Photo: A worker shows an uprooted coca shrub to a Colombian army officer. The government finds that incentives are more effective than eradication. Photo Credit: By Luis Benavides -- Associated PressFrom CNN:
(CNN) -- Imagine the entire population of Kentucky forced out of their homes in the past 25 years, with many of the residents moving to a neighboring country.
That's what has happened in Colombia, a country of 45 million where up to 4 million people -- roughly the population of Kentucky -- have been forced to flee fighting between government forces and an entrenched Marxist rebel group. So many Colombians have taken flight to escape violence that the nation has the second largest number of internally displaced people in the world -- surpassed only by Sudan in Africa.
Oftentimes, the violence is not incidental.
"Violence against civilians is a strategy of war for all the parties involved in the warfare," said Ellen Beattie, who worked for relief agencies in Colombia for 15 years. "That's the problem. They do it on purpose. They use it as a strategy. Vicious."
Exact figures are hard to come by.
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More News On Colombia
Colombia: UN voices concern over wave of death threats against partner agencies -- UN News Services
U.N. refugee agency concerned about Colombia threats -- Miami Herald/AP
'Drugs gang' arrested in Colombia -- BBC
112 Colombian Paramilitaries Turn Selves In -- Latin American Herald Tribune
Colombia has a 'serious security problem': DNP -- Colombia Reports
Colombian Farmers Get Broad Incentives To Forgo Coca Crops -- Washington Post
Colombia's Uribe: Should I stay or should I go? -- Reuters
Colombia's Uribe: staying in power 'inappropriate' -- AP
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