My time in Colombia has come to an end

This will probably be my final blog entry from Colombia since today is my last day at IOM with internet access. During the past three months I have had a wonderful time working in Bogota and I have learned many valuable lessons about working in the field of international affairs. First, I have learned that getting your "foot in the door" of an international organization can be a little bit tricky and sometimes requires the help of friends, acquaintances, and kind-hearted strangers. I have also learned that while it can be exciting to live and work in an exotic locale such as Bogota, Colombia, sometimes the workload and tight deadlines can border on insane. Regarding the staff at IOM, I have learned that there are many hardworking and dedicated people striving everyday to make Colombia a better place for future generations. The staff here is absolutely phenomenal and I congratulate you on the wonderful things that you are doing.

I am grateful to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for allowing me this opportunity to work in such a fine organization. I would like to thank my co-workers for all their support -- especially my supervisors Catalina and Fernando. And while I am excited to see my friends and family again, I am also sorry to leave behind the many wonderful people that I have come to know in Colombia. You will definitely be missed.

So long, Colombia! Until next time...

Remains of 25 individuals returned to their grieving families

On Monday morning I woke up at 4 o'clock. And by five o'clock I had already showered, dressed, packed my suitcase, and started my three-hour journey from Cartagena along the Caribbean coast towards the city of Santa Marta. Under the cover of darkness, my taxi driver Roberto and I traveled along desolate highways past one slumbering village after another. And every few miles we came to heavily guarded military checkpoints and I was tempted to ask Roberto how safe the highways were at that time of the morning. In my head I wondered about the best way to ask the question. "Is it safe to be out here?" Or, "How do you feel about driving in the dark?" Or maybe, "Is this really a good idea?" After several minutes of formulating the question in my head I decided to just remain silent. I figured that he might not understand the point of my question. Or maybe I was just afraid to know the answer.

As the sun slowly began to rise we sped along in our air-conditioned Renault past farmers riding atop donkeys carrying produce to the market. We raced alongside sandy beaches and towering groves of palm trees and past silent fishermen as they paddled out to sea in their wooden canoes. My eyes felt heavy and my mind wandered to the ceremony that would take place in just a few hours.

So I picked up my pen and notepad and began writing down a few of my thoughts. I wrote some of the questions that I hoped to ask the family members attending this historic event. I wondered how best to ask about the deaths of their loved ones and the deeply personal significance of receiving their remains after so many years. I wanted to learn from their experiences but worried that my questions would be perceived as being insensitive, intrusive, or just simply inappropriate for such a solemn moment. I wondered about what I would ask...

So, where are you from? How was your trip? What do you do for a living? How long ago did your loved one die? How did it happen? Were you able to attend the exhumation? Would you have liked to attend if given the chance? Did the authorities help you to understand the exhumation process and how the remains would be identified? Do you feel safe enough to return to your community? Do you worry that participating in this event might affect the safety of your family? What's next for you and your family?

At 8 o'clock we finally arrived to the majestic San Pedro de Alejandrino estate where the ceremony was set to begin an hour later. After changing into my suit and tie I sat under the big white tent and waited. There I started to talk with a some of those in attendance and I asked them a few of my questions. I met one young woman whose husband was killed by the paramilitaries when he was just 24 years old. She was pregnant when he was killed and she was left to care for their two-year-old son. Three days after his death, she packed up her belongings and headed to the city where she hoped to escape the violence. In the 10 years since that day, she has been too afraid to go back to her village.

I also met a very kind, elderly woman from Valledupar. She lost two of her sons in the war, one to the side of the guerrillas and the other to the paramilitaries. She told me how they were "such good boys" and "very hard working." Killed just days apart, they were 33 and 24 years old at the time of their deaths. Then I asked her about the psychological support she had received during the previous two days.

"During the workshops, the psychologist asked us if we carried hatred or bitterness in our hearts towards those who took away our loved ones. And to be honest, I don't hate anyone. Not even those who stole my sons. Of course, I would like to see justice. But even if justice is never served here on earth, I know that they will eventually have to answer to God. Just as God has forgiven me for my past wrongdoings, He has given me the ability to forgive them. I am just looking forward to the day when I see my sons again once we are in heaven. I don't hate anyone."

