Rights group says absence of justice impedes return of stolen Colombian land
By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, September 17, 11:04 AM

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia has “chronically failed” to protect people trying to reclaim stolen land, threatening to sabotage President Juan Manuel Santos’ unprecedented efforts to end the Western Hemisphere’s worst internal refugee problem, a major human rights organization says.

In a report presented Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said fewer than 1 per cent of criminal investigations into forced displacements have yielded convictions. And it counted at least 21 land claimant activists killed since 2008.

Land restoration is at the heart of Colombia’s half-century-old internal conflict. Human Rights Watch said some 4.5 million people have been forced from their land over the past three decades, chiefly by far-right militias working for ranchers and agro-businessmen. Activists trying to reclaim stolen land are subject to persistent threats and selective assassinations.

Santos “is leading a serious and unprecedented effort to restore land, but the acts of violence and intimidation against displaced families who are trying to return home threaten to sabotage his initiative,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch-Americas.

“Unless Colombia can effectively prosecute abuses of land-claimant activists, these people will continue to be murdered, threatened and displaced for demanding what is theirs,” he added in presenting the report: “The Risk of Returning Home.”

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/hrw-nearly-chronic-absence-of-justice-impedes-return-of-stolen-colombian-land/2013/09/17/bcc3da38-1fae-11e3-9ad0-96244100e647_story.html