The IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians is increasingly asked to help ensure respect for fair trial for Colombian parliamentarians accused of links with paramilitary groups. Revelations about such connections began to surface in 2006, when the head of the umbrella paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), Mr. Salvatore Mancuso, affirmed that more than 30% of the Colombian Congress "were friends" of his organization. His statement came in the wake of a "justice and peace process" offering lenient prison sentences to demobilised paramilitary members if they confessed their crimes fully, made redress, told the truth, and refrained from further criminal activity. Numerous allegations have since been made about politicians working in tandem with paramilitary groups to gain electoral support in return for help to extend paramilitary control over key parts of Colombian territory.
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A full examination of these allegations offers a real opportunity to find out exactly what political support paramilitary groups enjoyed. But there are many pitfalls. Demobilised paramilitary members, who have violated Colombia's laws in the most horrendous way, do not easily make for credible witnesses. Unhappy with their treatment, it is alleged that they have accused officials close to the government of paramilitary links to settle personal scores. Others are allegedly manipulated into making accusations by people wishing to get rid of their political foes. Fierce confrontations between the Government and the Supreme Court, which has been investigating many of the current President's closest allies, has done little to allay concerns that criminal proceedings are based on more than legal considerations.
In light of this highly complex legal and political context, the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians has said from the outset that all efforts to investigate and try members of Congress suspected of paramilitary links must be in strict compliance with fair trial guarantees. Yet, a delegation led by Committee Vice-Chair, Senator Rosario Green (Mexico), which went to Bogotá last year to meet with President Uribe and other key executive, judicial and parliamentary authorities, expressed great concerns over failures to respect the rights of members of Congress to a fair trial. A legal expert mandated by the Committee to observe the trial of former parliamentarian Alváro Araújo Castro concluded that the criminal proceedings against him ran counter to basic principles of due process.
The Committee fully shared his findings and is deeply concerned that Mr. Araújo, who was found guilty in March of this year, cannot appeal his sentence, as current and former members of Congress are investigated and judged at single instance by the Supreme Court. The Committee will continue, whenever requested, to monitor criminal proceedings against Colombian members of Congress and to dispatch trial observers to help press for respect for fair trial. The Committee will also continue its work with the Colombian authorities, in particular the newly elected Colombian Congress, with a view to overhauling the procedure applicable to Colombian parliamentarians, so as to make it fully compatible with fundamental fair trial standards, including the right to appeal.
