CASE N° CO/01 - Pedro Nel Jiménez Obando
CASE N° CO/02 - Leonardo Posada Pedraza
CASE N° CO/03 - Octavio Vargas Cuéllar
CASE N° CO/04 - Pedro Luis Valencia Giraldo
CASE N° CO/06 - Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa
CASE N° CO/08 - Manuel Cepeda Vargas

Resolution adopted without a vote by the Inter-Parliamentary Council
at its 168th session (Havana, 7 April 2001)

The Inter-Parliamentary Council,

Referring to the outline of the case of Mr. Pedro Nel Jiménez Obando, Mr. Leonardo Posada Pedraza, Mr. Octavio Vargas Cuéllar, Mr. Pedro Luis Valencia Giraldo, Mr. Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa and Mr. Manuel Cepeda Vargas of Colombia, as contained in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/168/13(c)-R.1), and to the relevant resolution adopted at its 167th session (October 2000),

Taking account of the information provided by one of the sources on 28 January and 26 March 2001,

Recalling that the MPs concerned, members of the Unión Patriótica, were all assassinated between 1986 and 1994 and that only in the case of Senator Cepeda Vargas, murdered on 9 August 1994, have the perpetrators of the crime been identified; they are two army non-commissioned officers (NCOs), Mr. Justo Gil Zúñiga Labrador and Mr. Hernando Medina Camacho, who were discharged from the military in November 1999; recalling that the Attorney General had indicted paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño as the presumed instigator of the crime; the court nevertheless acquitted him,

Noting that the judgment handed down at first instance sentencing the two NCOs to 43 years' imprisonment was ratified by the Bogotá High Court on 28 January 2001, which upheld Carlos Castaños's acquittal,

Noting that on 5 January 2001 the lawyer of Mr. Cepeda's family lodged an official complaint with the "Procurador General de la Nación" in connection with the serious allegations that the two NCOs, while they were supposed to be in preventive detention, were implicated in the killing on 14 July 1999 of Lieutenant Talero Suárez; noting also that both have meanwhile been formally accused of involvement in that murder,

Noting that the sources have pointed out that the de facto freedom of movement the NCOs have enjoyed may well explain the death threats against Senator Cepeda's son and daughter-in-law, which have forced them into exile, the disappearance of the wife and the daughter of the main witness in the Cepeda case and the attempt, in December 1999, to kidnap the second daughter of the witness,

Recalling that, according to information supplied by the Human Rights Office of the Vice-President of the Republic in October 2000, investigations into these death threats are still at the preliminary stage; as regards the disappearance of the wife and daughter of the main witness in the Cepeda case, the Human Rights Office was gathering information to establish the facts,

Recalling that paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño Gil is wanted for the murder of Senator Jaramillo and that the Attorney General's Office charged Carlos and Fidel Castaño and Gustavo Meneses on 9 December 1998 with criminal association and homicide for terrorist purposes,

Recalling that, according to the authorities, special measures have been taken to combat impunity and that they are relevant to the cases under consideration, namely the establishment of a "Search Squad for private justice groups", set up in December 1997 under Presidential Decree 2895 with the mandate, inter alia, to act in support of the Attorney General's Office in the enforcement of arrest warrants, together with the establishment by the Attorney General's Office, in 1999, of 26 sub-units in as many sectional directorates for the purpose of investigating crimes committed against Unión Patriótica members,

Noting that the 2001 report on Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out that "Carlos Castaño Gil had gained public visibility in the national and international media with disconcerting ease and that while paramilitary operations were still on the rise, they had not encountered any governmental action aimed at stopping them; that by contrast with the large military offensives against the guerrillas, deploying huge human and logistic resources in campaigns that last for weeks, the results of the Government's anti?paramilitary policy … were patchy",

1. Deeply regrets that the authorities have failed to respond to its requests for information;

2. Is alarmed that the murderers of Senator Cepeda enjoy de facto freedom of movement, as evidenced by the accusation of their involvement in a murder which occurred at a time when they were supposed to be in preventive detention; urges the authorities to ensure without delay that they serve their sentence as required by law; urges them also to transfer them to a civilian prison, particularly since they have been discharged from the army and there is no longer any reason to maintain them on military premises;

3. Can but consider that the privileges they enjoy in the "Cuatro Bolas" military prison lend credence to the fear that they may have been involved in the death threats against Ivan Cepeda, the disappearance of the wife and daughter of the main witness in the Cepeda case and the attempt to kidnap his second daughter in December 1999; reiterates its wish to ascertain progress made in the relevant investigations;

4. Notes with deep regret that, despite the adoption of legislation and the establishment of machinery, the perpetrators in five of the six murders of parliamentarians have still not been brought to justice, even when their identity is known or strongly suspected;

5. Firmly believes that the fight against the paramilitary groups is crucial to solving these cases, and urges the authorities to take effective action to this end in line with the recommendations made by the competent United Nations human rights bodies;

6. Fears that a continuing lack of results in the investigations into the murder of the other MPs concerned may compel it to conclude that the authorities bear responsibility in these crimes by reason of their failure to fulfil their duty of identifying and bringing to justice those who perpetrated them;

7. Requests the Secretary General to bring this resolution to the attention of the Colombian parliamentary authorities, the appropriate governmental authorities and the Human Rights Office of the Vice-President of the Republic, and to seek the requested information from them;

8. Requests the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session (September 2001).

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