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A Letter from
Luis
Alberto Galvis Mujica
“On December 13, 1998, the Colombian Air Force bombed my hometown
of Santo Domingo, Arauca. In the attack, seventeen people died,
including seven children. Among the dead were my
mother, my sister, and my cousin…. The Air Force justified the attack by claiming there were guerrilla fighters in the community,
but this was false. Evidence was found to demonstrate that
the coordinates for the bombing came from a private airplane belonging
to Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Inc., and he
helicopter that dropped the cluster bomb was from the 18th Brigade of the Colombian
Armed Forces.
“…
I have been identified as a threat to those who do not want to see the investigation
of this massacre move forward. On February 7, 1999, the Colombian Army
stopped the public bus I was on, took me off the bus, and transported me
to the Army Battalion with no arrest warrant or other legal justification.
Eight hours later I was freed,
with no explanation for the detention…. Soon after, I was accused of
being a sympathizer of the guerrilla forces, which in Colombia is
practically a death notice.
“In
October 2000, I participated in the International Opinion Tribunal in
Chicago, Illinois
as an eyewitness to the Santo Domingo massacre. In 2002, the paramilitary troops
advanced into the new town where my family has been living, and they
recently spray-painted threats against my family on our truck and the
outside wall of our home. I am currently under a witness protection
program and cannot return to my home region.
“I
have always been interested in the opportunity to attend college…. I
look forward to studying at La Roche College as a way to advance my own
understanding of the world and become a more effective human rights
worker. I hope to use my education as a way to help others in my country
whom have suffered as I have.”
—
Luis
Alberto Galvis Mujica
By Jeffrey Cohan
http://www.post-gazette.com/world/20021125colombia1125p2.asp
Alberto Galvis was tending to the
family farm on a Saturday morning four years ago when he noticed a
military helicopter in the distance, hovering low over Santo Domingo, his
tiny village in northeastern Colombia.
a
The Gazette's Sidebar: Colombia's civil war
What happened next altered his life, starting a chain of events that drove
him from Colombia to Pittsburgh, a refugee from a four-decade-long civil
war.
Galvis, nervously watching the
helicopter, heard an explosion. The helicopter had dropped a bomb.
In the ensuing chaos, Galvis
tried to get back to Santo Domingo, fearing for the lives of his mother
and father. But the village was being evacuated, so he drove to the
nearest town and awaited word.
The next day, he learned over the
phone that his mother had been killed. Seventeen people, all civilians,
died in a bombing that still reverberates through U.S.-Colombia relations.
"We have never understood
why we were bombed," said Galvis, a 29-year-old freshman attending La
Roche College on a scholarship.
The bombing occurred during a
week of particularly intense fighting near Santo Domingo between the
military and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the larger
of two leftist guerrilla groups fighting the government.
The Colombian military has long
maintained that blame for the bombing lies with the guerrillas, claiming
they had parked a truck bomb in the village to ambush soldiers.
But forensic evidence points
clearly toward the Colombian air force helicopter, as does the testimony
of witnesses such as Galvis. As for the bomb: U.S.-made and supplied.
Galvis insists he and his fellow
villagers never aided FARC rebels.
About two weeks after the Dec.
13, 1998 bombing, Galvis returned to Santo Domingo, located in the middle
of the province of Arauca, home to an oil complex run by Los Angeles-based
Occidental Petroleum. In conjunction with Colombian human rights
organizations, he sought to monitor the various government and military
investigations into the bombing. But the investigations were going
nowhere.
Exasperated human rights leaders
turned to the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago for help.
For the only time in its history, the law school's Center for
International Human Rights agreed to convene a tribunal, which held an
unofficial but thorough trial in September 2000.
Tribunal of Opinion:
A hearing on the Massacre of Santo Domingo, Colombia
Held September 22-23, 2000 at Northwestern Univrsity School of Law
Brief of the Defendant: Colombia
(*.pdf format)
Tribunal Judgment dated September 8, 2000
(*.pdf format)
Concurring Opinion: Presented by Bernardine Dohrn
(*.pdf format)
Galvis and three other Santo
Domingo residents traveled to Chicago to testify. But perhaps the most
damning evidence came from the FBI, which months before had examined bomb
fragments from Santo Domingo and had found them "consistent"
with a U.S.-made cluster bomb, an explosive that the United States had
furnished to the Colombian military.
The tribunal, chaired by a former
Illinois state Supreme Court justice, concluded that a Colombian air force
helicopter had dropped the bomb that killed Teresa Mojica Hernandez de
Galvis and 16 others.
Upon his return to Colombia,
Galvis and other witnesses received death threats. He went into hiding in
the capital city of Bogota.
