E/CN.4/2004/18/Add.3 page 9 (b) In addition, in order to promote the first action, draft regulations of the Mining Code were prepared jointly with the Ministry of Mines and Energy; the Code develops the key elements for regulating the use of land and protecting natural resources and the environment, and for planning and promoting economic and social development; (c) As a basic aspect of Act No. 8122 on the strengthening of ethnic groups, support is being given to the drafting of a long-term comprehensive development plan that takes account of ethnic and cultural particularities; (d) A strategy is being developed to strengthen local processes on the basis of CONPES document No. 3238.3 The implementation of this document should lead to better management and greater recognition of ethnic groups by territorial bodies. This action would create a favourable atmosphere for including the ethnic variable in local development plans, programmes and projects, and for decentralizing national resources; (e) In addition, with the support of the World Bank, an exploratory document on displaced Afro-Colombian women is being drafted. The aim of this action is to allow the Government to gain a better understanding of and become more involved in the situation and current policies dealing with gender and forced displacement so that it can support the Council for the Equality of Women in addressing the special situation of displaced Afro-Colombian women; (f) In order to implement CONPES document No. 3180,4 the National Planning Department established an inter-institutional team with a view to redirecting actions and investments as a means of making reparations for the Bojayá massacre, which occurred in May 2002.5 The team will be responsible for drafting the programme and will support the internal resource management of each entity responsible for the achievement of an objective. 24. One area where the Colombian Government has been effective is the distribution of collective land titles to communities living in the Pacific basin, in accordance with Act No. 70. Thanks to the efforts of the Colombian Agrarian Reform Institute (INCORA), which is now the Colombian Rural Development Institute (INCODER), between 1996 and 2003 4,611,248 of the 5,600,000 hectares of land provided for in the land distribution plan were distributed to 1,943 communities, corresponding to 53,235 families and 267,826 persons. In order to complete the programme, 988,752 hectares remain to be distributed. The programme did not deal exclusively with land distribution; it also provided a technical framework and financial support for land development or the use of watercourses. 25. However, some representatives of Afro-Colombian communities have expressed the fear that the holders of land rights cannot really exercise those rights in view of incursions by guerrilla and paramilitary forces. Many families have had to flee the violence and aggression perpetrated by these armed groups and to abandon their land. For example, after massacring 150 people from the community on the Naya river, paramilitary troops attacked the community of Palenque de Desparramado on the Yurumangui river in the department of Valle del Cauca; on 23 May 2000, the community had obtained a collective title to 54,000 hectares. Seven persons were killed and 1,450 members of this community were forced to flee for their lives to the town of Buenaventura. Some consider the paramilitaries to be the instrument of powerful economic and financial interests that would like to exploit the abundant natural resources in the