IOM and its partners from the public and private sector have
launched a fundraising campaign to rebuild the township of El
Salado, scene of a bloody massacre ten years ago.

Launched during the Second Remembrance Week and organized by
Colombia's National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation
(NCRR), IOM, the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), the weekly magazine "Semana" and other private sector
companies, the campaign will collect funds and create synergies
with government institutions, the private sector, civil society and
NGOs to rebuild the community of El Salado and help its residents
put behind the violent past.

The launch of the campaign coincided with the presentation of an
NCRR report titled La Masacre de El Salado: Esa guerra no era
nuestra (The Massacre of El Salado: That Was Not Our War).

El Salado, a settlement of 4,500 residents located 140
kilometers from the city of Cartagena, was the site of one of the
bloodiest massacres perpetrated by the Autodefensas Unidas de
Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group. During four days and four nights
in February 2000, an estimated 100 people were murdered according
to the Attorney General's Office. Some 300 members of the
paramilitaries tortured and carried out other ghastly acts against
residents of all ages. The massacre led to the forced displacement
of about 3,500 people.

For the past two years IOM has been providing technical support
to the NCRR.  In 2008, with support from USAID, IOM began a
pilot project for collective reparation at El Salad, similar to
seven other IOM projects in Colombia.

The reparation programmes are designed through a process of
dialogue with each community to determine their requirements. 
As part of this pilot project, IOM is improving the health centre
and building a computer classroom in the local primary school that
will benefit some 230 children, as well as sanitary facilities and
a playground for the school.

Violence generated by armed groups in Colombia can be traced
back to the 1950s. According to information published by the
Presidential Agency for Social Action and Cooperation (Accion
Social), there are 3.1 million Colombians internally displaced due
to the violence.  The agency has received 255,000 applications
for financial compensation from victims of illegal armed groups in
the past year alone.

Although there are no figures on the number of people actively
engaged in illegal armed groups, in the past six years some 51,000
men, women and minors have demobilized from these groups as a
result of peace accords brokered by the Colombian government or as
individuals wishing to put down their weapons and return to
civilian life.  An estimated 35,000 of them were former
paramilitaries.

Since 2006, IOM's Community Oriented Reintegration Programme
supports the Colombian government in the development of its Justice
and Peace Law aimed at promoting national reconciliation and
symbolic and collective reparations for victims of the
violence.  Working with the NCRR, IOM implements information
campaigns to inform victims of their rights; supports the
formulation of the National Plan for Collective Reparations, which
includes collective reparations and the restitution of goods and
land; supports the institutional strengthening of NCRR, and
provides assistance for victims amongst other activities.

Anyone interested in joining this fundraising campaign can
provide online donations at href="http://www.semana.com.co">www.semana.com.co  or class="paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://www.oim.org.co">www.oim.org.co.

For more information, please contact:

Adriana Correa Mazuera

IOM Colombia

Tel: 571+ 6227774 Ext. 140

Email: "mailto:adcorrea@iom.int">adcorrea@iom.int