Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from Tony Lloyd MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Andy Love MP, Jim McGovern
MP, Jim Sheridan MP, Colin Burgon MP, Tony Wright MP and Stephen
Hepburn MP
BRITISH MILITARY
ASSISTANCE TO
COLOMBIA
We are writing to you in your capacity as Chair
of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee to express our concerns
over ongoing UK military aid to Colombia. All of us have either
visited Colombia in the past or are intending to do so very soon.
We all welcome the recent statement from the Foreign Office that
parts of their assistance to the Colombian military would cease.
However, we remain deeply concerned by the remaining
military assistance that the UK is providing—that which
the Foreign Office terms "counter-narcotics assistance".
Our concerns are twofold:
Firstly, continuing to provide aid to the Colombian
military sends a clear and public political message that the UK
believes the Colombian Army to be a legitimate partner. We do
not believe this to be the case and we would draw your attention
to the recent comments by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
that she believes the Colombian military to be involved in "systematic
and widespread" murders of civilians—an allegation
that we believe to be accurate.
Continuing to provide assistance to an Army
that is involved in such serious violations of human rights serves
to legitimise that Army and, unless human rights conditions are
attached, which they are not in the case of UK assistance, does
nothing to bring about an improvement. It is deeply concerning
that the aid continues to flow despite no clear signs of progress
in relation to human rights.
Secondly, we are worried that UK counter-narcotics
assistance may be being misused by the Colombian security forces.
The Colombian Ministry of Defence makes no distinction between
counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency operations and it is
during the latter that so many civilians lose their lives. The
UK has not made clear how they ensure that the assistance provided
is only used to fight the narcotics trade and we do not believe
that vague guarantees that this is the case are sufficient.
The lack of transparency around what exactly
UK assistance is being used for makes independent monitoring of
the effectiveness of the aid, and any potential human rights consequences
that it may have, impossible. In a country such as Colombia, where
large parts of the security forces are so clearly involved in
abusing human rights, we do not believe that this position is
sustainable. Furthermore it contrasts strongly with the position
of the United States—the only other country to provide substantial
military aid to Colombia—which publishes, in advance, complete
details of any aid that they intend to provide to the Colombian
security forces so that human rights vetting can take place.
We hope very much that in responding to the
Colombia section of the FCO's new human rights report that the
Foreign Affairs Committee will agree to make strong recommendations
in relation to ongoing UK military assistance to Colombia and
that you will agree with us that the current policy is both unsustainable
and indefensible.
19 May 2009
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