The Events in Santodomingo

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In the evening of the 12^th of December 1998 in a place between the townlands of Las Acacias and Caño Verde, jurisdiction of the municipality of Tame, department of Arauca, Colombia clashes occurred between guerrilla groups and the National Army with the support of airplanes and helicopters from the Colombian Air Force. The armed actions of the Colombian State institutions were helped by a Sky Master plane belonging to the USAF which provided the intelligence that facilitated the localisation of the insurgent forces on the ground.

These confrontations generated fear and tension in the area which led the local population of the townlands and adjacent hamlets to remain indoors. One of these hamlets is to be found on either side of the main paved road that links Tame to the Araucan city of Santodomingo.

The next day on the 13^th of December when the hostilities were continuing but at an irregular and decreasing rate the inhabitants of the townland of Santodomingo decided to resume normal activity and to carry out a festival which had previously been authorised by the Communal Action Ctte.

When the inhabitants of Santodomingo left their homes with their young children to take part in sports meeting at approximately 9.45 A.M on the 13/12/98 helicopters and planes from the Army and Air Force along with at least one USAF spy plane, which was used to identify targets and objectives for the bombers, flew over the townland. In order to draw attention to their status as civilians the inhabitants decided to congregate on the main road and wave white cloths as a sign of peace. Their petition was ignored by the military who attacked them from the helicopters using various rackets one of which exploded on the paved road. The resulting shrapnel and blast killed the following people amongst whom there are a number of minors.

Names Age

LUIS CARLOS NEITE MENDEZ 5 YEARS

MARGARITA TILANO 5 YEARS

ENNA MARGARITA BELLO 5 YEARS

JAIME CASTRO BELLO 4 YEARS

DEYSY CATHERINE CARDENAS TILANO 7 YEARS

JORGE VANEGAS 10 YEARS

GIOVANNY HERNANDEZ BECERRA 17 YEARS

WILFRAN GAITAN SERRATO 11 YEARS

NANCY AVILA ABAUNZA 18 YEARS

LUIS ENRIQUE PARADA ROPERO 19 YEARS

RAMON ARNULFO ARCINIEGAS CALVO 24 YEARS

LUIS ORLANDO MARTINEZ CARREÑO 25 YEARS

FERNANDO MARTINEZ 25 YEARS

EDILMA CARRILLO MORA 27 YEARS

RODOLFO CARRILLO MORA 27 YEARS

TERESA MOJICA HERNANDEZ 44 YEARS

SALOMON NEITE 58 YEARS

PABLO SUAREZ DAZA 26 YEARS

OSCAR ESNEIDER VARGAS TULIVILA

CARMEN ANTONIO DIAZ COBO

This criminal action by the Army, the Colombian Air Force and the USAF also caused the serious injury of 25 persons amongst who there are old people, women and children some of whom were left permanently injured and seriously scarred.

Once the attack was over the inhabitants abandoned their homes carrying with them the injured. Their humanitarian efforts were blocked by the Army stationed in the area who tried to prevent the arrival of the injured at the medical centres in the region.

Initially the high command of the 18^th Brigade of the National Army and the Departmental Command of the Police of Arauca informed the media that a fierce combat had taken place causing the loss of life of one soldier and more than 15 guerrillas. Later under pressure from the public denouncements of the eye witnesses they claimed that the civilian population had been hurt having been taken as human shields by the guerrillas at the same time they continued to claim that all the victims were guerrillas. Later still the Army and the FAC claimed that they had nothing to do with the events and claimed that the deaths and injuries of the civilian population had been caused by a car bomb planted by the guerrillas. This version which has been contradicted by more than 100 witnesses and victims is the version accepted by the Prosecutor’s office and Military Courts Martial. The latter has already pronounced judgement and has ordered the case to be archived.

The US authorities has remained silent on this issue. At the same time the participation of USAF crews and aircraft in this cruel event has also been covered up by the Colombian military given that this would violate the Political Constitution of Colombia which forbids the presence of foreign military forces inside our borders and demands that in order to permit the passing through of the same on land or in the national airspace that a rigorous permit be sought from the Colombian Congress and the judiciary.

What’s more this event shows that the much publicised North American military aid for the fight against drugs such as money, aircraft and military expertise has been turned into and used in a fight against the insurgency. Also as this event shows this has also resulted in grave human rights violations affecting a very vulnerable sector such as children.

The unjustifiable and indiscriminate bombardment of the people of Santodomingo where the above mentioned persons were killed also resulted in the injury of 28 others amongst whom nine minors are to be found doesn’t just show the military aggression against the civilian population but the event in and of itself constitutes a crime against humanity. The extra judicial execution of 20 persons (8 minors) all of them defenceless , as civilians, is within the systematic and continued conduct of the Colombian State as violator of human rights. All of which has been seriously questioned by the UN and recently by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights in their recent report on the Colombian situation.

The media point on a daily basis to the fact that the US Government and Congress are preparing to give more military aid . Given the grave crisis in the political situation and the situation with respect to law and order alongside the comments and athmosphere surrounding an imminent North American intervention in the internal armed conflict that Colombia suffers we can without a shadow of a doubt expect acts like those of Santodomingo to be repeated.

A group of national social and human rights organisations, principally those that took part in the International Tribunal of Opinion in Barrancabermeja on the 16^th of May along with the large marjority of the social and human rights organisations in the Department of Arauca where the evetns took place, have agreed to help carry out an International Tribunal of Opinion Santodomingo case in the US city of Chicago.

The principal aim of the Tribunal will be the clarification of the events. Despite the best efforts of the victims and their families, the human rights NGOs at regional and national level and the social organisations of the Department of Arauca, the criminal investigation is still in its preliminary stage that is to say that the Prosecutor General has yet to open a criminal investigation because they have yet to find individuals who may be responsible.

The National Government by means of a presidential decree created an Inter-institutional Commission to clarify these and other events in the Department of Arauca. However, unfortunately the lack of political will and the inaction of the organisms of control and investigation of the State have not allowed any progress to made in any of the events investigated by that commission.

We want the International Tribunal of Opinion to judge the Santodomingo case, to make a judgement, to encourage and make the Colombian State to respect and enforce the universal human rights and the rights of the peoples. They should decide whether these rights have been violated examining the causes of such violations and denouncing the material and intellectual authors nationally and internationally. At the same time we aim to generate a body of opinion in the US to facilitate a deep discussion on the military aid offered to the Colombian Government when this is used in acts taken against the civilian population and in the commission of serious human rights abuses such as the present case.

Some of the national organisations involved in promoting the Tribunal are

Corporación Colectivo de Abogados ‘José Alvear Restrepo’, Familia Franciscana, Corporación Humanidad Vigente, Corporación Sembrar, Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos, Red de Hermandad, Cebs, Comisión Justicia y Paz, Asociación MINGA.

Regional organisations

Comité Regional de Derechos Humanos ‘Joel Sierra’, Asociación Departmental de Usuarios Campesinos- ADUC, Central Unitaria de Trabajadores-CUT directiva Arauca, Asociación Juvenil Estudiantil Regional-ASOJER, Federación de Juntas Comunales de Arauca, Comité Regional Indígena de Arauca-CRIA, and Relatives and Victims of the Santodomingo case.