CHANGE AND FEAR IN COLOMBIA RIGHTS PANEL

BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov. 18 - Working under death threats, the
prosecutors investigating the massacres and assassinations in
Colombia's civil war have never had it easy. Some have been killed or
driven from the country, and because of a chronic shortage of money in
the national attorney general's office, investigations have sometimes
stalled.

But since 1995, a specialized human rights unit within the office has
sidestepped daunting obstacles to investigate the most horrific
crimes, in some cases mass murders in which military officials were
implicated. In the process, the group of 28 prosecutors earned
admirers, including members of the United States Congress, the United
Nations and Human Rights Watch, the rights monitoring group based in
New York.

Now, some of the unit's supporters have begun to criticize the new
attorney general, Luis Camilo Osorio, who they fear may stall
investigations against right-wing paramilitary groups and rogue
military officers. They fear that Mr. Osorio, a close ally of
President Andres Pastrana, was selected to mend relations between the
president and an army bruised by recent investigations, not to carry
out serious investigations to correct Colombia's abysmal human rights
record.

"We think that maybe we will not be able to touch some people," said
one prosecutor in the human rights unit, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity. "My colleagues are going to think twice before they take on
a case involving the military."

Mr. Osorio, chosen by the Supreme Court in July for the four-year
posting, has said that the attorney general's office has focused so
much on paramilitary groups and military officers that cases against
leftist rebels have suffered - a stand welcomed by many in the
military establishment.

He forced out two highly respected prosecutors - Pedro Diaz, who ran
the human rights unit, and Virgilio Hernandez, the chief of the anti-
corruption unit - after criticizing the arrest in July of a general,
Rito Alejo del Rio, accused of organizing paramilitary groups.

"There is a new viewpoint, in terms of human rights investigations,"
said Mr. Diaz, now in exile in the United States. "What is happening
to those big investigations, involving military officials? The way
things are looking, the outlook is not good."

Under Mr. Osorio, some prosecutors investigating high-profile
anticorruption cases have been transferred or cases have been
nullified on procedural grounds. The cases, while not directly tied to
rights abuses, underscored the high level of official malfeasance that
has helped fuel Colombia's conflict.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Osorio said the cases were found to have had
serious legal problems, requiring further inquiries. "That does not
mean they are being filed away," she said.

Criticism of Mr. Osorio has gained momentum since last month, when
Hina Jilani, the special representative for human rights for the
United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, called into question Mr.
Osorio's independence.

Mr. Osorio said he did not intend to slow investigations of
paramilitary forces or state security officials.

But in an interview, he said the paramilitary groups did not commit "a
fourth part of the actions of the guerrillas." Saying cases involving
human rights violations have had a "privileged" status, Mr. Osorio
said the human rights unit would instead simply step up its activities
against the rebels.

"For every 100 guerrilla actions there are fewer than 25 effective
investigations," he said, "while for 25 actions by the paramilitaries
or the public security forces there are more than 100
investigations."

Mr. Osorio said most Colombians believed that the state must do more
to attack the rebels, who themselves are responsible for massacres,
widespread extortion and most of the 3,700 kidnappings last year. "We
have to take investigations against guerrillas, which have been
deficient, and elevate them," he said.

Critics of Mr. Osorio, though, have said he misses a central reality
of Colombia's conflict: the paramilitary militias, financed by the
cocaine trade and wealthy Colombians as protection against the rebels,
commit most of the killings in the country.

According to the Ministry of Defense, paramilitary forces killed at
least 1,335 people from January 1999 to this past September, compared
with 473 killings by the rebels.

"That is exactly why we also have to investigate paramilitaries, since
they cause violence and unrest," said Pablo Elias, who resigned as
deputy attorney general to protest Mr. Osorio's management. "And
although theoretically in favor of the state, they are criminals."

Former prosecutors said the role of the human rights unit since its
founding in 1995 had been to investigate the most serious crimes -
mass murders and political assassinations, in some cases involving
state security forces.

Of 1,198 people formally investigated since the unit's founding, 634
were members of paramilitary groups and 234 were members of the public
security forces.

The human rights unit has also opened formal investigations against
200 rebels, issuing arrest orders for top guerrilla commanders. And
other units within the attorney general's office have investigated
other rebel crimes.

But former prosecutors and human rights officials say crimes by
paramilitary groups, especially those in which state agents played a
role, were a priority for the unit.

"You cannot compare a guerrilla's actions with that of a member of the
public force, who has authority and is given arms from the state,"
said Mr. Hernandez, who ran the human rights unit from 1997 to 1999.
"Of course, guerrillas should be investigated with the same rigor, but
the general thesis is the state cannot gloss over human rights
violations by its agents."

Alejandro Ramelli, the new chief of the human rights unit, said his
prosecutors would now "investigate everyone." He noted that in his
first

three months on the job, 17 members of paramilitary groups and 2
members of the military had been formally charged along with 4 rebels.

But Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch's
Americas division, worries that cases involving paramilitary forces
will be dropped in time - if not for a lack of will then because of
limited resources. The unit operates on about $1.7 million a year, Mr.
Ramelli said.

Meanwhile, human rights groups are worried that Mr. Osorio's
assertions that too much attention has been paid to paramilitary
groups could further endanger those prosecutors who continue
investigating those forces.

Since 1995, 6 prosecutors working on rights cases - none from the
human rights unit, but investigators of rights violations from
regional offices - have been slain, along with 22 investigators.
Another 22 prosecutors and investigators have sought exile in other
countries, according to Human Rights Watch.

Those who have fled under threat of death, like Luis Sarmiento, who
was a regional prosecutor in the country's north, said that some of
his colleagues might have died for nothing.

"Their work has not been valued or recognized," said Mr. Sarmiento,
now in Florida. "This hurts very much because the people who do this
work are very brave."