FICIB (International Federation of LIBERTAD
Committees) wishes to protest and to express sympathy on the killing of
the indigenous leader Mr Edwin Legarda, husband of Aída Quilcué,
prominent leader of the Regional Council of Indigenous Peoples of Cauca
(CRIC).
The event took place on the road between
San Pedro Del Bosque and Totoro, in the south of Colombia. According to
the indigenous organisations, members of the José Hilario Lopez
battalion of the National Army's 31st division, based in a farm in the
region, fired 17 bullets indiscriminately in the direction of a car
belonging to CRIC, which the councillor used on a daily basis. These
facts have been confirmed by the Minister of Defence.
According to the Indigenous Organisations
in Colombia, this action was the result of a deliberate attempt to
target Mrs Aída Quilcué, in revenge for the important part she had
played at a recent national mobilisation of indigenous peoples and her
active participation at the UN Conference on Human Rights in Geneva
where Colombia was examined as part of a regular and general audit.
The national indigenous organisation had
previously criticised death threats made by paramilitary groups against
members of CRIC, and in particular against the leader Aída Quilcué.
FICIB was among the European
organisations who last October and November accompanied the Indigenous
Mobilisation and who reject these acts of violence, the aim of which is
to create fear and silence the voice of the Indigenous population in
Colombia who demand lawfully their human rights.
Many voices worldwide united in
solidarity with the long march of indigenous people and called on the
Colombian government to protect leaders and participants on this walk
instead of criminalising the social movement or using any form of
reprisals or violent persecution. This crime can be added to the 1,253
killings of members of the indigenous communities, which was one of the
reasons which led to the October mobilisation in the form of a national
March.
With other Human Rights NGOs, we call on
the President of Colombia, Mr Alvaro Uribe, as Head of the Armed Forces:
- To have this crime investigated, one
that has plunged Aída Quilcué into mourning with her family and
the national indigenous movement.
- To help enforce the law in an
exemplary manner on those who ordered and on those who carried out
the killing.
- To guarantee that the State of
Colombia will preserve the lives and the rights of the indigenous
people; and to work effectively to dismantle criminal plots against
the indigenous people and an end to the criminalisation of campaigns
organised by the people.
We offer our deepest expressions of
sympathy to Mrs Aída Quilcué, to the Regional Council of the
Indigenous people of Cauca and to the National Movement. We wish to
express our unconditional support for her non-violent campaign for the
constitutional rights of the indigenous people to their lands, their
culture and their autonomy in a country where peace and social justice
are the norm.