BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Colombia has unveiled plans for a land reform bill to return stolen land to millions of people displaced by illegal armed groups in what is being hailed as a landmark initiative to tackle the country's long-running land tenure problem.
Despite their support for the bill which has yet to be approved, rights groups are concerned about how it would be implemented.
Over the past two decades around 3.5 million people - roughly eight percent of ColombiaÂ?s population - have been driven from their homes, often at gunpoint, as part of the countryÂ?s conflict involving the military, leftist rebels, armed gangs and drug traffickers.
If the bill is approved, the government says it aims to return two million hectares of stolen land to around three million people over the next four years.
"If the legislation goes through this will represent a democratic transformation in Colombia on a grand scale and the most ambitious land reform in recent history," Jorge Rojas, head of the countryÂ?s leading rights group, the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), told AlertNet.
"If we can solve the land problem, then social exclusion and the rights of displaced people can go a long way to being solved too," he added.
Land grabbing lies at the heart of Colombia's conflict. Armed groups, in particular right-wing paramilitaries who were at the height of their power during the 1990s, have snatched swathes of land to gain control of strategic areas for use as drugs and arms smuggling corridors.
"Land is the most important spoil of war in Colombia," Rojas said.
Much of the seized land lies abandoned and is in the hands of proxies working for criminal gangs.
Under the proposed bill, the onus of proof of ownership would fall on those inhabiting the disputed land. It would be up to them to prove they have genuine deeds and are the real owners. This would in turn take the pressure off displaced families to prove ownership and make it easier to return seized lands to the rightful owners, the government says.
DOUBTS
But attempts by previous governments to return stolen lands have failed. Over the decades, only a fraction of land seized has been returned to people forced off their lands, often poor farmers and those belonging to Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.
Rights groups say the proposed bill falls short in addressing the magnitude of Colombia's land problem.
"The government says two million hectares were seized, while thereÂ?s research that shows that figure is nearly double, around 5.5 million hectares," Rojas said.
Returning lands is plagued with difficulties in a country with a notoriously slow and overstretched justice system.
The government's plans are also hampered because authorities do not have a complete or up-to-date registry of land ownership. The problem is made worse because many falsified deeds exist and few farmers own land titles.
"We have serious doubts about the bill's viability and whether the government really has the capacity, resources and will to take away lands that were stolen by paramilitary and mafia groups who still yield power and give them back to displaced families," Rojas said.
Even if displaced families do receive the title deeds to their lands, they often face other problems. Some regions of Colombia, in particular the conflict-ridden areas along the jungle borders and southern provinces, remain unsafe for displaced families to return as fighting between government troops and rebels continues.
Community leaders campaigning to reclaim lost land face death threats from armed groups who are bent on clinging on to stolen land. Since 2002, at least 40 community leaders have been murdered in Colombia.
The newly elected government of President Juan Manuel Santos has declared the land reform bill a government priority, which if approved would come into force by late next year.
The Santos government says boosting agriculture can help drive economic growth in Colombia and turn idle land into arable fields. As part of the land reform legislation, the government has promised poor farmers who are given back their lands financial credits and technical help to boost agricultural output.
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