Belgium, 2 July 2010 Mr. Álvaro Uribe Vélez President Republic of Mr. President elect

Mr. President Uribe, Mr. President Elect Santos

Re : Intimidation and persecution of a human rights defender and his family in Europe.

I find myself obliged to write to you, the Attorney General of the Republic of Colombia, and the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights, copied to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to express my condemnation of the fact that during the government of President Uribe, there have been state intelligence activities conducted against my family and in relation to my work and private life, as well as actions carried out to defame the International Federation of Human Rights – FIDH – the organisation that I represent in my capacity of Secretary General.

On 25 March 2010, I, along with other European NGOs, met with the director of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), Felipe Muñóz. The meeting took place in the offices of the Belgian Federal Parliament, in the presence of the Belgian Member of Parliament Bruno Tubyens and the Ambassador of Colombia to the , Carlos Holmes Trujillo.

In the course of this meeting, I recalled the mission that FIDH carried out in Colombia in August of the preceding year, along with the Argentinian Vice President of our Federation Juan Carlos Capurro and Ms. Susana Villarán, former member of the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights.

On 28 August we had a long conversation with the director of DAS, Felipe Muñóz, in which he admitted that there was confidential intelligence of a political nature held against Colombian citizens that could not be made public due to its sensitive nature. During our meeting of 25 March, I requested once again that he release the intelligence information that had been gathered concerning myself and my family, but the director of DAS responded that it was restricted information, that the law did not authorise him to release it, and that he could only do so at the request of a court order.

In consequence, FIDH, through its Colombian member organisation the Colectivo de Abogados “José Alvear Restrepo”, presented a formal petition to the court for the release by DAS of all the information held on human rights defenders and other persons that have suffered stigmatization and persecution by DAS.

Representing FIDH and also acting in a personal capacity, I became a plaintiff in the trials that were going ahead against government officials attached to DAS for persecution of human rights defenders, magistrates of the Constitutional Court and magistrates of the Colombian Supreme Court carried out under their direction, as well as of journalists and members of the political opposition – acts well known among the public and the international community.

Within this campaign of persecution, DAS intercepted almost all of our communications concerning the International Criminal Court work that FIDH carried out with the Colectivo de Abogados “José Alvear Restrepo” . DAS also ordered the monitoring of our missions in Colombia ; the infiltration of our workplaces ; the persecution of our families ; smear campaigns ; the persecution abroad ; even attempts and actions to fabricate evidence against us, with the aim of destroying us.

Many similar acts were carried out over recent years. As part of this smear campaign, the newspaper El Tiempo and the magazine Cambio published that FIDH was part of the « International Diplomacy of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ». When FIDH complained to the editor of Cambio to demand a retraction, we were told that the information was provided by DAS. This was during Felipe Muñóz’s tenure as leader of DAS.

In addition to this, I have found in the DAS archives various « intelligence reports » in which they say I am responsible for the « legal war » of the National Liberation Army (ELN), and that my colleagues and I at the Colectivo de Abogados “José Alvear Restrepo ” are members of the « SUPPORT AND POLITICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR BRANCH OF FARC ». This supposed « legal war » that you have professed is fought on both an internal and an international level.

Mr. President and Mr. President Elect, there is nothing more inaccurate, and dangerous to the full exercise of human rights and to the representation of victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the courts, than the disqualification of this essential and legitimate work as the mistaken concept of a « legal war », converting defenders into military targets.

We who promote the use of the law to sanction without amnesty or oversight the most serious crimes, are protecting future generations from situations of even worse cruelty. We who press charges are standing up to those who promote or defend wars, or those who try to justify or legitimate violence in certain forms.

I also recall, Mr. Uribe, that I met the vice president, Francisco Santos, in a formal meeting in Geneva, together with the president of our Federation, Souhayr Belhassen, and our representative to the UN, Antoine Madelin, at the commencement of the sessions of the Human Rights Council in Geneva last year. Upon seeing me, Mr. Santos said « ah aquí está el bárbaro (here comes the thug) ». Later, after the meeting had finished, he sent me a written apology in his own hand, which we have kept in case it is required as evidence in a criminal trial. This occurrence makes me certain that based on the « intelligence reports » circulated at the highest levels of government not only are we considered enemies of the State, but directives are also given to act against us.

At the end of October of last year my house in Belgium was robbed. The only things taken were my three computers and an external memory device where I had stored all of my personal and professional information from the past ten years. They did not take anything else, which leads me to suspect that the robbery was not the work of common thieves. This occurred just before I was due to appear at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. I declared to the Belgian Police that the occurrence could be treated as an act related to my position as a human rights defender, and to the delicate subjects that we were presenting before the ICC.

But what has obliged me to write to you, Mr. President, is an anonymous phone call made in your name to my mother’s house in Brussels on 22 April around 2pm, while I was travelling abroad. They said they were calling from Colombia, that you were leaving the government, that they wanted to know about the “ monito” (little monkey) , that they wanted to speak to him - referring to my son who had already been the object of direct threats in the past when he was a small child. They then said that she would hear from them again soon. I have no doubt that this call came from your government, and that it was motivated by the meeting with the director of DAS in April.

