Colombians continue to flee war

CNN
February 12, 2002

Colombians continue to flee war

                 BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- The tide of internal refugees in war-torn
                 Colombia grew heavier in 2001, when an average of 39 people were forced
                 from their homes each hour to escape leftist rebels or far-right
                 paramilitaries, a study showed on Tuesday.

                 The study said "341,925 people were displaced in 2001, because the rival sides in
                 the conflict did not respect human rights or violated the rules of war which should
                 protect civilians." The study was done by local nongovernmental organization the
                 Human Rights and Displacement Consultancy -- known by the initials CODHES.

                 With 2 million people fleeing their homes over the past decade, Colombia ranks
                 fourth in the list of countries with internally displaced people, after Afghanistan, Sri
                 Lanka and Azerbaijan, according to the United Nations.

                 Most of them are from countryside prowled by Marxist guerrillas, and by far-right
                 paramilitary outlaws who target civilian suspected collaborators with the leftist
                 rebels. Fearing for their lives, whole villages sometimes take refuge in the slums
                 around Colombia's big cities.

                 The number of internally displaced people in 2001 was up from 317,375 in 2000
                 due to the intensification of a 38-year-old war which has claimed 40,000 mainly
                 civilian lives in the past decade alone, said CODHES director Jorge Rojas.

Another 13,527 Colombians crossed the borders into neighboring countries,
especially Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama, becoming technically refugees.

                 President Andres Pastrana is trying to negotiate peace with the largest guerrilla
                 group, the 17,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or "FARC."
                 But so far talks have done nothing to stem the bloodshed.

                 With negotiations regularly veering close to collapse, Rojas said that any total
                 breakdown could spark more fighting and cause even more people to flee to the
                 cities. The government and the FARC are supposed to clinch the first concrete
                 agreements towards a cease-fire by April 7, but combat continues to flare around
                 the country.