Urra I Hydro-electric dam was constructed downstream from Embera communities,” states the Canadian churches’ letter to President Pastrana.

In 1999, Canada’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade heard testimony from the Embera Katio about how the Urra Dam was flooding their land, had brought mosquitoes and malaria and eliminated fish in the tributaries above the dam where their communities are located. Without fish, the mainstay of their diet, the Embera are suffering higher levels of disease and premature death due to malnutrition.

“Anyone who dares to speak out about Urra is accused of being involved with the guerrilla and with that pretext, paramilitary forces have declared both our communities and leaders to be a military target,” the Canadian parliamentarians were told by an Embera spokesperson at hearings in the House of Commons. The Embera Katio testimony was taken very seriously by the Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committee, which called it “compelling” in its report to the Canadian government and responded by recommending policy changes to require environmental and human rights criteria for any future Export Development Corporation funding of projects in Colombia.

The Embera Katio’s plight is expected to be the focus of attention once again this fall as Canadian parliamentarian consider new legislation regarding overseas investment.

For more information or to obtain an interview, contact : Kathy Price, Communications Coordinator Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (416) 921-0801, ext. 23; icchrla@web.net