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	Open Letter to the Government of Colombia by Rights & Democracy (Canada)   Feb. 2007   Indigenous peoples organizations, civil society groups and Parliamentarians in Canada wish to express our indignation over the declarations of paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso (as reported in the Colombian press) regarding his role in the disappearance and assassination of Kimy Pernia Domico, who he accused of working with FARC rebels. We repudiate this accusation, one that is all too common in Colombia, where the perpetrators of human rights abuses brand those engaged in the legitimate defense of human rights as subversives in order to justify committing crimes against them.   Here in Canada, Kimy is respected as a leader of enormous importance and irreproachable integrity. Kimy visited Canada on various occasions, the first of which was an invitation to testify to parliamentary hearings in 1999 about the impact of the Urrá I hydroelectric mega project on Embera Katio communities. The megaproject received $18.2 million (US) in financing from the Export Development Corporation (a crown corporation since renamed Export Development Canada).   Kimy’s testimony, his sincerity and his courage -- amidst death threats and attacks against Embera Katio leaders who denounced the destructive impacts of the mega project -- profoundly moved Canadian parliamentarians. These parliamentarians, and other Canadians who had the honour of hearing Kimy during his visits to this country, recognized him as an ambassador and an untiring defender of the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples. It was for this reason that Kimy was given the prestigious John Humphrey Freedom Award.   When Kimy was disappeared in 2001, thousands of Canadians – including 56 parliamentarians from every political party in Parliament – sent urgent messages calling on the Colombian government to find Kimy and undertake an investigation so that those responsible for abducting him could be brought to justice. In the months that followed, many Canadian citizens – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – took to the streets in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and other cities to call for the truth and for justice. For more than five years, Canadians, as well as the citizens of other countries, have called continuously on the Government of Colombia to update us about their investigation. The response has been silence.   We lament that the declarations of Salvatore Mancuso [within proceedings linked to a demobilization process under the so-called Justice and Peace legislation] provide only incomplete, confusing information and raise many troubling questions.   In solidarity with Kimy’s family, the Embera Katío, and other Colombian Indigenous peoples who continue to suffer grave human rights abuses, once more we reiterate our call for truth and justice in this case of such importance to all of us.   We wish to know:   What action is the Government of Colombia taking to ensure that those responsible for the disappearance of Kimy, as well as violations of the human rights of other Indigenous leaders, are brought to justice and do not benefit with the impunity that could be consolidated by the “Justice and Peace Law” and other legislation linked to the process of supposed demobilization of paramilitaries?   What action is the Government of Colombia taking to ensure the right of victims of human rights abuses and their families to truth, justice and reparation, so as to prevent such abuses from occurring in the future?   What action is the Government of Colombia taking to implement a legal framework for the demobilization process that is consistent with and guarantees respect for international human rights standards with regard to truth, justice and reparation, in a context of full, effective and opportune access by the victims of human rights abuses to the judicial proceedings?   What action is the Government of Colombia taking in response to new paramilitary threats that leave Embera Katio communities at risk?   Sadly, we ask again, where is Kimy Pernia Domico?   We will continue to press the Government of Colombia to ensure that demobilizing paramilitaries divulge the whole truth about:   * the crimes they have committed   * the fate of their victims, hundreds of whom were disappeared   * who recruited the paramilitaries and who armed them   * who gave the orders as to which people would be targeted for assassination, disappearance, forced displacement and dispossession.   It is time for paramilitaries to tell the world about the intellectual authors of these crimes, and to stop hiding them. Visit the related web page
	Local Government misuse of funding robs Nigerians of basic health and education services by Human Rights Watch Nigeria   Feb. 2007   Local government officials in Nigeria’s wealthiest oil-producing state have squandered rising revenues that could provide basic health and education services for some of Nigeria’s poorest people, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch found that the government’s failure to tackle local-level corruption violates Nigeria’s obligation to provide basic health and education services to its citizens.   The 107-page report, “Chop Fine: The Human Rights Impact of Local Government Corruption and Mismanagement in Rivers State, Nigeria,” details the misuse of public funds by local officials in the geographic heart of Nigeria’s booming oil industry, and the harmful effects on primary education and basic health care. The report is based on scores of interviews in Rivers state with government and donor agency officials, civil servants, health care workers, teachers, civil society groups and local residents. Human Rights Watch also analyzed state and local government budgets.   “Many state and local officials in Rivers have squandered or stolen public money that could have gone toward providing vital health and education services,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “State and local budgets have expanded dramatically in recent years, but mismanagement and theft has left basic health and education services in a terrible state of decay.”   Human Rights Watch called upon all levels of government in Nigeria to enact without delay key reforms to make state and local governments more transparent and accountable to the public. The reforms should ensure the independence of anti-corruption institutions and give them the resources needed to tackle the epidemic of local-level corruption in Rivers state and elsewhere. It is vital that government at all levels publish and disseminate detailed and accurate information about its use of public resources.   Since 1999, the revenues accruing to the 23 local governments in Rivers have more than quadrupled. And in 2006, the Rivers state government’s budget was US$1.3 billion, larger than the budgets of many countries in West Africa. But that windfall has not translated into efforts by local governments to bolster basic education and health care systems that have teetered on the edge of collapse for many years.   Nigeria’s federal government, guided in part by the country’s constitution, has delegated most of the responsibilities for providing primary health care and basic education services to the 774 local governments. Under international law, Nigeria is obliged to progressively realize, to the maximum of its available resources, Nigerians’ fundamental rights to health and education. While the federal and state governments create policy and provide other forms of support, day-to-day responsibility for ensuring services are delivered rests with local government administrations. Many local governments in Rivers have completely ignored these responsibilities.   The report documents how revenues flowing into local government treasuries in recent years have been grossly misallocated or stolen outright. Many local governments have lavished funds on new government offices and other massive construction projects that dwarf spending on health care and education. One local government dedicated only 2.4 percent of its revenues to maintaining its crumbling primary school infrastructure while spending 30 percent of its budget on salaries and expenses for the offices of its chairman and legislative councilors. Some local government chairmen have set aside more money for their own travel and “miscellaneous expenses” than they allocate to the schools and health clinics they are charged with running. Visit the related web page
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