Final Session of Permanent Peoples Tribunal in Bogota

The Final Session of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal containing a judgement of the activities of multinationals in Colombia has just finished here in Bogota. This three day event was the culmination of a two year process involving six preliminary sessions on the food industry, mining sector, biodiversity, oil industry, public services and indigenous peoples.

Around 2, 000 people attended the tribunal at the National University in Bogota, including many who had travelled large distances in social movement delegations from all over Colombia. It was all due to take place in a large auditorium but as an orchestra needed the space to practice in the mornings these sessions were transferred to a nearby outdoor sports hall. It was almost impossible to follow the speeches in this change of venue, even for native Spanish speakers, so after the first day, when the charges from the preliminary audiences were presented there, the programme was changed to ensure no more speeches would be delivered there. Not being able to attend the recent indigenous peoples hearing due to a clash with the first gathering of the Colombia Friendship Network this section was particularly interesting, and included information on the negtive impacts of ecotourism projects in the Guajira region on the Atlantic coast, palm oil plantations in the Choco and Orinoco, which as well as causing mass displacement desecrate indigenous holy sites, and the murders of indigenous peoples in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta - 400 were killed last year.

Although invited to attend, only two companies responded in any way, the tourist agency Aviatur who claimed that there was no space for public debate at the tribunal, although there was this opportunity during the preliminary hearings, and Metroagua. The charges were also sent to the embassies of the countries where the multinationals HQ are (Spain, US, UK, Holland, South Africa and Switzerland) but none of them responded.

The afternoon sessions on the opening day consisted of talks on the background of multinationals in Colombia, from the 1928 massacre of workers by the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita brands) to the upsurge in paramilitarism and privitizations of the 1990s, through to the impunity and consolidation of the present day. We were overwhelmed with figures such as the estimated 300,000 killed by political violence during the last 10 years and the 5 million missing from the 2005 census, who have left the country or are in internal exile. We were told of the extensive support in the planning of the war from US, UK, Israeli and South African 'experts', with experience in repression of civil populations. In this final phase massacres by the paramilitaries and army is being replaced by targetted assasinations and a policy of 'assisencialismo' (a kind of development or welfare model) which involves the depoliticisation of communities through NGOs and religious groups.

We were told of the 11 'priority zones' comprising 58 municipalities - Cordoba, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Catatumbo, Southern Bolivar, the Bajo and Medio Atrato in the Choco, the Northern Cauca, Tumaco in Narino, Arauco, the Southern Zone covering much of the Amazon, and Putumayo. These areas of strategic importance have also seen the highest rates of political violence in recent years.

The increasing inequality was highlighted by figures showing decreasing salaries whilst GNP has been rising at a rate of around 7% recently. Whilst prices are rising constantly - in my few months here the price of public transport has risen 10% - the minimum wage remains at 15000 pesos (4.30GBP).

Day 2 kicked off with a march from the HQ of the Colombian state-run oil company Ecopetrol, which has been collaborating with foreign oil companies in human rights abuses in areas such as Arauca and Casanare, and marched around town back to the National University. Around 700 attended the march, the change of time and place meaning many didn't make it. We were then treated to regional music and dance outside the auditorium, which continued throughout the daily Bogota downpour. In the afternoon other Latin American struggles were presented, including the Cochabamba 'water wars' in Bolivia where US utilities company Bechtel were kicked out through popular mobilisations, resistance to mining companies in Honduras where many municipalities have declared themselves 'mine free', and resistance to multinationals in indigenous communities in Ecuador. We heard the familiar story of the entry of foreign multinationals leading to displacement, employment deregulation and environmental degradation.

On Day 3 groups discussed topics such as the environment, oil, coal, tourism and labour rights, which were presented to all in the afternoon and a few proposals were made. This included a boycott of the travel agency Aviatur, which is already selling package holidays to foreigners for winter 2009, the exchange of seeds between communities affected by the invasion of GM crops by companies such as Monsanto and the need for improved communications between groups.

This was followed by the presentation of the final judgement, a summary of a 40-page document, that recapitulated much of what we had already heard. Some more stats I gathered were the 17 million living in poverty and 6m in extreme poverty, and the 0.3% that own over half the land. Colombia was compared to countries that have also suffered the ravages of the multinationals such as Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The delivery of the verdict was enlivened by the taking of the stage by around 15 masked students, including a piper who performed for us and a spokesperson who read out a statement highlighing the importance of the 'revolutionary process of the Colombian people to create a socialist society' and calling for the 'liberation of our peoples'. Despite a stern telling off by the head judge this intervention was generally well received and led to more shouting of slogans by some fo the groups present.

