People's Right to Move - Voices From Colombia's Confined Communities
Introduction
The horrific violence of Colombia's 40 year long conflict has resulted in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today. Colombia has the third largest population of displaced people in the world (only Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have more people displaced by conflict), as 1,700,000 people have fled their homes during the past four and a half years.
The roots of the conflict in Colombia stem from the control of land and resources. The country is rich in strategic minerals, oil, timber, and fertile agricultural land. In part, the fight is for control of land where drugs are grown and the control of strategic geographic corridors for the movement of drugs and arms, but it is also about taking control of territory to achieve ownership of the resources found there. The regions where the conflict is most intense are often the same regions where these resources are found. The fight for control is fierce and bloody, and the people who can, get out of the way to save their lives.
In recent years, armed actors have changed their strategy. Instead of forcing people to leave, they often force them to stay. Sometimes it is because they want people to work in drug plantations under their control. Sometimes it is to maintain the population as a human shield to protect themselves from attacks by other armed actors. Frequently, one side feels that people are supporting the other side, and by preventing them from leaving their community they prevent them from aiding their enemy. Whatever the reasons, the consequences are the same; people are trapped in what have come to be called "confined communities".
When people are unable to leave their villages it can mean the destruction of the local economy. There are severe restrictions placed on leaving the village to attend to crops. Fishing and hunting are often prohibited, and people are unable to sell the little they are able to produce. Not being able to leave the village means they have no access to any food they cannot grow and, no access to necessities such as clothing and medicines. Access to healthcare disappears at the point of the gun at the checkpoint. Schools do not function because teachers are too afraid of not being able to leave, and instead decide to never arrive.
The impact of this forced confinement is devastating. It is a slow death. Not the death of the bullet, but instead the death of isolation, malnutrition and untreated illness. People suffer physically and psychologically. Hunger and illness go hand in hand with fear and despair.
The Project Counselling Service (PCS), with the support of Inter Pares, recently funded a major investigative study into the growing phenomenon of confinement in Colombia, and the measures needed to address it. The study, carried out by 
CODHES (Consultoria para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento, Human Rights and Displacement Consultancy) and Proyecto Pasos, of the Mesa de Trabajo Mujer y Conflicto Armado (Women and Armed Conflict Working Group), identified confined communities in 131 municipalities - more than 10% of the country's total. It found the paramilitaries, the guerrilla, and even the Colombian military guilty of forcibly preventing people from exercising their right to freedom of movement and of other abuses associated with confinement. Although the phenomenon is not new it is only now beginning to be discussed by NGOs and international actors such as the United Nations. With acknowledgment of the problem, there are now more initiatives to assist the people who live under these conditions to regain their rights and freedoms.
Through these photos and testimonies people from different parts of Colombia are able to share the impacts of forcible confinement on their lives. We also present a campaign from the region of Chocó (the Pacific coast) that peacefully pressured all of the armed actors to remove their controls and respect the basic rights and freedoms of people.
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| Reviewed July 31, 2009 |  |
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