"It was a difficult and painful ceremony," stated Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón when referring to Monday's special event where the remains of 25 individuals were returned to their families. "They were innocent victims, killed because they refused to choose sides between the guerrillas and paramilitaries." The Vice President urged those in attendance to "teach the rest of us how to achieve peace and reconciliation in Colombia because only you who have suffered such great injustice can truly understand what it means to forgive."

Of those whose remains were exhumed and identified, 16 were men (including one 13-year-old boy) and 9 were women. Each had been killed 10 years earlier by guerrillas or paramilitaries and were recovered from four different unmarked graves in 2006. This was the second such ceremony held in Colombia since exhumations began in 2006.

A quick update from Bogota

The past week has been pretty hectic, however I wanted to take a moment just to say that everything here is going well. My work has been quite busy and as a result I have not been able to offer updates as often as I would like. That said, here is a quick summary of my recent activities.

I have been working on the design of an interdisciplinary support program for families attending exhumations and reburial ceremonies. IOM has been requested to assist the Attorney General Office in organizing a reburial ceremony that will take place in northern Colombia at the end of July. Therefore, my work entails organizing the event and developing a budget for the activities that we have planned. This program will then be used to create a nationwide plan for future exhumations and reburials.

I am currently researching exhumations and reburial ceremonies in Guatemala and I am learning about the services provided to the family members attending these events and the ways in which they were funded. My findings will then be used to write a project proposal that will be given to international funders in the hope that they might provide financial assistance to the Colombian government to conduct exhumations and reburials throughout the country.

Aside from this project proposal I have also been asked to write a brief summary of the most important aspects and components of reburial ceremonies which I will deliver to the prosecutor's office later today. I have also been asked to translate an eight-page document from English to Spanish. Without a doubt, these activities will keep me occupied for the next day or two.

That is all for now. Stay tuned for more updates!

The Legacy of Truth: The Impact of Transitional Justice

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend a regional conference entitled The Legacy of Truth: The Impact of Transitional Justice on the Building of Democracy in Latin America. At the conference, I was able to hear experts discuss transitional justice and the challenges facing the peace and justice process in Colombia. In general terms, transitional justice refers to "a range of approaches that societies undertake to reckon with legacies of widespread or systematic human rights abuse as they move from a period of violent conflict or oppression towards peace, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for individual and collective rights."

Panel topics included:

• Contributions of transitional justice in the building and strengthening of democracy;
• The role of truth commissions as catalysts for social inclusion;
  
• The contribution of criminal justice prosecutions in strengthening the rule of law;
• Demobilization processes and their influence on the rule of law, local reintegration, and citizen security;
• The future of political and social reconciliation: Rebuilding social cohesion and civilian confidence.

Speakers and panel moderators included the Vice President of Colombia, the Attorney General, ambassadors from Argentina, France, Switzerland, Peru, Mexico, and Chile, the President of the Colombian Reconciliation and Reparations Comission (CNRR), and numerous experts on transitional justice. I was especially excited to attend a lecture by Carlos Martin Beristain, a highly regarded expert on mass grave exhumations and psychosocial support for victims of political violence and "natural" disasters.

Since Wednesday's conference, I have been researching and writing a report that will provide recommendations to the Attorney General on "best" ways to return to relatives the remains of individuals exhumed from mass graves. This plan will outline several ways to meet the diverse needs of relatives attending such ceremonies. To accomplish this, I have been researching how such ceremonies have been conducted in Guatemala, Peru, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Kosovo and I have put together a summary of many "best practices" and "lessons learned." My objective is to develop a pilot project that will be implemented during a ceremony in Santa Marta, Colombia at the end of July. At this ceremony the remains of 30+ individuals will be returned to their families, and if the pilot project goes well this plan could be used during future ceremonies throughout Colombia.

A solemn day in Bogota

Monday morning I received a phone call from Catalina, a co-worker of mine from IOM. She called to let me know that we had been invited to attend a funeral-like ceremony known as an entrega de restos. During the entrega de restos, government officials returned the remains of four deceased individuals to their respective families. The four individuals had been murdered by paramilitaries and were discovered in November 2006 in a mass grave outside of Bogota. Since November, the national police and forensic investigators had worked to identify the individuals and determine their cause of death. On Monday, the families of the deceased were able to receive the remains of their lost loved ones and take steps to provide them with a dignified burial.

