4
o)
on March 2, 2004, during its 119th regular session, the Commission
held a hearing to discuss issues relating to the requested
precautionary measures. During that hearing, the petitioners and the
State filed a joint report on the commitments undertaken for
implementation of the measures. In that report, reference was made
to two visits made to the Kankuamo Indigenous Reserve, at which
agents of the State and representatives of the petitioners were
present.
The purpose of the visits was to get a process of
consultations started within the Kankuamo people and to agree upon
the measures to be adopted;
p)
on March 4, 2004, the petitioners reported threats made against the
leaders of the Kankuamo indigenous people who had already been
forcibly displaced to Bogotá; the threats were mainly in the form of
acts of aggression committed by a group of six armed men who fired
shots at the Bogotá residence of indigenous leader Gilberto Arlanth
Arlza;
q)
the Commission learned of the March 8, 2004 execution of Mr. Ildomar
Montero, which was portrayed as being the result of clashes being the
Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia and the Colombian Army;
r)
the Commission also learned of the April 14, 2004 execution of Mr.
Oscar Enrique Montero Arias;
s)
the Commission learned of the detention and subsequent execution of
Mr. Néstor Oñate Arias, who had allegedly been unlawfully detained by
troops with the Colombian Army’s Operational Command No. 7 on April
16, 2004; his lifeless body was found the following day in the district
of Antaquez; and
t)
The Commission learned of the June 26, 2004 execution of Mr.
Romelio Antonio Pacheco.
3.
The Commission’s observations to the effect that when taken together, the
facts alleged constitute a situation of extreme gravity and urgency that could result
in irreparable harm to the members of the Kankuamo indigenous people. The
Commission stated further that the State did not comply with the precautionary
measures the Commission had ordered in this case.
In light of the foregoing, the Commission requested that the Court call upon
Colombia to:
1.
[p]rotect the life and the integrity of person of the members of the Kankuamo
indigenous people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and respect their cultural
identity and their special relationship with their ancestral territory[;]
2.
[i]nvestigate the facts that necessitated the request for provisional measures in
order to identify and prosecute those responsible and punish them accordingly[;]
3.
[e]nsure that the beneficiaries are able to continue to inhabit their ancestral
territory free of any form of coercion or threat, and provide them with humanitarian aid
whenever necessary.
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