Article for The City Paper on the Colombian Victims' and Land Restitution Law

Article for The City Paper, Bogotá

'Of Land and Victims'

A piece on the new Victims and Land Restitution Law written for the City Paper, Bogotá, on 1 June 2011.

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The words of Christian Salazar Volkmann, Representative of the UN's Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Colombia, pay eloquent testimony to the transcendence of the Victims and Land Restitution Law, approved by the Colombian Congress and Senate on 1 June 2011.

"The ratification of the Victims and Land Restitution Law marks a historical advance", Salazar said.  "It is the culmination of an effort, initiated by President Juan Manuel Santos, to place victims truly at the centre of attention.  Its implementation will mean a new horizon of hope in the search for peace and reconciliation in the country".

All those who care for the fortunes of this tragic, stoic and magnificent country will hope that Salazar's prediction comes true in the years ahead.  There is no doubt as to the political, intellectual and moral commitment that President Santos, his key Ministers and the leading Senators behind the Law - principally the Liberal Party's Juan Fernando Cristo - have for the process.  As the President himself said in the Congress when presenting the key debate: "if this Law alone is passed, it will have been worthwhile being President".

Over the past fifty years, Colombia's internal armed conflict has led to the deaths of thousands of people and to the displacement of millions more.  As the acclaimed recent film 'Los Colores de la Montaña' powerfully and poignantly showed, whole communities have been torn apart, trapped between the FARC and the paramilitaries, drawn inexorably into a conflict not of their making and fuelled by the drugs trade.

Large-scale human rights abuses have been committed by both sides, and by the Colombian Army, and displacement from rural areas to the outskirts and slums of the country's major cities has been the inevitable outcome.  Despite the valiant efforts of civil society and the media to raise awareness of the plight of the victims of the conflict, the vast majority have languished anonymously in precarious (under-)employment and poverty in the cities. 

With the exception of particularly egregious or symbolic cases, such as the massacres in El Salado or Bojayá, many of the country's most grievous experiences of violence and displacement have still been neither recognised nor told; nor less, publicly acknowledged and then, perhaps, forgiven.

The Victims Law seeks to make the first steps towards changing this, by returning several million hectares of stolen agricultural lands to their rightful owners and by providing symbolic financial compensation for all victims of the conflict. 

All observers agree that there will be pitfalls along the way.  Already, as many as eight community leaders and human rights defenders seeking to initiate the restitution process have been assassinated.  A plethora of corrupt lawyers and vested interests are showing signs of seeking to obstruct the process at every turn, particularly in regions where the conflict remains acute or where crimes have been particularly heinous. 

A number of powerful politicians, including former President Uribe and the more radical factions of the 'U' Party, view elements of the Law as an instinctive threat.  And, last but not least, some question the compatibility of the families' return to their land with the Government's simultaneous promotion of large-scale agriculture, mining and hydrocarbons extraction across the country.  What kind of future awaits those who do manage to return to their land?

Despite the legitimate worries, however, there is much hope.  As similar processes around the world have shown, most notably the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-Apartheid South Africa, any society's attempts to heal its wounds from a protracted conflict or injustice necessarily imply both impressive moral and political leadership, and a collective acceptance that such a process is timely and justified.  These conditions both seem now to exist in Colombia. 

 

When President Santos signs the legislation into force in mid-June, in the company of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, a major new chapter in Colombia's history will begin.  The President is to be applauded for his leadership; and the international community should provide the full force of their backing for the Law.