SPECIAL APPEAL: Child of Colombian Human Rights Defender Threatened

SPECIAL APPEAL 		SPECIAL APPEAL


The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint
programme of the FIDH and OMCT, has to express its grave concern over
the persistent and grave threats to the family of the lawyer and human
rights defender, Luis Guillermo Pérez Casas, particularly his son
Camilo Ernesto Pérez Niño.

Luis Guillermo Pérez Casas, Colombian Lawyer, member of the Collective
Corporation of Lawyers and currently the Assistant Secretary General
of the International Human Rights League (FIDH), was forced to leave
Colombia in 1995. This was prompted by repeated grave threats, made as
a result of his active work in  the promotion and defence of
fundamental rights and freedoms in his country and for his
denunciation of the climate of impunity of those responsible for
multiple and grave violations of Human Rights.

On the day that this appeal was issued, the Observatory was informed
of a telephone call made to the residence of Luis Guillermo Pérez
Casas, in Brussels (where he has lived since 1995). The unidentified
female voice left a threatening message concerning the security of
Camilo Ernesto Pérez Niño, his son, who is 11 years old.

The message said "Hello, it's the Mafia; you know very well  that you
are  political refugees. We have found you. We have followed you. We
are not going to be gentle, especially not with your son Camillo"

The Observatory recalls that Luis Guillermo Pérez Casas and his family
 had to seek refuge in Europe because of the threats against them and
in particular those directed at his son, Camilo Ernesto.

The Observatory underlines that despite the distance between the
family and Colombia the situation is of grave concern for OMCT, of
FIDH, Amnesty International and many other national and international
organisations.










This situation did not arise by chance; it coincides with Luis
Guillermo Pérez Casas's participation in the 54th UN Commission on
Human Rights, currently in session in Geneva, where he spoke
denouncing the violence and repression which prevail in Colombia
involving systematic violations of human rights on the part of the
forces of law and order and paramilitary groups supported and
protected by institutions such as the military police and others.

In view of the involvement of  Luis Guillermo Pérez Casas in the
defence of human rights there can be no doubt that the new acts of
harassment are the work of  those responsible for grave  violations of
human rights  ub Colombia for decades past suffered by numerous other
human rights defenders.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
wholeheartedly condemns the harassment of Luis Guillermo Pérez Casas
and his family.

The Observatory demands that the representatives of the Government of
Colombia at the Human Rights Commission seriously address the fight
against these practices and put an end to all forms of attacks against
human rights and those working for the defence of those rights.



Geneva-Paris,  14 April 1998

The Human Rights Action Network, a part of Derechos Human Rights, distributes appeals on behalf of victims of human rights violations. You are invited to join the network. Please check the date of the present action and do not write if it's over a month old.