In the next few weeks some of the internationals present will be visiting regions to see first hand the devastating consequences of the actions of companies from their home countries.

Today there was a demo by some of the relatives and their supporters of those disappeared following the 1985 Palace of Justice siege, most of whom were cafeteria workers. Former Colonel Alfonso Plazas is on trial for his role in some of the disappearances. There was a small counter-demo supporting Plazas and a large media presence at the court.

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"It's not that we don't want to. We simply can't"

These were the words of one villager when confronted by government officials telling them that they wouldn't be receiving coffee and banana plants they had been allocated because they hadn't fulfilled their commitments as part of the project of returning to the land they had been displaced from 9 years ago. The government assisted project, supported by the grassroots organisation Asociación Campesina de Antioquia (ACA), was due to be completed with 22 families returning by the end of July, but has been obstructed by government agencies leading to severe delays.

Landless peasants from other areas in southwest Antioquia arrived in the abandoned village of Promision in 1987 and began to work the land whilst seeking to clarify its legal status. In 1995 they tried to get land rights through the state rural development agency INCORA (now INCODER) and although some decisions went in their favour, many were never informed of this. Some did manage to pay to receive land title.

In 1997 the 38 families of Promision were displaced for the first time by armed conflict and fled to Medellin and the municpality centre of Angelopolis taking their animals with them to sell. They returned in 1998 with the help of the Red Cross and the ACA. They were displaced again in 1999 by paramilitaries when two villagers were killed making any return in the near future impossible.

Seven years later with the withdrawal of armed groups from the area 22 families decided to recover the land with the help of the ACA. Although local police said that security conditions didn't allow for a return locals said that the area had long been peaceful. With the help of the ACA they managed to get official assurances for the construction of 15 small brick houses, as only three of the old ones were habitable, the roofs and walls having collapsed in the others. A contract signed with the local municipality, a local construction company, the humanitarian agency DAPARD, the development agency Accion Social, as well as
the ACA, was to provide food for the first 6 months. The return of children was to be supported by the social welfare agency Bienestar Familia and international organisations agreed to accompany the project.

When some of the villagers initially returned at the beginning of September 2007 they squeezed into the existing houses to help with the construction of the first new houses and plant the first beans, corn banana, sugar cane and yucca. Although the state has provided builders the construction materials (bricks, cements, poles) were deposited at a point much further away than the villagers requested and the mules supplied to transport these materials were old and weak - it takes an hour for one trip instead of the 20 minutes it could have taken. According to some, local officials acted corruptly in the awarding of contracts with materials and mules overpriced.

Three whole families have returned with representives of around 10 others living there helping with construction and planting until their families can return. Four new houses have been built with three others nearing completion. In the next month they will be harvesting the first much needed crops as the state handouts dry out. The roof of one of the new houses leaks, unfortunate given the particularly wet year the area has seen. Although the builders have been alerted to this defect they have yet to rectify it.

The village school was occupied during the displacement by another family who have property elsewhere, meaning that families deciding to return have to leave children behind in other areas if they want an education.

When they returned in 2007 the still habitable structures had been occupied by others who initially refused to leave. When the police did evict them they returned to threaten the retornees but the threats have stopped now. However some of the village forest, which forms a protected habitat, has been burnt illegally by a farmer who occupied the land and is using it for his cattle. Although this farmer is rarely there family members living nearby keep an eye on it. Given the continuing presence of these local landowners who continue to occupy the village land the villagers have much less land than they had before, and they have to struggle to get even this registered. The ACA is currently trying to ensure they don't have to pay to get this land registered. There are understandably suspicions of collusion between local landowners and the municipality, going back a long time.

The villagers have created their own cooperative 'Empresa Comunitaria de Promisión' and plan to sell organic coffee and vegetables, but as the food runs out, many houses still have to be built and the unseasonably wet and cold weather takes its toll on their crops, they face a precarious future. They continue to toil in all conditions, with all family members chipping in, crowded into the existing houses to give their families a future other than that as 'living like animals in the city' as one villager commented.

The alternatives in the countryside also don't appeal. Many others in the municipality work in the coal mines, which have an increasingly appaling safety record - two youths recently died when a mine shaft caved in. Apparently many have died in the mines in recent years. Those working on neighbouring farms receive the minimum daily wage for occasional work (15,000 pesos, 4.50 GBP) or 1,000 pesos a kilo of coffee during the harvest which works out about the same.

During my 10 days there I contributed, hacking chunks out of the hillside, loading sacks of concretes onto mules, planting and weeding. During this time many officals from DAPAD turned up and a meeting was held with the villagers who were accused of not meeting their commitments and made to sign forms saying they agreed to renouncing coffee and banana plants which would be provided to nearby villagers instead.

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