E/CN.4/1995/111 page 14 with victims of human rights violations, trade unionists, members of political opposition parties, social workers, etc., live under permanent threat conveyed over the telephone or in writing 19/ - and are often forced to leave their areas of work and residence. The alarming number of killings of these activists over the years and in the recent past make these threats real. The following paragraphs containing some examples illustrate the gravity of the phenomenon. 42. Reports of human rights violations, including killings and death threats, have been received by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on a regular basis. Over the past three years, he has sent numerous urgent appeals to the Government of Colombia urging the authorities to ensure the protection of human rights activists. During the mission, too, the Special Rapporteurs were informed by almost all the representatives of non-governmental organizations they met, but also by persons holding the positions of personeros in different municipalities throughout the country, that they are living and working under virtually permanent threat, some of them having themselves suffered attempts against their lives. Those responsible for attacks and threats against human rights activists reportedly include members of the military, the police, the DAS, and paramilitary groups reportedly cooperating with them or depending on drug traffickers. During their meetings with the Special Rapporteurs in Barrancabermeja and Arauca, the military commanders of these areas made it very clear that they regarded human rights groups as front organizations of the armed insurgents, whose aim is to denigrate the image of the armed institution through calumny and propaganda. The General Commander of the Armed Forces stressed nevertheless that the functions entrusted to the Armed Forces were very clearly defined and carried out regardless of any ideological considerations. There was therefore no reason for them to confront any political or union leader. 43. Similarly, members of trade unions have suffered numerous violations of their right to life and physical integrity. Representatives of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) informed the Special Rapporteurs that, since its establishment in 1986 as an umbrella organization comprising a wide range of trade unions of different sectors and political orientations, more than 1,700 of its members have been killed and many more have received threats or been the subject of attacks. Responsibility for violence against trade unionists was attributed partly to the military and police or paramilitary groups said to cooperate with them or enjoy their acquiescence, who perceive trade union activities as linked to the subversion and, consequently, regard the members of such organizations as "internal enemy", and partly to the guerrilla groups. 44. The situation in the department of Antioquia, and particularly the region of Urabá, was described to the Special Rapporteurs as particularly serious in this regard. In 1994, 25 trade union leaders have been killed in the department and 16 others in the rest of the country. In 1993, 131 assassinations were said to have taken place. Most killings were imputed to the guerrilla groups. The victims belonged to the trade union representing banana production employees. Many of them were former EPL combatants. According to a study carried out by the Defensor del Pueblo, the killings were motivated by the EPL attempt to gain control over the local branch of the