By Amanda Roberson, Tico Times Staff

Recent plans by Colombian and Costa Rican authorities to check the criminal records of approximately 10,000 Colombians refugees living in Colombia violate international norms for respecting their rights, said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Sunday in a full-page ad in the daily La Nación.

Upon returning from a visit to Colombia earlier this month, Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal announced that Costa Rican and Colombian officials would go through a list of names of Colombians living in Costa Rica, a decision inspired by the arrest of a Colombian guerrilla with Costa Rican residency accused of coordinating arms and drug trafficking through Costa Rica (TT, Sept. 15).

Since Berrocal made this declaration, the High Commissioner has requested a meeting with him to explain the organization’s concerns, but these requests have been denied by the Public Security Ministry, said UNHCR spokesman Geovanni Monge.

Given this lack of response, UNHCR decided to publish its concerns in La Nación, he said.

“What worries us is the establishment of a link between refugees and delinquency,” Monge said.

The La Nación ad points out that Costa Rica has always been “internationally recognized for its long tradition of asylum for refugees from Colombia and other countries.”

The current measures announced by Berrocal break with this tradition, Monge said. In particular, sharing information about refugees’ backgrounds violates their right to confidentiality set forth in the International Human Rights Treaty, which Costa Rica ratified in 1977, he said.

This breach of confidentiality could be dangerous to refugees and their families living in Colombia, Monge said.

Checking refugees’ criminal records retroactively is also unnecessary, Monge said, since they had to have “satisfactorily met requirements” to get refugee status in the first place, he said.

However, Immigration Director Mario Zamora recently pointed out flaws in the system of granting refugee status that allow for the acceptance of false documents, creating uncertainty over whether those given refugee status have clean criminal histories (TT, Sept. 15).

HONORING Don Pepe: Costa Ricans yesterday celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of three-time President José “Pepe” Figueres (1948-1949, 1953-1958 and 1970-1974) with ceremonies at the José Figueres Ferrer Cultural and Historical Center, in Figueres’ native San Ramón, northwest of San José, and at the Legislative Assembly and the National Theater, in San José. Here, Figueres stands with President Oscar Arias and then-first lady Margarita Penón during Arias’ first term (1986-1990). Tico Times photo

Gas prices are being cut again. The agency that controls prices said Monday that super was going down 14 colons a liter to 499 and that regular was going down 16 colons to 469.  There are about 520 colons to the U.S. dollar.

The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos said that the decrease reflected a dip in price on the world market, no hurricane threats to the U.S. Gulf Coast and anticipation that the U.S. economy is slowing.

The new prices will take effect after the decree is published in the official newspaper, La Gaceta, probably by the end of the week.

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Emergency commission contractors were at work in Palmares Monday clearing away debris from a river and ditches so that any future rainfall will not cause the kind of damage inflicted last week.

The Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias said that similar work was going on in San Ramón and in Desamparados.

The work in Palmares involved the Río Azul and the Quebrada Calabaza. Saturday geologists with the commission listed 16 landslide areas in Palmares. Although the commission said these are not high risk areas, it suggested that local officials keep an eye on them.

Fortunately for the battered communities, a dry air mass over the Caribbean has caused sunny weather since Friday.

The commission also was working to clear the Río Cañas that flows through Los Guidos and San Juan de Dios de Desamparados. In Guanacaste, the Río Sequito flooded some 20 homes Thursday. That was the same day that in Palmares some 150 homes were flooded out.

Residents are now cleaning the mud and trying to repair the patios that was swept away by the water. In Palmares some seven bridges were destroyed.