DPOR colombians from panama

COLOMBIAN REFUGEES FACE
DEPORTATION FROM PANAMA

The Panamanian government is once again planning to deport Afro-Colombian refugees living in Panama. In April, 2003,
109 refugees were deported and now the government is planning to deport hundreds more starting later this month. WE CAN PREVENT THIS INJUSTICE! The full history of what is occurring is attached at the end of this alert which includes transcripts of refugees telling how they were forced to sign a form stating they would voluntarily return to Colombia. We ask that everyone do two things: First CALL the Panamanian embassy in Washington D. C. this week (Sept. 8-12) and also WRITE the President of Panama and others. The phone numbers and email addresses are listed below plus a sample letter. This will only take a few minutes of your time--please act now. Thank you for your help.

Please call and write this week!

Read the text of the letter before making your call.

Ambassador Roberto Alfaro
Embassy of The Republic of Panama
2862 McGill Terrace
NW Washington DC 20008

Telephone: (202) 483-1407

Fax: 202- 483-8413

rholt@panaembadc.org

Ambassador Linda Watts
U. S. Embassy
Avenida Balboa and Calle 37
Apartado 6959
Panama City 5

mailing address: American Embassy Panama, Unit 0945, APO AA 34002

telephone: 011- 507- 207-7000

FAX: 011-507- 227-1964

email: selvaea@state.gov

Her Excellency Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodriguez
Presidenta de la República de Panamá
Presidencia de la República
Avenida Cuarta
Corregimiento de San Felipe
Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá

ofasin@presidencia.gob.pa

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SAMPLE LETTER (can be copied and pasted)

President Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodriguez Republic of Panama

Dear President Moscoso,

I am writing to protest your government's ongoing efforts to deport Colombian refugees residing in Panama. These refugees have fled a brutal armed conflict in Colombia and all of them should be granted refugee status and be protected under international refugee law, something your government has refused to do. According to human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and a joint report by the Human Rights Ombudsmen of Panama and Colombia, last April your government forcibly deported 109 Afro-Colombian refugees who were living in Punusa, Darien.

From these reports it is clear how officials from the refugee agency ONPAR and the National Police forced people through pressure and intimidation to sign the voluntary repatriation forms. This is a clear violation of

international law. Furthermore, your government's unfounded accusations that some of the refugees are linked to guerilla groups in Colombia have unnecessarily put their lives in greater jeopardy.

One of the refugees from Punusa, Juan de la Cruz Berrio, was detained by Police and has never been accounted for. Despite your government's claims that he has returned to Colombia, the Ombudsmen? s report points out that there is no evidence to support this claim and Berrio's family in Colombia has not seen him. Your government must account for Juan de la Cruz Berrio. Also all families who were separated by the illegal deportations must be allowed to reunite in Panama.

Now according to a new report from the Panamanian human rights organization Center for the Research and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPDH), your government is preparing to deport more refugees. The CIPDH focuses on the recent visit on July 29 of ONPAR officials to Jaque, Darien,

where several hundred Afro-Colombian refugees have been living since 1999. It is clear that ONPAR and Police officials used the same tactics of threats and intimidation to force many of the refugees in Jaque to sign the voluntary repatriation forms.

I call on your government to suspend plans to begin deporting refugees from Jaque in September. All Colombian refugees residing in Jaque, Puerto Obaldia, and other places should be granted the right to remain in Panama and should be granted full refugee status under international law. The 109 refugees deported in April should be allowed to return to Panama. The recommedations made by the Ombudsmen should also be implemented. Your country's ongoing harassment of the refugee population is a shameful and unjust policy. It is time to begin treating the refugees with the respect and dignity that they deserve.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Send your letter to President Moscoso: ofasin@presidencia.gob.pa

CC your letters to:
presidencia@asamblea.gob.pa Legislative Assembly President quejas@defensoriadelpueblo.gob.pa Human Rights Ombudsman rholt@panaembadc.org, selvaea@state.gov

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Background Information

PANAMANIAN GOVERNMENT CONTINUES POLICY OF DEPORTATION OF COLOMBIAN REFUGEES; GROUPS TO BE SENT BACK IN SEPTEMBER AND DECEMBER, 2003

prepared September 2003 Turnwind, Tucson, AZ turnwind@fastmail.fm

Despite previous international protests and a joint report by the Human Rights Ombudsmen of Panama and Colombia condemning the deportation of 109 Afro-Colombian refugees in April, the Panamanian government appears ready to force most of the remaining Colombian refugees to leave Panama by December.

