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Punishments on women's organizations

- I woke up from three shots, but didn't know that one killed my husband. Later, black-clad soldiers came and lit houses and cattle in the village. They gave us ten minutes to get us away – after forcing us to slaughter our chickens and prepare food for them.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

- My husband was fishing with a friend, but did not return in the morning. I ran everywhere and asked for him. I heard that he had been shot and thrown off a cliff. That the gold chain around his neck was gone. Many of the carpentry jobs he had not demanded money for, Maria del Carmen continues, while the nine- and ten-year-old daughters hug close to their mother.

Everything was on fire

- Flor and Rosalba, my daughters, have been wearing the same dresses since we fled. What we wear is everything we own. Clothes, tools, and fields were on fire as we ran for our lives down to the river. People from the village were tied up and thrown into the river, some hanged. We had to get to safety on the other side of the river as soon as possible. Thought it was safe in the oil capital Barrancabermeja, says Maria del Carmen in a weak voice.

Now she and around two hundred other refugees have lived in a fairy-tale place under a makeshift roof for almost two weeks in Barranca, which is called the oil capital of the people. Included village people lie in hammocks and on foam rubber mattresses between box stacks, plastic bags and laundry to dry. A woman is constantly scrubbing dirty clothes against a flat stone. Outside of open flame, rice, sweet potatoes, bananas and river fish put in the pots.

Disguised soldiers

- Here at Fesjåplassen, we were 800 refugees from nine river villages in the first days. Many have now been accommodated by acquaintances and relatives in Barranca. The authorities have so far shown no interest in us. Without the local women's organizations, we would not have survived, says Maria del Carmen.

- Who attacked you?

Maria del Carmen gets mute, but the others start talking in each other's mouths:

- The authorities want it to be right-wing extremist soldiers outside the law, so-called paramilitary forces. But we are sure that it was government soldiers who had changed clothes. For helicopters circled over the village all the time. No one other than Colombia's defense has helicopters. And why did they do nothing to stop the attacks? At least then the government soldiers cooperated with the paramilitary forces that have secret death lists. Names of alleged guerrilla sympathizers to be liquidated. For our part, we have had enough of both the guerrillas and the paramilitary. The only "crazy" thing we have done is live in an area dominated by the ELN guerrillas.

death squads

The refugees have a lot on their minds. Because they have experienced exactly what countless UN and Human Rights Watch reports have documented. Namely, that parts of the Colombian army cooperate with private illegal armies and fail to intervene when the death squads attack a village. The special thing about the violence in Colombia is that the guerrillas and the paramilitary do not fight directly against each other, but kill civilian sympathizers on both sides.

To date, one and a half million Colombians are refugees in their own country, most of them from Colombia's richest areas. Because where the resources are concentrated, the violence is greatest. And the worst is in Magdalena Medio. An area about 20 miles north of the capital Bogotá. There it flows of oil, gold, emeralds – and blood. In addition, coca production – a raw material for cocaine – increased tenfold during the 90s.

Until the turn of the year, Barrancabermeja was the only city in Magdalena Medio that was not taken by the paramilitaries. Therefore, a large number of villagers have fled there. In addition, Barranca has been known as a radical city with an active trade union movement in the oil industry. And the country's second largest guerrilla, the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), rooted in Marxist-Leninism and liberation theology, has controlled the northern part of the city.

The city is being combed

Just having an escape story is suspicious. The front figures in the trade union movement have either been killed, imprisoned or in exile. Since the New Year, the paramilitaries have put in the death blow, and the city is now being combed for guerrilla sympathizers. Quarter by quarter. Street by street. House by house, says Matilde Vargas of the Organización Femenina Popular (OFP), which organizes around 2000 women. OFP provides, among other things, legal and medical assistance to widows, orphans, refugees and other victims of violence and finances education for poor youth.

Be careful! You are cooperating with the guerrillas! Then he turned his rifle and shot her dog.

- The police know where the paramilitaries are and claim to issue arrest warrants, but they do nothing, points out Yolanda Becerra, the leader of OFP. She herself received a death threat just before March 8 this year, and the paramilitaries threatened the city's women not to participate in an March 8 event.

Women's house

The Norwegian Refugee Council – the only Norwegian aid organization that has set up an office in Colombia – expresses strong concern about the violence that affects civilians, everyone who organizes themselves and aid projects.

- In addition to working with internally displaced persons, we support OFP's women's project, which includes eight women's houses in the area. We assume that the women are in danger of death, and that it is a matter of time before they can last. It is obvious that paramilitary groups undermine all organized relief work. If the international community does not protest massively to get the government to protect the civilian population, the women's organizations may be gone for good in a few months, says Turid Legreid, the Refugee Council's former representative in Colombia.

In that case, it means the annihilation of the women's alliance Pacific Route de Mujeres in Colombia – which was awarded the UN's newly established Global Peace Prize in March this year.

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