Once more an assault has been made on the peace of mind of my family, whom I have had to bring into exile as a result of threats against them as a consequence of my work fighting for .

FIDH published a report on the illegal activities of DAS that merited a response addressed to me by name from Director Felipe Muñóz. This response was sent by fax on 31 May to our office in Geneva, although the government knows that I live and work in Belgium, and that our international headquarters is located in Paris. In the aforementioned letter, Mr Muñóz admits that DAS is continuing to gather intelligence against us, but now in accordance with the law : « … it is important to clarify that conducting confidential intelligence activities is not in itself illegal. As long as these activities are realised in compliance with the guidelines that the law fortunately now defines (Law 1228 and Decree 3600, both 2009), and with attention to the needs of national security, they are legitimate and will continue to be conducted.»

In the same letter, after denying any illegal intelligence activities, Mr. Muñóz responded to my demand that he releases the information held against me by saying « …the action initiated by the lawyer Reinaldo Villalba, regarding the information required by Luis Guillermo Pérez that, by legal mandate as director of DAS, I have not supplied, is the appropriate action and we are ready to fulfil the judicial order if and when it is issued. » (my emphasis)

Effective 13 May of this year, DAS responds to the delegation before the Supreme Court that DAS holds information in :

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“*Analysis Subsection: Claudia Julieta Duque, Luis Guillermo Pérez, Piedad Córdoba and Holman Morris”; * Counterintelligence Subsection, External Counterintelligence Group, physical archives of Piedad Córdoba. *Human Resources Subsection: Carlos Lozano Guillén, Luis Guillermo Pérez and Piedad Córdoba. *Operations Subsection: Hollman Morris and Piedad Córdoba”

Mr. President, Mr. President Elect ; as I have reiterated on multiple occasions, human rights defenders are not enemies of the State, we are enemies of the crimes committed by the State, therefore the real attacks on national security are those carried out by people who violate the human rights of the Colombian people, given that the first responsibility of the State is to guarantee the life and integrity of all of its members.

Directing public resources to persecute, stigmatise, neutralise or destroy persons and/or organisations that defend human rights, that report the truth freely, that are in political opposition or that are in solidarity with the Colombian people is not only a disgrace, but an expression of authoritarianism that constitutes a serious attack on the basic principles of democracy.

You, Mr. President, have considered us « allies of terrorism » along with the magistrates that fulfil your duties. I stress that the worst enemies of democracy and the State are not the delinquents who commit crimes, but those officers of the State that commit equal or worse crimes than the criminals that they claim to defeat, because by destroying the raison d’etre of a democratic institution they are generating even more destabilisation and violence.

I will state, Mr. President, that whatever new criminal act may be carried out against myself or my family, I will show the responsibility of your government or that of your successor, Juan Manuel Santos, who was a member of your government and who won the elections affirming that he would continue with your policies of « democratic security ». I return to Colombia on 30 July to take up my work with the Colectivo de Abogados “José Alvear Restrepo” and to continue my judicial proceedings against officers of your government who are currently being or should still be investigated for many of these acts.

We are all equal in the eyes of the law, that is the universal principle upon which a state of law identifies itself, and we have been and continue to be disposed to serve the cause of justice, to defend it, and to submit ourselves to its processes should the case arise. We hope, Mr. President, that you will be able to enjoy a proper and fair trial when the time comes for you to be investigated and judged for the various crimes against humanity that have been committed during your time as president, either through action or inaction. A fair trial, that has been denied to tens of thousands of disappeared persons that now lie in mass graves, declared enemies of the State or executed to fulfil the demands of your operations to destroy the « enemy within ».

Mr. President, Mr. President Elect, we human rights defenders, along with those victims of human rights violations who mobilise in defence of their rights, we have made the unshakable commitment to the memory of our murdered and disappeared friends, and of the millions of defenceless victims, to be tireless in our efforts to bring those responsible to justice, be it before a Colombian judge, or before an international court. If we lose our lives, the sacrifice will not have been in vain, because the dignity of fighting for a just cause will always outweigh submission to the infamy of terror and corruption.

Colombia’s destiny must be different, because a collective conscience of dignity runs through our country in the thousands of sons and daughters who are victims of this long night of violence, who sooner rather than later will write a new history in which those who have desecrated our country with their crimes will be condemned.

Luis Guillermo Pérez Casas. CC No. 19. 496.782 de Bogotá Secretary General International Federation for Human Rights –FIDH- cc: Luis Moreno Ocampo Attorney General of the International Criminal Court, Santiago Cantón Executive Secretary of the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights, Guillermo Mendoza Diago Attorney General of the Republic of Colombia, national and international public. Please address any response to this letter to FIDH in París: 17, Passage de la Main d’Or, 75001 and/or the headquarters of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective, Calle 16 No. 6-66, oficina 2506, Edificio Avianca, Bogotá.