31
5.
The Forced Displacement
142.
As a consequence of the attacks and acts of violence occurring in the context of
"Operation Genesis", approximately three thousand five hundred people were displaced from the
Cacarica basin, of whom around two thousand three hundred settled temporarily in the Turbo
municipality, in the Department of Antioquia, and in Bocas del Atrato; around two hundred crossed the
frontier with Panama; the rest were displaced to other areas of Colombia.113
143.
After the first bombardment in the afternoon of February 24, 1997, the displacements
started, with persons seeking refuge in the Turbo municipality. The displacements caused families to split
114
up.
144.
Some boys and girls displaced from Cacarica gave the following accounts:
We ran off when we saw how they were killing our brothers and sisters...When the planes and
helicopters came overhead and the bombs fell, boys and girls were running from one hamlet to
another... Some children jumped naked through the bushes. Desperate mothers were looking for
115
their children in the mountains...Everyone trying to escape.
145.
On February 27, 1997, the fear caused by Marino López's murder prompted the
116
displacement from the Bijao farmstead to Turbo and Bocas del Atrato.
Some packed rafts and went
117
towards Panama.
From noon on February 28, 1997, for eight hours, around three thousand five
hundred individuals were displaced. The figures show that due to "Operation Genesis" and its effects on
118
the surrounding basins, ten thousand persons left the Cacarca basin.
5.1
The Municipality of Turbo
119
146.
Those people who were displaced to Turbo were received by the Urabá Police.
The
120
police transferred them in dump trucks and carts to the municipal sports stadium, where almost all the
113
Cf. Annex 2. Ombudsman’s Office. Ombudsman’s Resolution No. 025 - On the Massive Human Rights Violations and
Forced Displacement in the Bajo Atrato Region of Chocó, October 2002. Annex to the initial petition of June 1, 2004. Cf. Annex 13.
U.N. ECOSOC Specific groups and individuals: Mass exoduses and displaced persons. Report of the Representative of the
Secretary-General on internally displaced persons submitted in accordance with Commission resolution 1999/47. Add. Profiles in
displacement:
follow-up
mission
to
Colombia.
E/CN.4/2000/83/Add.1,
11
January
2000,
para.
36
At:
http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/6d5358107a11e85a802568ac003ea6b6?Opendocument and Annex 27.
Amnesty International. Colombia. Return to Hope: the Displaced Communities of Urabá and Medio Atrato, June 2000. At:
http://www.amnesty.org/es/library/info/AMR23/023/2000/es.
114
"We were lucky, all managed to get out together, males and women with their children. But today some have still
stayed fleeing into the mountains, some girls, some boys, mothers and fathers, grandfathers. When the bombing started it was in
the day, but our daughter was working in the allotment, we've had no news about her". Annex 50. To the last Dead and to the last
Exile: Displaced Communities of Chocó. By Danilo Rueda. In: Intercongregational Commission of Justice and Peace. S.O.S.
complaint Solidarity with the Displaced People of Medio Atrato. Vol. 2, No. 4 January-March 1997, p. 64. From the proceedings in
MC 70-99.
115
Annex 37. CAVIDA. We were always dreaming: Recollections of boys and girls lives who returned to Cacarica, July
2001. Códice LTDA Publishers. p. 23. Annex to petitioners’ brief of March 23, 2009.
116
Cf. Annex 2. Ombudsman’s Office. Ombudsman’s Resolution No. 025 - On the Massive Human Rights Violations and
Forced Displacement in the Bajo Atrato Region of Chocó, October 2002. Annex to the initial petition of June 1, 2004.
117
Annexes 8 and 8 A. Statement of Marco Antonio Cuesta Mosquera and Margarita Bergara Serrana before the Special
Commission of the UDH and DIH on December 11, 2002. Annexes 12 and 14 of the petitioners’ allegations on the merits received
on March 10, 2008.
118
Annex 1. Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgment T-955/2003 of October 17, 2003. Annex of the petitioners’
allegations on the merits received on March 10, 2008.
119
Annexes 8 and 8 A. Statement of Marco Antonio Cuesta Mosquera and Margarita Bergara Serrana before the Special
Commission of the UDH and DIH on December 11, 2002. Annexes 12 and 14 of the petitioners’ allegations on the merits received
on March 10, 2008.