Human Rights organizations in Panama and Colombia have called on the international community to pressure the Panamanian government to halt all deportations and to respect international law regarding the treatment of these refugees who have fled the armed conflict in Colombia.

According the Ombudsmens' report, there are currently about 1,000 Colombian refugees in Panama, the majority of whom are Afro-Colombian. Some of them have been granted Temporary Humanitarian Protection Status but many of the refugees have no official status at all such as the several hundred refugees in the remote community of Jaqúe where deportations are scheduled to take place in September.

For years Colombian refugees have been fleeing from Colombia into Panama to escape the terrible violence in their country. Many of the refugees have come from the northern province of Chocó which is inhabited primarily by Afro-Colombians and indigenous groups. In 1997 a massive operation by the Colombian military along with paramilitary groups led to the displacement of 3,500 people. Some of them fled into Panama while others established the Cacarica self-determination community in Chocó which attempts to survive through a policy of neutrality and civil resistance.

In April 2003, the Panamanian government deported 109 Afro-Colombian refugees from the remote community of Punusa in Darién province. Some of the 109 had recently fled to Panama from Cacarica due to the deteriorating situation there. The Ombudsmen? s report details how the Panamanian authorities that forced the 109 refugees back to Colombia did so through a process of deception and intimidation. The Panamanian authorities who carried out this operation included representatives of the National Office for Support of Refugees (ONPAR), National Police, and Immigration Office.

The Ombudsmen explained how the Panamanian officials initially told the refugees in Punusa they had come to

help them obtain identification cards and provide humanitarian assistance. Then a couple of days later everyone was called to a meeting where the government officials and National Police forced everyone to sign a voluntary repatriation form. Shortly after that the 109 refugees were put on helicopters with only the clothes on their back and flown to the border community of La Miel from where they were made to walk into Colombia to the town of Zapzurro on the Atlantic coast. Family members including children who were away from Punusa at the time of the deportations were separated from those who were sent back. Everyone in this group eventually returned to Cacarica including those who had not lived there previously. Within days of the deportations, Amnesty International issued a condemnation of these actions.

Panamanian Police burned down the homes that the refugees occupied in Punusa. Also two Colombian youth, Enrique Medrano and Juan de la Cruz Berrío, were taken into

custody and transported to Panama City. It has since been confirmed that Medrano was released and has returned to Colombia, but the fate of Berrío remains unknown. The Panamanian government claims that Berrío was also released and has returned to Colombia but the Ombudsmen? s report points out that there is no evidence to support that claim and not even Berrío's family in Colombia have any knowledge of what happened to him. Human rights organizations continue to pressure the Panamanian government to account for Berrío.

The Ombudsmen? s report also points out that after the refugees were deported from Punusa, Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso gave the Colombian government documents which allege that some of the refugees expelled from Punusa had ties to the Colombian guerilla group know as the FARC. While Colombian guerillas and paramilitary forces cross into Panama at times, there is no evidence of any formal ties with the refugee population. In January

2003, Colombian paramilitary forces (AUC) assassinated four indigenous Kuna leaders in Panama. While the Panamanian government has often claimed that Colombian refugees are guerilla supporters, there is no evidence to support this claim. By claiming that some of the refugees deported from Punusa are linked to the guerillas, the Panamanian government has jeopardized their lives in Colombia.

MOST RECENT EVENTS

The Center for Research and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPDH), based in Panama City, has just released a report detailing the most recent efforts by the Panamanian government to remove the remaining Colombian refugees from Panamanian soil. A joint delegation of Panamanian and Colombian officials visited several locations in Darién province in August 2003 where large groups of refugees reside. Two of the larger refugee populations are located in Puerto Obaldía on Panama's Atlantic coast and Jaqúe on the Pacific coast. CIPDH representatives visited Jaqúe shortly after the joint government delegation went there and interviewed refugees (including videotaped interviews) to use in the compilation of their report and to support their efforts of seeking support on an international level to halt further deportations.