Before heading to yesterday's ceremony I had the opportunity to meet with the Attorney General of Colombia. I was especially impressed by his concern for the victims and their families. I was actually quite impressed by all of the officials who spoke yesterday and their commitment to the victims' families. For this reason, I have been asked by the District Attorney to work along with the Special Prosecutor for Exhumations to design a program that ensures that families receive the proper attention and support during upcoming entrega de restos ceremonies.

In addition to contributing to promoting the emotional recovery of the family members, a good argument could be made that exhumations strengthen the Colombian peace process. Such investigations expose the horrible atrocities committed by paramilitaries and guerrilla movements and I suspect that they might serve to undermine the support these groups receive from local communities. Illegal armed groups rely on various sources or "pillars" of support that include the authority or legitimacy granted to them, access to human resources and skills, supplies, and control over sources of knowledge and information. Without these important sources of material and logistical support, I suspect that armed groups would find themselves in a precarious situation and could be forced to negotiate a peace accord with the Colombian government.

A busy first week

My first few days of work at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have been hectic but very good. I am excited about my internship and the projects that the organization has planned for me. I am especially pleased that my work here directly relates to my areas of interest, current studies at Fletcher, and past work experiences. Here is a brief summary of my first three days of work.

Monday was my first official day at the office and my supervisor put me right to work. He has arranged for me to work on two interesting projects with two other staff members. First, I'll be working with Catalina on developing a National Plan for Exhumations and putting together funding proposals to secure financial support for the Colombian government to conduct mass grave exhumations. The country has been in constant conflict for over 40 years and mass graves have accumulated throughout this period of violence. Second, I'll be working with Peter, a Dutchman based in Geneva, on a report that will provide the government with guidance as it takes its first steps to prosecute individuals responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. These two projects could ostensibly take a while but I think that the plan is that I'll finish these within the next week or so and then move on to my next projects.

I spent a good portion of the day doing research and writing on four past criminal tribunals. Specifically, I am researching recent tribunals and truth commissions in Africa (Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and South Africa) and Southeastern Europe (Former Yugoslavia). My goal is to collect information on these tribunals and summarize the various challenges that these judicial mechanisms have faced throughout their mandate. Colombia has set out to prosecute thousands of individuals responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, however based on past experiences only a fraction of those responsible can realistically be arrested, investigated, and convicted for their crimes. This is a reality that many countries must grapple with as they emerge from conflict situations and seek to re-establish the rule of law.

I had a meeting on Tuesday morning with the District Attorney to discuss the challenges of carrying out exhumations of mass graves in Colombia. The IOM has asked me to work with the District Attorney and members of the Prosecutor's Office to identify their areas of greatest need, to develop a protocol for conducting exhumations, and to devise a budget which we at IOM will then use to solicit funding from the United Nations member states. IOM and the District Attorney are interested in learning from my experiences in Perú and my work in exhumations. Specifically, they are hoping that I will provide them with guidance on "best practices" for returning the deceased individuals' remains to the surviving family members.

I spent the morning on Wednesday at the Foreign Ministry Office getting my immigration visa. For the remainder of the day, I will be writing a summary of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribual for Rwanda (ICTR), the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. These summaries will be included in a report to the Colombian government that will offer recommendations on how best to prosecute the nearly 2,000 demobilized ex-combantants (ex-paramilitaries and ex-guerrillas).

Internship with IOM confirmed

Yesterday I spoke with Fernando, the head of IOM programs in Colombia and he confirmed that I'll be working directly under him this summer! He sounded like a very nice guy and I am confident that we are going to get along very well. In talking with him, I learned that I'll be based in Bogotá and that I'll have the opportunity to travel around to the various IOM field offices, something that I am really looking forward to. He mentioned that I'll be working on issues related to Law 387 that requires the government of Colombia to provide basic humanitarian assistance to recently displaced individuals. I am hoping to have the chance to study the long-term impact of income-generating projects for displaced men, women, and children.

Until yesterday, I thought that I was going to be based in the IOM office in Apartadó, a small city located in northwestern Colombia. Now that I'll be staying in the capital city of Bogotá, I am somewhat relieved because Apartadó is a fairly small and isolated city and I did not have sufficient information about the security conditions there. In addition to now having the chance to network with other international organizations based in Bogotá, I'm very excited about this opportunity because my good friend, Maggie, will also be in Bogotá this summer. She is a classmate of mine at Fletcher and she'll be doing her internship in Colombia with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

That's all for now. I'll write more soon.