Peace Brigades International is bringing out this public statement, which deviates from our usual procedures, because of the seriousness of what has taken place. We reiterate our commitment to the project of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community and accompany them in their grief.

Hacemos esta declaración pública extraordinaria, fuera de nuestros procedimientos habituales, dada la gravedad de los hechos. Reiteramos nuestro compromiso con el Proyecto de la Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó y los acompañamos en su luto.

Información y Dossier de prensa: PBI Oficina Bogota, Tel: 287 04 03
Information and Press pack: PBI Colombia Office Bogota: Tel: 287 04 03
www.pbi.org

Public Statement [english]
London, February 28th, 2005

Everyone involved in Peace Brigades International Colombia would like to express
their deep concern and sadness at the murder of Luis Eduardo Guerra, well-known
leader of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in Antioquia, Colombia, and seven
other people, among them women and children. This shocking massacre took place
between the 21st and 22nd of February.
PBI accompanied Luis Eduardo from the time we established our team in Urabá in 1998.
He was one of the community leaders we most admired for the clarity and consistency
of his ideas and his total commitment to peace and human rights despite systematic
death threats against him. These threats forced Luis Eduardo to leave San José de
Apartadó, but after being internally displaced for more than two years he returned
in 2004. PBI accompanied him in the sadness of his departure and in the joy of his
return.
Luis Eduardo Guerra represented the peace community in numerous meetings with the
Colombian government and state agencies, the diplomatic corps accredited in
Colombia, and national and international organisations. He met politicians,
journalists and solidarity committees during his tours in countries such as Germany,
Italy, the Netherlands and the United States.
According to statements from the San José de Apartadó Peace Community and the
Corporation for Judicial Liberty (both accompanied by Peace Brigades International)
eyewitnesses confirm that on February 21, near the Mulatos river, Luis Eduardo
Guerra, his son, his partner and another person were detained by armed men in
uniform who identified themselves as belonging to the 17th Army Brigade. They were
then taken to the farm of Alfonso Bolívar Tuberquia, a member of the Peace Council
of the hamlet of Mulatos.

Luis Eduardo Guerra, Alfonso Bolívar and their families were not seen again. Several
local people went back the next day to Alfonso Bolívar Tuberquia's farm and
discovered traces of blood and human remains. When the Internal Council of the San
José de Apartadó Peace Community received this information, it immediately requested
that the relevant state agencies investigate these occurrences.
On February 25, the Peace Community organised a fact-finding commission and invited
state agencies and national and international NGOs to take part. This commission,
which included about 100 members of the community, walked from San José to the
hamlets of Mulatos and La Resbalosa accompanied by the Corporation for Judicial
Liberty, Peace Brigades International, Fellowship Of Reconciliation and Concern
America. At the same time, officials from the Attorney General's office and the
Internal Affairs Agency arrived
in the area by helicopter.
The judicial commission carried out the exhumation of a grave on the farm of Alfonso
Bolívar Tuberquia where the mutilated bodies of three adults were found in addition
to the bodies of two children aged six and two. Later in the day, near the hamlet of
La Resbalosa, three more bodies were found (two adults and a boy of eleven). Members
of the community recognised them as those of Luis Eduardo Guerra and his family.
The body of Luis Eduardo Guerra bore signs of torture. In both instances members of
Peace Brigades International were present.
This massacre joins the list of constant attacks the San José de Apartadó Peace
Community has faced since it was founded in 1997, resulting in more than 130 murders
for which as yet no one has been convicted.
It is disturbing that a community of such international renown, the recipient of
provisional protection from the Interamerican Court of Human Rights, and for which
the Colombian Constitutional Court also requested effective protective measures in
March 2004, should endure an attack of such cruelty and the loss of one of its
historic leaders.
Once again, Peace Brigades International urges protection for the people of the San
José de Apartadó Peace Community and the Colombian organisations that support the
community. Furthermore, in order to prevent any future attacks we ask that a
thorough and exhaustive investigation be carried out in which the facts are
established and appropriate steps taken.
Peace Brigades International is bringing out this public statement, which deviates
from our usual procedures, because of the seriousness of what has taken place. We
reiterate our commitment to the project of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community
and accompany them in their grief. We will endeavour to cherish the memory of those
whom we have lost as a way of overcoming the profound sadness we all feel at this
time.