Jaqúe, Darién province; July 29-30, 2003

On Tuesday, July 29, 2003 the joint government delegation traveled to Jaqúe. The Panamanian members of the delegation included the Director of ONPAR, José Serracin, and Plutarco Pedreschi whom the Ombudsmen cited as the main ONPAR official involved in the deportation of the 109 refugees in April. Panamanian Immigration officials were also present. Colombian officials in the delegation included the Colombian Consul in Panama and a representative of the federal office Red de Solidaridad
(Solidarity Network) which works directly under the office of the Colombian presidency. On July 29, all of the refugees in Jaqúe were called to a meeting with the joint government delegation. During the meeting, the Colombian officials claimed that the situation in Juradó, the village where most of them had fled from in 1999, had improved and that it was now safe for them to return.

The refugees were told they could choose to return either in September or December. However the heads of the 84 refugee families in Jaqúe did not sign the voluntary repatriation form that day leading to a change in tactics the following day. On Wednesday, July 30, ONPAR representatives accompanied by Police began going to each of the refugee's homes where they used the same tactics utilized in Punusa of threats, pressure, and intimidation to force many of the refugees to sign the voluntary repatriation forms. People were told that if they did not sign to return in September or December, they would fall into the hands of Panamanian Immigration and would be forced out of the country without any of their belongings.

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Excerpts from CIPDH interviews with refugee families in Jaqúe, early August, 2003 (names have been withheld in this text though they are included in the CIPDH report)

CIPDH: Please tell us what happened on July 29 and 30,
2003 when the commission of the Panamanian and Colombian governments arrived?

Colombian woman, mother of one child: They stated that they wanted to remove all 84 families. Mr. Serracin and Mr. Cuevas said that we're all safe and that we must leave because everything is fine in Juradó. They said if we weren't willing to join the return trips in September and December that we would all fall into the hands of Immigration. So that we should take advantage of the two return dates and that we could take everything with us. On the other hand, if we didn't sign the return documents, we would fall into the hands of Immigration and that they would deport us without our belongings.

CIPDH: Tell us what you heard and if you signed the return document?

Colombian man, 38, and his wife with 5 children: The men from ONPAR said that the return was voluntary, but that there would only be two return dates in September and December and that those who didn't sign would fall into the hands of Immigration. The next day they went house to house, and were pressuring and humiliating families to get them to sign the paper. We didn't sign to return. But my sister, who has her papers in order, had a conversation with Pedreschi, and she saw a signature that was my name, where I supposedly desire to return. I haven't signed anything and I don't want to go back to Colombia.

CIPDH: Tell us what you heard and if you signed the return document?

Colombian man, 65, and wife, 59, with three children: We were forced to sign as they pressured us, during the meeting and the following day they humiliated us to the point where we quickly signed the paper.

CIPDH: Tell us what you heard and if you signed the return document?

Colombian woman: The only thing I can tell you is that I felt like I was forced to sign and that I don't want to go back to Colombia.

CIPDH: Tell us what you heard and if you signed the return document?

Colombian man and wife: Yes my wife signed, she was pressured. Look we have three Colombian daughters and a Panamanian son. Do you think we want something bad to happen to us, without any security for our lives in Colombia. I don't want to go back.

CIPDH: Tell us what you heard and if you signed the return document?

Colombian woman: I didn't want to sign that document so I went to my house. Then a police and a representative of ONPAR came to my house so that I would sign the document. In other words, they tracked me down so that I would sign.

CIPDH: Tell us what you heard and if you signed the return document?

Colombian woman, 48, with husband and two children: I signed the return document. I don't know for what date. Everything was so fast I don't remember the date. I felt I was forced to do it for the pressure that they put on me. My husband didn't sign the return.

CIPDH: Tell us what you heard and if you signed the return document?

Colombian woman: Since I was working in the store and selling lottery tickets, it was impossible for me to attend the meeting with the men from ONPAR, Immigration, and officials from the Uribe government in Colombia. Due to that, Mr. Serracin came to the house where I live to threaten me. According to him I was hiding in order not to sign. When he came, with two police, he stated in a loud voice that I had to report to the police station at 9:00 that night. The next day Serracin took me to Immigration where I was made to sign the return document, without agreeing to do this. Serracin forced me to do it. This document states voluntary return and I didn't voluntarily sign that document.

For more information contact CIPDH in Panama: cipdh@yahoo.com telephone: 011- 507- 236-5043 or 236-4215

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This was a TURNWIND ACTION ALERT from SEPT. 7, 2003.

Thankyou Turnwind.

Turnwind contact information:

(520) 400-7625, turnwind@fastmail.fm