Four decades of conflict have turned Colombia into one of the world’s worst humanitarian hotspots, with millions caught up in the crossfire between leftist rebels, cocaine smugglers and far-right paramilitary militias.

In an AlertNet poll of humanitarian experts conducted in March 2005, Colombia was ranked the world’s sixth-worst “forgotten” emergency. The country has the third-largest displaced population in the world.

Threats, intimidation, assassinations and massacres have forced nearly three million Colombians from their homes in the countryside, while at least 35,000 people have been killed since the start of the 1990s. Of the displaced, many have sought asylum in neighbouring countries such as Ecuador. Others have joined the vast urban slums and shantytowns within Colombia’s own borders.

The figures vary widely. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants estimates that about 2.73 million people have been uprooted by the conflict. The official government figure is 1.23 million.

Why are the official statistics so much lower?

We’re not talking about people living in camps. A lot of the displaced are not registered because they don’t trust the government. And many families move from the countryside and melt into the cities.

On top of that, about 234,000 Colombians are seeking asylum abroad, and there are another 290,000 who have fled across borders but haven’t registered as refugees.

Why have they left their homes?

They’re threatened with violence from a variety of players in a complex war that’s been going on since 1964. Large swathes of the country are effectively outside the control of central government. Instead, they’re under the sway of a range of armed groups and major landowners.

Villagers are sometimes forced to turn to one or another armed group for protection, but are then vulnerable to attack from that group’s enemies.

Who’s fighting whom?

This isn’t a straightforward two-sided war, but it does involve outlaw groups of both left and right. There are two Marxist guerrilla groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

FARC is the larger group, with a presence in many jungle regions. It became heavily involved in the drugs trade to fund its activities.

The ELN is smaller, and rejects drug trafficking, but it’s not above kidnapping to raise funds.

Who else is there?

There’s the government army, of course. Then you’ve got right-wing paramilitaries, who started off as hired guns for drug barons and cattle ranchers but have deep links with the army and police. The government says it is cracking down on these links.

Do poorer people tend to support the Marxists?

Poorer people are at the receiving end of violence from all sides in this war. The inequalities that originally fuelled revolt and attracted people to the cause haven’t changed much.

The country’s elite is drawn primarily from descendants of the Spanish, while people with mixed heritage – indigenous, African and European – tend to be less well off, and 25 percent of Colombia’s population of 44 million live in absolute poverty.

In any case, the various insurgent groups don’t really need popular support, since they’ve got their income from drugs and kidnapping. And they don’t have much to gain from giving up their lucrative business.

For many poor people with scant options for making a living, life with the army or guerrillas or paramilitaries is a tempting career option. That’s one of the reasons peace is so elusive.

When did drugs become an integral part of this conflict?

Since the late 1970s, Colombia has been an important drug producer. FARC and the paramilitaries handle about 80 percent of the world’s cocaine, and they are also involved in growing poppies for heroin.

Nearby Bolivia and Peru also grow coca – the plant that cocaine is made from – but there are some important differences. Firstly, coca leaves have some local cultural significance in these other countries, where they have been chewed for centuries as a stimulant that dulls hunger and decreases fatigue. This isn’t the case in Colombia, where its production is entirely linked to the cocaine trade.

Secondly, Colombia not only grows the raw product, but processes it. Once it’s on the way to becoming crack or cocaine, it’s a far more potent drug, and the profit margin is much, much higher.

How is the United States involved in this war?

Washington gives a huge amount of aid, most of it military. It has contributed more than $3 billion since 2000 in a package known as Plan Colombia. Ostensibly, it’s to fight the war on drugs because of the impact of the narcotics trade on the United States, but neither Washington nor Bogotá distinguish between their fight against narcotics and their desire to crush armed insurgencies.

U.S. involvement is controversial. Opponents argue that the United States is just buying a stake in Latin America and that this kind of aid doesn’t do anything to stop the violence.

What moves are there towards peace?

Since President Alvaro Uribe came to power in 2002, he’s cracked down heavily on all the armed groups including the right-wing paramilitaries.

Under a 2004 agreement, about 5,000 of 20,000 paramilitaries from the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) have demobilised, and in 2005 Congress approved a judicial framework for prosecuting ex-combatants.

There have been no talks with the FARC since Uribe took office, and the ELN has broken off contacts with the government.

Is the government’s crack-down working?

Uribe is a very popular president but his actions have provoked some criticism. Firstly, the president has been blasted by activists who say his hardline approach infringes human rights.

Secondly, many analysts say the government is putting too much emphasis on defeating the FARC on the battlefield and not enough on political solutions. The same people argue that calling the guerrillas “criminals” and “terrorists” isn’t helpful.

Then there’s the problem that the military squeeze is pushing the illegal armed groups into remote areas on both sides of Colombia’s borders. This has created serious friction with potentially unstable Venezuela to the northeast and Ecuador to the southwest.

Analysts such as Belgian-based thinktank Crisis Group argue that any meaningful move towards peace cannot rely purely on military suppression and forcible eradication of coca crops by aerial spraying.

So what do they say is the answer?

Crisis Group’s main point is that effort needs to go into coming up with alternatives for the rural population. You can’t expect people to stop producing a lucrative crop just because it’s illegal if there’s no other way for them to make a living.

So they say land rights need to be addressed too, since unequal land ownership is one of the issues that has fuelled the conflict. And they say the war on drugs should be waged in consumer countries as well, to reduce demand.

So if the war is in the countryside, how safe are the cities?

Sadly, not very. Violent crime is common, but has fallen considerably during Uribe’s administration.

There were also about 1,300 kidnappings in 2004, which was less than half the number in 2001. A lot of kidnap victims don’t make it home alive, even if their families pay a ransom. Many of the targets are fairly wealthy, since Colombia has a sizeable elite living in relative luxury with armed guards in gated neighbourhoods.

The poor, meanwhile, often live in crowded, unpleasant conditions. Many rural poor have fled to urban areas and struggle to make a living. And they’re also living in a society where shootings are not unusual. There were some 20,000 murders in 2004, down from about 30,000 several years earlier.

On top of that, political crime is rife, with journalists frequently targeted for exposing corruption.

Why is violence is so extreme in Colombia?

Colombia has lived through periods of intense violence virtually since independence from Spain. The country’s two main political parties – the Liberals and the Conservatives -- were involved in bloody conflicts after their formation in the mid 19th century, even though their ideologies were almost indistinguishable.

Around 120,000 people died in “The War of a Thousand Days” between 1899 and 1903, and then another 300,000 people were killed in another period of civil conflict between 1948 and 1957.

After this, the two parties agreed to alternate power to end the battles and banned all other parties. The country has a democratic system now, but some analysts argue that Colombia has never known real democracy or rule of law, and that’s one reason why it’s so hard to achieve peace.

Who are the good guys in this?

Against all odds, there are dozens of Colombian peasant organisations and human rights groups, despite being targeted for their work. Some are accused of having links to paramilitary and guerrilla organisations, and some of them undoubtedly do.

Where can I read more?

Crisis Group’s Colombia/Andes summary

Amnesty International's Colombia report 2004

British Broadcasting Corporation’s Colombia timeline

Relief Web’s Colombia emergency page

Aid experts say why they picked displacement in Colombia for AlertNet's top 10 "forgotten" emergencies poll, where it came sixth:EXPERTS TALK: Uprooted Colombians

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