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Puerto Rico Update,
Number 32, Spring 2001
Is There Solidarity Amid the Blood
and Fire? by John Lindsay-Poland San José de Apartadó, Urabá, Colombia -- It is early morning, and the town is waking up to roosters, the voices of children working, a radio somewhere. The electricity is down. This town of 1,200 people declared itself a Peace Community in 1997, refusing to aid either directly or indirectly any armed actor in the war. People here have paid dearly - more than 80 members of the community have been killed since 1997, mostly by paramilitary and Army soldiers. In the latest attack, on Monday March 5, the Army camped all day outside town. At about 6:00 p.m., they left, and an hour and a half later 10-15 masked troops came in and burned 13 homes, targeting especially those that had small stores. They ignored the two Peace Brigades International (PBI) volunteers present. And they told residents: "Beginning tomorrow this must be a ghost town. The next time we will respect no one, and we'll start with women and children." The men then left, and twenty minutes later uniformed Army troops came in, using the same point of access by which the paramilitary troops left. While most international attention has focused on the U.S.-sponsored fumigation of coca crops in southern Colombia, paramilitary groups acting in many instances with the collaboration of the Army have gone on a rampage in the country's northern areas. The $1.3 billion U.S. package of mostly military aid has allowed the Colombian military to strengthen its anti-guerrilla operations, while paramilitary groups do the bloodiest work. In San José, the peace community has sought every nonviolent means possible to protect the lives of the women, men and children, but all the killings have remained in impunity, despite PBI`s presence, despite elaborate alarm systems, despite a ruling in November by the Interamerican Human Rights Court demanding measures by the Colombian state to effectively protect the community. For three days we accompanied the community. We saw where a young man lost his leg to a landmine left by the Army. An indication of how far the war has dehumanized its participants is that while the man cried, troops nearby not only did not seek help, but laughed. We talked with a young man whom the Army offered money on February 25 in exchange for information, and more money or other assistance. "Together with the paramilitaries we have to finish off those dogs," they told him. "By blood and fire, sooner or later we will take San Jose." The man refused their offer. On a Sunday afternoon, while we watched boys catch catfish in the little river that leads toward the peace community settlement of La Unión, soldiers told community members further up the path returning from the town that they would leave orphans like the last time. They were referring to the massacre of five men in La Unión last July 8, carried out by masked troops while a military helicopter flew overhead. In the wake of the March 5 attack, two members of the community went to Bogota to meet with government authorities. Possibly feeling confidence from the massive inflow of U.S. assistance to the Colombian armed forces, some authorities urged the community to accept the presence of the Army in their community to "protect" its members. One official said that to investigate the crimes against the peace community, witnesses must testify in the presence of the Army, and that the security of those witnesses could not be assured. Besides the peace community, there are many efforts to negotiate a political peace, from grassroots women's organizations to the negotiations taking place between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest and oldest guerrilla force. Sadly, when 27 European and Latin American governments sent representatives to a recent meeting in Colombia supporting the negotiations, Washington refused to send anyone, despite a direct request from President Andrés Pastrana. The State Department claimed that the FARC has not properly addressed the 1999 killing by the FARC of three U.S. environmental activists. "This is a matter of principle," said State's Phil Chicola. In our meeting with Embassy officials, we recounted the many killings and threats in San José and evidence of Army collaboration. "It appears that U.S. lives are valued more than Colombian lives," we said. The job of the Embassy, said Counselor Leslie Bassett, is to represent U.S. citizens in the country. She did not contradict our suggestion. The U.S. mass media also have put news about Colombian lives in the circular file. The New York Times did not report one of 27 massacres which took place in Colombia in January, mostly by paramilitary groups. It's as if they didn't happen. Invisible here, too, are the motives for U.S. involvement which are unrelated to narco-trafficking. The Colombian equivalent of TIME Magazine is a weekly called Cambio. During our visit, Cambio's cover story explored George W. Bush's extensive stock in Harken Energy Corporation, which holds more than $230 million in oil concessions in Colombia's militarily contested fields. Embassy officials say that one of the principal impediments to greater U.S. investment in Colombia is the country's dicey security situation. Guerrillas have frequently attacked foreign-controlled oil pipelines. After dinner one evening, members of the peace community told us: "All of the previous massacres were announced by the Army, and were carried out. We know there will be another massacre, though we don't know when or who will fall. We ask that you be with us and keep the memory of this experience alive." Such requests to U.S. citizens are not made in a vacuum. We come from a political culture that is largely oblivious to its impact on the rest of the world. When U.S. officials support an escalation of the war in Colombia, however, we cannot dismiss the carnage and lies as the result of drugs or of culturally endemic violence on the part of Colombians. We are part of this. The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó has requested a direct meeting with President Pastrana in the second week of May. They ask that supporters write to him and urge him to grant a meeting with representatives of the Peace Community and to ensure the safety of members of the community. Please write to:
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Fellowship of Reconciliation ©2001 Fellowship of Reconciliation
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