Denmarks 2004 Bjorneklo Peace Prize has been awarded to Luz Perly Cordoba. The Colombian union leader was unable to receive the award in person as she remains detained in Bogotá since 18 February 2004, reports Maria Engqvist of ANNCOL Monday.
The award was given to a representative of Luz Perly Cordoba at a ceremony in the office of Copenhagen Mayor Per Bregengaard in the Municipal Palace in the Danish capital. Luz Perly Cordoba was chosen by the Bjorneklo Committee for her outstanding role as a defender of the rights of the peasant population in Colombia.
Cordoba is president of the Peasants Association of Arauca (ACA) and leader of the human rights department of FENSUAGRO-CUT, an agrarian federation regrouping different trade unions, social associations and committees working for justice and social change.
She was arrested arbitrarily on 18 February 2004 and remains in custody in Bogotá.
According to the Bjorneklo committee, the detention of the recognised human rights defender and many other trade unionists accused of rebellion or terrorism is part of a “wave of repression” which includes murders and torture.
Host of the 31st March ceremony, Mayor Per Bregengaard, stated that the fight against terrorism by the Colombian government serves as a pretext to pursue those who fight for a more just society.
During a meeting with Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos in Dublin on 23 March, Director of the rights group Front Line, Mary Lawlor, expressed concern that there is a pattern in Colombia of human rights defenders being detained without concrete evidence against them and then being released before being brought to trial.
Front Line is a Dublin-based group, founded in 2001 with the aim of protecting Human Rights Defenders, people who work for the rights enshrined in UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The group argues that as Colombia is party to the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the government has an obligation to address this pattern. Furthermore, Front Line says that if evidence is not produced, Luz Perly Cordoba should be released.
Read comment by Justin Podur: www.blog.zmag.org/killingtrain/archives/000073.html
