Violence forces out 286,000 Colombians

Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement president Jorge Rojas said that the country's internal conflict was exacerbated by the government's use of chemicals to destroy coca plantations (pictured) - also killing crops and forcing peasants.

Around 286,000 more people were added last year to the toll of 2.4 million people who have been displaced since Alvaro Uribe became president in 2002, when he launched his Democratic Security plan in order to further militarise the country.

Mr Rojas related that "at the core of the reasons for this forced displacement is the violent appropriation of land, and threats to leave that are issued by paramilitaries and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia."

Mr Rojas also pointed out that, although the number of Colombians leaving the country had declined, "Colombia is still the country with the highest number of refugees in the world after Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan."