Displaced Colombians take over U.N. offices in Bogota

This girl is among the more than 100 displaced Colombians who took over the United Nations Refugee Agency offices

Protesters seeks aid for those uprooted by civil war

August 6, 1999
Web posted at: 8:43 p.m. EDT (0043 GMT)

From Correspondent Frida Ghitis

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- More than 100 Colombians displaced from the government's civil war with leftist rebels have taken over the offices of the United Nations Refugee Agency to call attention to their situation.

As many as 1.5 million have been left homeless from the conflict, which has claimed an estimated 35,000 lives in the last decade alone.

"This is a peaceful protest. We demand that the government take responsibility for the displaced persons and that it assign resources to create clear policies and give immediate attention to the problem," said protester Over Perez.

Advocates say the refugees have been forced from rural poverty to miserable, crowded conditions in Colombian cities as a result of killings, kidnapping and torture at the hands of leftist rebels as well as right-wing paramilitaries.

Clashes between the government and rebel groups have left an estimated 35,000 Colombians dead in the last decade

Rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and smaller leftist groups now control about 40 percent of the South American country's countryside. In other regions, right-wing paramilitary groups target villages they suspect of supporting the leftists.

"We had to leave very quickly and unexpectedly, said Julio Perez, who was displaced from his home by paramilitaries. "We could not do anything, just take what we could with us."

Colombia will receive $289 million in security aid from the United States this year. Critics say international aid should be focus on the plight of those uprooted by the war.

The Colombian government has promised to address the needs of displaced citizens, but has warned that the task is enormous and its resources are limited.

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