URGENT MESSAGE FROM WAYÚU COMMUNITY
Colombia Solidarity Campaign - 30.05.2004 08:50
Subject: URGENT ACTION: PARAMILITARY MASSACRE OF WAYÚU COMMUNITY, TWO THOUSAND FLEE
Two thousand Wayúu indigenous people have fled their homes in La Guajira on Colombia’s Caribbean coast as a result of paramilitary massacres. La Guajira is a peninsula, occupied by coal multinationals, off shore gas teams, and now the paramilitaries. Hundreds of Wayúus have fled to neighbouring Venezuela seeking refuge from the paramilitary assault.
We report below an eye-witness account just received from the area.
La Guajira May 3 2004
We, the Wayúu indigenous community from the province of La Guajira, Colombia, have been driven from our ancestral territory by paramilitary groups (falsely called ‘self-defence’ groups). They came to our community, abusing and killing and destroyed our ancestral cemetery and property. In the early hours of the 18th April they arrived at the community of Bahia Portete to abuse our rights, ourselves and to violate our daughters, torturing children to find the whereabouts of their parents. When told that they were fishing, they did not believe them so they killed them or abducted them.
They assassinated, tortured and violated the women, old and young. We want to find our missing children to know if they are dead or alive. There are reports that they have burnt the children, and in some parts of the community bits of body parts were found.
The community has 580 inhabitants from different clans, who have fled from their territory with pain in their soul, abandoning their animals and their ancestral properties. We have all have fled to different parts of the territory to find security and protect our lives.
At no time has the mayor of Uribia, the indigenous capital and authority of Colombia, made any comment on these events. Nor has the Governor of Guajira, where the massacre is common knowledge.
In the face of these deplorable events we as an indigenous organisation ask you to guard our protection, to serve as an intermediary for us to Human rights organisations, the UN and the Colombian state.
With thanks.
The Wayúu Indigenous Community, Guajira
12 died 30 disappeared.
MASSACRED
1-NICOLAS BARROS BALLESTEROS.
2-ARTURO EPIAYU
3-ALBERTO EVERTS FINCE
4-ROLAN EVERTS FINCE
5-ROSA FINCE URIANA
6-DIANA FINCE URIANA (Disappeared, body still missing)
7-REINA FINCE PUSHAINA (13 years old, Disappeared, body still missing)
8-MARGARITA EPIANAYU
9-RUBEN EPINAYU (16 years old)
10-Children were assassinated (and body their parts cut off so that they were not recognized).
11-A young girl from the Epinayu Clan, removed from her house and still missing
12- As well as all these, many other people are buried in different zones of Portete.
We urge Organisations to form a Commission as soon possible to visit the scene of these events and corroborate the reality that we are living.
Ask native people to guide you to the truth of the facts and not deceive you. There have been no reports or inquiries into the deaths, since we are scared that we will continue to be harassed, since the representatives of the Department of the Guajira have not acted in this conflict. The local Ombudsman cannot pronounce a single dead person because there has been no announcement about the situation
HELP US! DO NOT LEAVE US ALONE.
Respectfully
THE WAYÚU, HIGH GUAJIRA,
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS ORGANISATION OF COLOMBIA
Street 13 No.4-38
Bogotá
Telf. 00571 2842168 2811845 Fax.2843465
Please send messages of concern to:
Presidencia de la República Dr. Álvaro Uribe Vélez,
Cra. 8 No..7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santa fe de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 566.20.71
E-mail:  auribe@presidencia.gov.co ;
[to send e-mail to Uribe login to  http://www.presidencia.gov.co and click on ESCRIBALE AL PRESIDENTE at the bottom of the page. Para enviar correo al Sr Presidente, dirmjase a la pagina Web: http://www.presidencia.gov.co y haga clic en ESCRIBALE AL PRESIDENTE ubicado en la parte inferior, al final de la pagina.]
Vicepresidencia de la República Dr. Francisco Santos
E-mail: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co
Ministerio de Defensa Nacional Dr. Jorge Alberto Uribe
El Dorado con Carrera. 52 CAN, Santa fe de Bogotá.
Fax: (+57 1)222.18.74 E-mail: siden@mindefensa.gov.co, infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co, mdn@cable.net.co,
Procuraduría General de la Nación Dr. Edgardo José Maya Villazón
Carrera 5 No. 15-80 Santa Fe de Bogotá.
Fax: (+57 1)342.97.23 E-mail: reygon@procuraduria.gov.co; anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov.co
Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario. Dr. Carlos Franco
Calle 7 N° 5-54 TEL: (+571) 336.03.11 FAX: (+57 1) 337.46.67
E- mail: cefranco@presidencia.gov.co fibarra@presidencia.gov.co
Fiscalía General de la Nación Dr. Luis Camilo Osorio
Diagonal 22 B No.52-01 Santa fe de Bogotá.
Fax: (+571) 570 20 00 E-mail: contacto@fiscalia.gov.co; denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co
Unidad de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario
E - mail: elbsilva@fiscalia.gov.co
Defensoría del Pueblo Dr. Volmar Antonio Pérez Ortiz.
Calle 55 No. 10-32 Santa Fe de Bogotá.
Fax: (+571) 640 04 91 E-mail: secretaria_privada@hotmail.com
Misión Permanente de Colombia ante las Naciones Unidas en Ginebra.
Chemin du Champ d'Anier 17-19, 1209 Ginebra.
FAX: (+4122)791.07.87; (+4122)798.45.55 E-mail mission.colombia@ties.itu.int
With copies to:
National Indigenous Organisation ONIC E-mail: onic@colnodo.apc.org
And, in the UK, to:
Bill Rammell MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office E-mail rammellb@parliament.uk
Colombian Embassy (UK): Ambassador Alfonso López Caballero
3 Hans Crescent London SW1X OLN
TELEPHONE: 020 7589 9177 - 020 7589 5037 FAX: 020 7581 1829 - 020 7589 4718
E-MAIL: mail@colombianembassy.co.uk
With a copy to the Colombia Solidarity Campaign at colombia_sc@hotmail.com
THANK YOU!
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