Angel Riveros, another witness,
ventured back to the Santo Domingo area. Riveros was killed in January,
allegedly by one of the death squads of the United Self-Defense Groups of
Colombia, a right-wing paramilitary organization blamed for most of the
country's human-right violations.
"He was one of the people
who helped evacuate the injured on the morning of the bombing,"
Galvis said of Riveros. "His murder hurt me a lot."
Galvis's plight came to the
attention of Squirrel Hill resident Daniel
Kovalik, a United Steelworkers
attorney who represents Colombian labor unions in U.S. courts. Kovalik
recommended Galvis to La Roche administrators, who were looking for a
Colombian for their Pacem In Terris Institute, which provides scholarships
to students from war-torn nations.
He tentatively plans to study
economics on the North Hills campus, with the goal of returning to
Colombia upon graduation, if he can do so safely.
Galvis can find some comfort in
the fact that the Santo Domingo bombing continues to be examined in both
the United States and Colombia.
Just last month, the Colombian
attorney general's office released a report faulting the air force
helicopter crew, although U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in remarks
e-mailed to the Post-Gazette, called the report "a very small step.
"The real question is
whether they will get to the bottom of this case, which has languished for
nearly four years," said Leahy, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee
on Foreign Operations. "We may never know whether this was a tragic
accident or an intentional attack against innocent civilians.
"It has been an extremely
frustrating case of obfuscation and lying at the highest level of the
Colombian air force."
Two low-level members of the
helicopter crew are serving suspensions, by order of the Colombian
inspector general, according to Robin Kirk, Colombia expert for New York
City-based Human Rights Watch.
The Santo Domingo bombing is
casting a shadow over President Bush's proposal to earmark $98 million in
U.S. aid for Colombian military operations in Galvis's home province.
Guerrillas have attacked oil facilities in Arauca hundreds of times.
Whatever the fate of President
Bush's proposal, Galvis laments that the Colombian military has already
escalated operations in Arauca.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
won election by a wide margin in May after proposing to beef up the
military, which has been fighting two guerrilla groups, the FARC and the
smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), and has been collaborating, at
times, with the paramilitaries.
"There will be rivers of
blood," Galvis said. "The worst is yet to come in Arauca.
"Thank God, right now, I'm
here and can prepare myself for a better future."
aa
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Colombia Week, July 2003
Bogotá asks Washington to
hand over 3 pilots
The Colombian attorney general's office said July 8 that it has asked
the United States to locate and deliver three U. S. pilots allegedly
linked to a 1998 bombing that killed 18 civilians.
The office said it wanted Arthur McClintock, José Orta and Charlie
Denny to respond to allegations by Colombian air force pilots that the
privately contracted U. S. surveillance crewmembers supplied the
coordinates for the attack, which killed 6 children and 12 adults in
the northeastern town of Santo Domingo on December 13, 1998.
The three were employed by Florida-based AirScan International, which
was contracted by Occidental Petroleum. The Los Angeles-based
corporation extracts 100,000 barrels a day from a nearby oilfield and
had provided fuel, food, supplies and logistical support to Colombian
military units involved in the attack.
An October 2002 report by Colombia's inspector general concluded that
the civilians died from a U. S.-made AN-M41 fragmentation bomb dropped
intentionally from a U. S.-made Huey helicopter. The weaponry and
aircraft were supplied under a 1989 U. S. aid package.
In January, Washington cut off aid to the air force's First Combat
Command over the incident. And U. S. Ambassador Anne Patterson has
asked for the removal of air force chief Gen. Héctor Fabio Velasco
Chávez, according to the Bogotá daily El Tiempo.
Velasco initially described the attack as a car bombing by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the nation's largest
guerrilla group. More recently he called the attack "a setup."
Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón issued a July 7 statement
denying any U. S. pressure and saying Velasco would remain in the post.
Santos accused the news media of trying to sow divisions between the U.
S. and Colombian governments.
The United States has sent more than $2 billion of aid to help Colombia
fight drugs and guerrillas in the last three years. Washington has also
sent U. S. Special Forces to help protect the Occidental facilities
from guerrilla attack.
©
2003 Colombia Week. SOURCES: El Espectador, 7/8/03; El Tiempo, 7/6/03,
7/7/03; Reuters, 7/8/03. Additional research and analysis by Colombia
Week.
To subscribe to Colombia
Week, write colombiaweek@mn.rr.com
with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Colombia Week says it
"will never sell, share or divulge its subscriber list."
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All
production costs for the cards have been covered by contributions from area churches and
by the Dayton
Pledge of Resistance. All proceeds will be used to defray
Alberto's expenses.
For
more information about Colombia: Colombia
Links
Thank you.
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