Colombia: Armed Forces
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Written answers and statements, 3 November 2009
Andrew Love (Edmonton, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which official in his Department is responsible for monitoring the compliance with human rights standards of those Colombian security forces which have received training or other assistance from the UK.
Chris Bryant (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)
The monitoring of the human rights or other performance of individual Colombian military personnel is the responsibility of the Colombian armed forces.
Our embassy in Bogota keeps a record of Colombian security force personnel who receive UK training, whether in counter-narcotics, human rights or humanitarian demining, in case information emerged to suggest that they subsequently become involved in human rights abuses. No such information has emerged to date.
Disclosing the details of the record held by our Embassy could endanger the lives of those involved.