5/10/08

Colombia crime victims support MOVICE


About 20 social organizations, Colombian unions and parties expressed their support to MOVICE (Movement of Victims of Crimes of the State) spokesman Ivan Cepeda on Friday.Cepeda has recently become target of critics made by President Alvaro Uribe, who strongly accused him of inciting the violation of human rights in the country.

The signers of an open letter disclosed here alert that it is not the first time the government appeals to denigrate those who make accusations on the current social and serious situation in several places of the country but on the contrary gives no answer to problems.

The letter recalls Cepeda is son of former Senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas, from UP (Patriotic Union), assassinated by members of the Army in coordination with Colombia's far-right paramilitary groups, as it was demonstrated by courts and recognized by the State.Regarding this, it emphasizes that Ivan Cepeda is not a victim but a voice that denounces in the middle of the conspiratorial silence of crime and impunity.

Likewise, it points out that the repeated signaling against MOVICE are a smoke screen to cover institutional links with Colombia's far-right paramilitary groups and stimulate the attacks and the persecution that the defenders of human rights face.

They finally demand President Uribe to withdraw his accusations against Cepeda, and to order the representatives of the State to abstain from carrying out demonstrations against the victims of violence and their organizations.

MOVICE, Group of Lawyers Jose Alvear Restrepo, Committee for the Defense of Human rights, Inter-ecclesiastical Commission of Justice and Peace and several unions are among the signers.

Besides, Communist Colombian and Socialist of Workers Parties, Association of Democratic Jurists, National Association of Solidarity Aid, Assembly of the Civil Society for Peace, and the Association of Universitary Professors.

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