E/CN.4/1995/111 page 13 military establishments and are operating under the direct command of the armed forces. The Special Rapporteurs were told, however, by members of the High Military Command that their policy was to combat these groups and that instructions had been given to that effect; this policy had produced very positive results, to the point that these groups had been almost dismantled. 38. With the increasing influence of drug trafficking during the 1980s, drug traffickers started to use paramilitary groups to protect their laboratories and other installations used for the processing of cocaine, as well as for the purpose of territorial control. In some departments such as Antioquia, Córdoba, Meta, Casanare, Boyacá and Valle del Cauca, such groups are in the service of drug cartels or individual drug traffickers, who are reported to have close links with the local military commanders. Operations against civilian settlements in these areas are often said to be carried out jointly by security forces and paramilitary groups. Thanks to the enormous financial resources at the disposal of drug cartels and individual drug traffickers, their private armed groups have been converted into highly operational forces equipped with sophisticated weapons. Contrary to former years, when paramilitary groups seemed to be relatively confined in their area of activities, newly emerged groups such as "Colombia sin guerrilla" (COLSINGUE, Colombia without guerrilla war) or "Muerte a comunistas y guerrilleros" (MACOGUER, Death to Communists and guerrillas) are reportedly active throughout the national territory. 39. In his speech on the occasion of the Colombian Human Rights Day on 9 September 1994, President Samper recognized that paramilitarism, particularly through its link with drug trafficking, was one of the causes of human rights violations in Colombia and announced a strategy to implement Decrees No. 813, 814 and 815 of 1988 (see para. 36 above and note 17/) inter alia, by supporting the Fiscalía General de la Nación through the establishment of special investigative units and by subjecting members of self-defence and private justice groups to justice. 40. Whatever the alliances in areas where armed insurgents are present, between the security forces, the drug traffickers and the paramilitary groups, the main victim is the civilian population which is caught between two, sometimes three, fires. Often, forced displacement appears to be the lesser evil, 18/ weighed against the risk of enforced disappearance, torture and extrajudicial killings at the hands of any of the above actors. B. Violent action against political dissent and social protest 41. Along with the civilian population caught between the security forces, paramilitary groups, guerrillas and drug traffickers, associations and individuals who have expressed criticism of the political, economic and social situation have been victims of numerous human rights violations in Colombia throughout recent decades. Political dissent and social protest have been considered by traditionally dominant sectors and drug traffickers as a threat to their interests, and are perceived as subversive activities not only by the military involved in counterinsurgency operations in rural areas but also by certain representatives of civilian authorities and institutions. Labelled as front organizations of the guerrillas, and thus regarded as internal enemies, human rights activists, lawyers, particularly those working