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The crisis of Colombian refugees driven by that country's conflict over the border into Panama continues without resolve. Hundreds of women, children and elderly Colombians fled on foot for five days through the mountains to the border of Panama's Darién province in mid-June, according to Bishop Rómulo Emiliani. The refugees reportedly did not come down into populated areas for fear of deportation by Panamanian authorities.

According to Panama's Interior Ministry, some 1700 Colombians have sought refugee status in the country, most of them fleeing from paramilitary groups that have gone on a rampage in Colombia's Urabá region. Panama's response has included the increased presence of Colombian-trained police in the Darién border area, reportedly to stop Colombian "bandits" from entering.

On April 10, border police attacked Ramón Angel Urrego, insisting that he should have known whether an alleged guerrilla had slept in the community. Only when a human rights monitor from the Regional Association on Forced Migration intervened did the police desist from the beating.

The U.S. Committee on Refugees recently published a 44-page report on Colombia's displaced population, now numbering more than a million people. The following section of the report illustrates how the crisis is playing itself out in Panama.

Most Colombians who flee to Panama settle in the Darién, an isolated, sparsely populated, tropical forest area near the Colombian border. Many of the area's inhabitants are either indigenous people or Afro-Panamanians descended from black Colombians who migrated to the area from Chocó. There are also many, more recent, Colombian migrants in the Darién. It is estimated that they may comprise up to ten percent of the Darién's total population of 43,000. According to a Panamanian organization that works in the region, there may be as many as 10,000 other Colombians living in Darién in refugee-like circumstances.

In November, 1996, several hundred Colombian refugees from the Unguía area of Chocó department fled to Panama. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) asked the Panamanian government for access to the refugees. The government agreed; however, on the very day UNHCR was scheduled to arrive in the area, the Panamanian authorities returned 88 of the refugees to Colombia. Although Colombian officials had guaranteed the refugees' safety and well-being upon return, one of the returned refugees later was allegedly murdered.

In early March 1997, some 325 Colombian refugees from the Riosucio area arrived in Panama after several weeks' walk. The Panamanian government again promised UNHCR access to the refugees, but in conjunction with the Colombian authorities, returned the group beginning on April 18, once again without permitting UNHCR to meet them.

International observers familiar with the situation told the U.S. Committee for Refugees that the Panamanian authorities are concerned about security in the Darién. Colombian paramilitaries have made several incursions into the area, allegedly in pursuit of Colombian guerrillas, who are known to transit in and out of Darién. The April 9, 1997, Christian Science Monitor reported that the Panamanian police also believe that "Colombian paramilitaries have a base... just inside the Panamanian... [border] and that they are involved in drug production and smuggling." It added that Panama wants to build a naval station in the Darién (the United States promised financial support) to help "keep Colombia's drug trade and civil war from spilling over the border." However, local indigenous people object, fearing that they could get caught in the middle.

According to a Panamanian NGO, as part of its security measures, the Panamanian government has authorized the police to deport any Colombians whom they suspect of having ties with Colombian armed groups. The NGO said that the Panamanian police have used the order as an excuse to deport dozens of Colombians without such links, including people who have lived in Panama for many years.

"We had to leave for Panama"

(The following is excerpted from testimony given by a Colombian refugee who fled to Panama and was later returned to Colombia. His testimony is published in Éxodo, No. 5, July-August, 1997.)

"We used to live in Riosucio, but we are not displaced... Beginning in mid-1996, the paramilitary started pressuring us economically... In Unguía, the Army set up a barricade and they wouldn't let food get through to us unless paramilitaries [authorized it]... We left because on February 24th, 17 army planes bombarded Tamboral, La Loma, Cañoseco, and Playabonita... When we saw this, we fled to the jungle...

We were afraid. We had no choice but to leave for Panama... When we arrived at the village of Boca de Cupe, the population welcomed us and was very generous toward us... Around March 8th or 9th, we started working [on the land]... We reported our presence [to the authorities] on March 17th...

Around twenty days later, Panamanian helicopters picked up entire families and took us to Paya... There, we received good medical treatment and they set up three big tents for 150 of us. The rest of us slept under plastic or in the health center... A Colombian government representative visited us and told that he was there to protect us and 'help us return voluntarily to Colombia.'

In a letter to the Panamanian government [we said that, if we had to go back], we wanted: international delegations to act as witnesses to the agreements reached; the right to choose a temporary relocation site [in Colombia] while we waited for a final resettlement; and food, medical treatment, housing and clothing [upon return].

Cesar García [Colombia's Presidential Counselor for the Displaced] answered that we didn't need to worry about the site of the relocation because they had already chosen one: Cupica. He told us to return to Colombia and gave us 48 hours, 72 at most, to decide or... we would be handed over to the Panamanian border police and they would... either throw us in jail or force us to return to our region, where we would be left in the hands of those persecuting us...

A few days later, García returned with three helicopters... He assured us that we would find international delegations in Cupica. The first group arrived on the 18th, but didn't find anyone waiting...

Until today, meals have been poor; food has been scarce... As for health, there is now a physician, who is very helpful. He has a good heart, but he is working with almost nothing. There is no medicine for serious diseases.

Now we are only 214 people, that is, 56 families. Eighty-three people have left Cupica for other places because they got tired of waiting... If the government takes too long to give us a solution, I don't know what we will do."

Sources: U.S. Committee for Refugees, Colombia's Silent Crisis: One Million Displaced by Violence, March 1998, available from USCR, 1717 Massachusetts Ave. NW #701, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: (202) 347-3507. El Panamá América, 6/17, 6/19/98; communication from ARMIF-Panama, 5/9/98.