MP’S concern over Colombia

ROCHDALE’S MP has spoken out in parliament over human rights abuses in Colombia.

Tony Lloyd told a debate in Westminster Hall that the British Government, as a friend of Colombia, has a responsibility to be active in demanding action to disarm paramilitaries, work for a peace agreement and bring state forces under real control.

The MP welcomed the British Government’s role in the peace process and urged Britain to help the Colombian Government establish mechanisms to ensure that impunity becomes less likely.

On Wednesday, April 20, he said: “This is an important debate, and it is worth making the important point that when we talk about the peace process, it is a process, not a conclusion.

“My hon. Friend Christian Matheson made the point that this has been the longest-running civil war that the world has known; actually, Colombia is still in a state of civil war.

“The ELN is still active, and parts of the FARC have returned to armed combat because of the failure of the Colombian Government to implement the peace process and their commitments.

“The paramilitaries—who always were the biggest killers in Colombia—are more than active, and there is a need to disarm all those groups, but the Colombian state is also a perpetrator of the kind of violence that my hon. Friend Kate Osborne mentioned a few moments ago.”

Colombia is experiencing high levels of violence, with attacks against community leaders, human rights defenders and former combatants and women.

This violence is continuing despite a historic peace agreement reached in 2016 with the largest paramilitary force in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

There were major protests in Colombia from April to August 2021. These were sparked by opposition to a proposed tax reform but then developed into a vehicle for anger about the economic situation in Colombia, and police violence.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) raised serious concerns about the use of violence by police dealing with the protests.

As part of a Peace Monitoring mission the Labour MP travelled to Colombia and has been involved with the British NGO, Justice for Colombia ( JFC), which was founded to fight for basic human rights and an end to conflict.

He also visited Havana in Cuba to give support to peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC (the largest of the Guerilla groups).

The politician continued: “I have been involved with and interested in Colombia for well over the majority of my life.

“It has not always been a pleasure, because sometimes there is real tragedy.

“I have known people who have died – people I have counted as friends have been murdered – but anybody involved in Colombia knows that it is a beautiful country whose people are worth fighting for.

“Jim Shannon referred to the wee folk, and it is the wee folk of Colombia who we must speak up for.

“It is worth doing, because that beautiful country and those beautiful people deserve better. They can have better.

“The peace process can make a material difference, but we, as a friend of Colombia, have to work with them on it to bring it to some kind of fruition.

“It will take time, but the value of it is so enormous that it is worth doing.”

Labour MP for Liverpool, Wavertree, Paula Barker, told her fellow politicians in Westminster Hall that according to Colombia’s National Centre for Historical Memory, the conflict has claimed about 262,000 lives – 84% of them civilians.