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Peace at Too High a Cost?


Christian Schunk
07/01/2005

Henry Louis Mencken once said, “If you want peace, work for justice.” If this is true, then Colombia is still far from achieving real peace, especially with the legislative efforts of the Uribe administration.  Colombia's recently passed Justice and Peace Law attempts to achieve the latter without the former and thus will fall short of its stated goals.

The law aims to disarm and demobilize Colombia's paramilitary groups by granting them reduced sentences in exchange for confessions of their crimes and disarming their units. It is important to note that the fear of extradition to U.S. prisons fueled the ‘Paras' willingness to strike an amnesty deal with the Colombian authorities. The Bush administration has been generally supportive of the new law.

In a recent speech, U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William Wood warned that while the law provides a viable framework for demobilizing the paramilitary, “It is the implementation of the law that will determine its success or failure.” While it is refreshing to hear such nuanced remarks coming from a Bush administration official, the ambassador's comments are fair too optimistic for a simple reason: the way the law is crafted precludes any reasonable implementation of justice.

Among the law's more troubling provisions:
Individuals need not fully confess to their crimes or disclose their knowledge about the operations and structures of the paramilitary groups.

Prosecutors will have 36 hours to bring charges against a combatant after a confession is made, and 60 days to bring the case to trial.
Commanders do not have to guarantee that all of their fighters have disarmed or are abiding by the cease-fire.

By labeling their crimes as political crimes, the new law precludes paramilitary combatants from extradition to the U.S.
Lastly, the benefits of reduced sentencing still apply even if the combatants fail to turn over their ill-gotten gains.

Taken together, these provisions create a climate of impunity that will allow the ‘Paras' to maintain their illegal assets and criminal networks while failing to credibly hold them responsible for their crimes, which include massacres, extortion, drug trafficking, and kidnapping.

In its goal of disarming the paramilitaries, the Justice and Peace Law glosses over the violence that these groups have perpetrated on the Colombian people. Even more disturbing is the precedent that this sets for the remaining armed groups to lay down their arms.

A legitimate peace process must incorporate forgiveness, but not forgetfulness. From the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru, to the recent lifting of immunity of military officers in Argentina during the ‘Dirty War,' to the prosecution of Pinochet in Chile, Latin America has taken a long road to come to grips with its violent past and current reality in the case of Colombia.

I hope that Ambassador Wood is right and that the new law can be justly implemented, but I'm not optimistic because creating the conditions of impunity isn't the path to peace.