Hundreds of Colombia's displaced families are camped out in a makeshift settlement in downtown Bogotá, demanding jobs, subsidies and a permanent place to live.

For more than two months, they have taken over a park, a short walk away from parliament, to protest what they say is the government's failure to provide aid they are entitled to. So far, they are surviving on food handouts offered by local university students and by begging.

Crammed inside damp tents and precarious shelters of plastic sheeting and cardboard, families of up to six members sleep on old carpets squeezed next to pots, pans and other cooking utensils. Hundreds of people share a single water hose and four mobile toilets in unsanitary conditions.

"We're demanding that every displaced person in this park gets the full assistance and benefits the law has granted them," one of the protest leaders, Jose Orlando Zuniga, told AlertNet.

Driven from their homes, more than 1,200 people have settled in the camp in recent weeks to escape an intractable conflict pitting government troops against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas and drug trafficking gangs.

The rebel group is on an aggressive recruitment drive to prop up their dwindling ranks after suffering a series of defeats by the military in recent months.

Some families living in the park said they fled their homes after discovering menacing leaflets under their doorsteps from FARC which threatened to forcibly recruit their children.

Several women said they ran away after suffering sexual violence at the hands of armed groups, while others said they were forced out by paramilitaries working for criminal gangs.

TRYING TO EMBARRASS THE GOVERNMENT

With up four million internal refugees, Colombia has one of the highest displaced populations in the world.

Like many others, Zuniga has endured repeated displacement in recent years. A former government soldier, the FARC tried to forcibly recruit him but he refused and was threatened with death if he did not leave his hometown. Continually persecuted by the FARC, the government has provided Zuniga with a mobile phone and an anti-bullet vest for his protection.

Under Colombian law, the government must provide internally displaced people (IDPs) with employment and shelter, but Zuniga says the government is not fulfilling its obligations. He said since the IDPs took over the park, local authorities have provided no food and have banned the use of firewood.

Displaced families are entitled to humanitarian aid for usually up to three months and a subsidy of between 50 pounds ($80) and 110 pounds ($180) each month to cover food and rent. Although some have received financial aid from the government, others have received nothing and many IDPs have been waiting weeks for their claims to be processed, Zuniga said.

"You have to start queuing outside the government offices from 7pm the previous day to get a chance to talk to a public official the next day," he said.

Local authorities in Bogotá say their resources are over-stretched. The capital receives more IDPs than any other city in Colombia. Around 200 people seek refuge in the capital every day, according to the mayor's office.

The government says it has made significant progress in returning thousands of displaced families to their native homelands in recent months. "We're committed to ensuring the rights of displaced people," said Bogotá's mayor, Samuel Moreno.

The government has also offered 400 jobs and 400 micro-credit grants for displaced families to start small businesses. Around 150 families have been lured away from the park by a government offer of temporary lodgings nearby.

But the majority have decided to sit it out.

"Having us here is an embarrassment for the government," Zuniga said. "We'll wait it out until the government responds to our demands."

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