Open letter
Mr. ALEJANDRO ORDONEZ
National Inspector General's Office
Bogotá
We, the members of the Ethics Commission for Truth, which accompanies the Movement of Victims of State Crimes, are familiar with the work of Senator Piedad Cordoba Ruiz, for the humanization of the internal armed conflict and the defense of human rights. Because of this we reject the false accusations made against her on 13 April.
Respectfully, we also note that we are not surprised at your decision to open an investigation against the leader of Colombians for Peace and who, from the Senate through a Hoc Committee, along with members of the Movement of Victims have been exploring the true reasons for the extradition of paramilitary commanders and who have collected information, accounts that reveal the criminal network of the government and the State at the highest level, military and business interests protected by this mechanism of isolation and silencing.
Mr. Attorney:
We have heard from victims of State crimes and their delgated Attorneys in serious cases of human rights violations implicating high-ranking military figures, such as Rito Alejo del Río, responsible for crimes against humanity and those responsible for the retaking of the Palacio de Justicia are protected by their functionaries with weak arguments seeking the acquittal of those responsible, to the detriment of the rights of their victims, despite the findings of fact and law, and sound logic expressed by civilian parties.
We are familiar with your open disregard for the rights of same-sex couples or the possibility that under certain conditions women may wish to choose abortion.
We have heard your declaration in favour of re-election that ignores the improper, illegal and unlawful conduct in promoting the collection of signatures for the referendum in favour of Alvaro Uribe Velez.
These background facts are serious and encourage us to make a legal and ethical appeal to you.
We believe that the false accusations againt Senator Piedad Córdoba are against the law and coincide with the prosecution and the DAS espionage against judges of the Supreme Court, the political opposition and 32 organisations working for human rights and peace, as indicated by the 2010 report of the Interamerican Commission. The false accusations against Piedad Córdoba are consistent with the ideological, arbitrary, baseless operations and illegal security control of the DAS and the Attorney General.
You accuse the senator of ties with the FARC-EP, of alleged acts that would tend towards splitting national unity by a call to break diplomatic relations with Colombia.
Some of us have been first-hand witnesses to her humanitarian action and at no point has there been a decision to interact to bring about actions against the Constitution rather there is a deep conviction to procure the freedom of the kidnap victims, the need for humanisation of the armed conflict and the call to reject all that is inhuman and unjust.
Some of us have heard her in Central America, Europe, the U.S. and Colombia, her statements must be interpreted in their proper context and not in such a biased way. Her call for the breaking of diplomatic relations is part of freedom of opinion and expression, and this can not criminalised, this declaration sums up the gravity of the situation in Colombia, is an profound appeal to awaken solidarity.
The Attorney General’s office, that you head, knows that the illegal bombing in Ecuador, contrary to international norms, had access to computer data, which was not kept in the required way, failing to satisfy to the principles of law for safeguarding evidence.
Your unfounded decision has direct consequences for the victims of war, for the extension of the inhumanity of the internal conflict, distracting from the issue of peace, which immobilize, hinder and criminalize humanitarian actions for peace, truth, and justice in Colombia, as led by Senator Piedad Cordoba.
Our appeal is not only to act in accordance with the basic law. She is not only falsely accused, but finds out through the media, and is then subjected to public ridicule.
Our appeal is also ethical. We know of your faith, and from that perspective, those of use who are believers and non-Christians invite you to stop this absurd allegation and assess the implications of this for the direct victims of war, through the continuation of the inhumanity of the internal conflict. Your unfounded accusation distracts us from pursuing peace, it immobilizes, hinders and criminalizes humanitarian action for peace in Colombia, as led by Senator Piedad Córdoba and conceals the criminality in the country.
Our call to your conscience is in favour of the victims, to promote life, and democracy so that people currently suffering the internal armed conflict can someday live in peace, recover the freedom to rebuild a democracy.
From today we have to bear our witness, to recur to your office to listen to our appeals, because these accusations are not only against Piedad Córdoba, but against the victims and those who advocate for peace in Colombia.
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Premio Nóbel de Paz, SERPAJ; Argentine
Francois Houtart, teólogo, sociólogo, director del Centro Tricontinental (CETRI), y miembro fundador del Foro Social Mundial, Belgium
Mirta Baravalle; Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, Línea Fundadora, Argentina
Bernardine Dohrn, abogada y docente en la Universidad Northwest Chicago, directora del Centro de Justicia para los niños y la familia; EEUU
Elizabeth Deligio, Observatorio de la Escuela de las Américas; EEUU
Sean Hawkey. Consejo Mundial de Iglesias; Gran Bretaña
Mary Bricker-Jenkins, PhD, Miembro del Comité Internacional de Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign; EEUU
Stephen Haymes, Universidad DePAul; EEUU
Eduard Nachmann, integrante de H.I.J.O.S. ciudad de Buenos Aires; Argentina
Rainer Huhle, Centro de DDHH de Nuremberg; Alemania
Dr. Gilberto López y Rivas, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; México
Carlos Fazio, periodista, investigador y catedrático de la UNAM; México
Comisión Ética contra la Tortura en Chile (Santiago de Chile, Valparaíso, Temuco, Sur); Chile
Enrique Santiago, abogado, Instituto de Estudios Políticos de América Latina y África, España
Rick Upper-Chase, director ejecutivo del Presbyterian Peace Fellowship de la iglesia Menonita, Chicago; EEUU
Libertad Sánchez, Asociación por la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica de Mérida y Comarca; España
Miguel Álvarez, presidente de Serapaz; México
Enrique Nuñez, Enrique Pérez, Agrupación Ex – presos y expresas políticos; Chile
France – Amerique Latin; Francia
Tica Font, Directora del Instituto Catalán Internacional para la Paz; Espai Catalunya-Comissió Ètica; España
Antoni Pigrau, profesor de derechos Internacional, Espai Catalunya-Comissió Ètica, Spain
Comunidad de Santo Tomas de Aquino; España
Lorenzo Loncón, Werken; werken comunidad mapuche newen mapa, Pueblo Mapuche