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Photo - In
a squatter community near Cali, a member of a women’s
sewing cooperative (center left) talked about what she and
others have accomplished with very few resources and despite
the obstacles. “I
like their spirit,” notes Bishop Thomas Hoyt (far left),
President of the National Council of the Churches of Christ
in the U.S.A. Jess Hunter,
Senior Associate for the U.S. Office on Colombia (seated
center), and Dr. Mischa Thompson (far right), Foreign Policy
Legislative Assistant for U.S. Congressman Gregory Meeks,
also dialogued with the women. Right
Photo - A young man
whose village was destroyed during the Colombian government’s
Operation Genesis, in 1997, told Rev. Nicholas Genevieve-Tweed,
pastor of Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church in
Queens, NY, about the plight of his family and community.
Story:
Rolanda Hughes/CWS, Photos: left and center, Rev. John L.
McCullough/CWS; right, R. Hughes/CWS.
COLOMBIA:
FOR MANY, LACK OF HUMAN RIGHTS MEANS HUNGER, DEATH
Colombia is experiencing the worst human rights crisis
in the Americas. And, Colombian church workers and others
who are working to uphold the basic human rights of Colombia’s
uprooted poor are themselves also under siege, according
to Rev. Milton Mejia, Executive Secretary of the Presbyterian
Church in Colombia.
Mejia was among those who met with a joint Church World
Service/U.S. Office on Colombia fact-finding delegation
early this summer. The delegation, led by CWS Executive
Director Rev. John L. McCullough, focused especially on
the plight of Afro-Colombians, who comprise 20-25 percent
of the population.
Gustavo Gallón, Director of the Commission of Colombian
Jurists, confirmed that human rights abuses across the
country continue unabated. Says Gallón, “The
situation in Colombia is complex, but not confusing. Responsibilities
are clear. Several actors, several groups, are committing
human rights violations.” Gallón refers to
three categories of armed actors — guerrillas, paramilitaries,
and government forces. At the same time, says Gallón,
the government is also using its anti-terrorism act with
a heavy hand, further militarizing the country.
Hundreds
of innocent church and human rights workers are currently
jailed under the country’s sweeping anti-terrorist
statutes, and more are under judicial charges, notes a
Colombian representative of a U.S. church-related humanitarian
organization.
As the U.S.’s Plan Colombia, now four years out,
attempts to stem the flow of illegal drugs to the U.S. — largely
through widespread aerial fumigation — while aiding
President Alvaro Uribe in his quest to eradicate entrenched
guerrilla factions militarily, defenseless civilians are
literally being caught both in the crossfire and in the
fumigation. In the past eight years, some 40,000 people
have been killed or disappeared in socio-political violence
in the country.
HOPE THAT SOARS
The Art and Culture of the Pacific Foundation (FUNDARTECP)
was founded in 1992 in Tumaco, Colombia, by a group
of Afro-Colombian women seeking to preserve their culture
and support their families in the face of continuing
civil strife and displacement. Their craftwork uses
local materials to create unique paper products. More
broadly, FUNDARTECP’s goal is to repair the social
fiber of their lives in the hope of one day returning
to their homes. The women of FUNDARTECP have made bookmarks
that will be shared as leadership gifts in the CWS
U.S. regional program. The bookmarks bear a kite — a
symbol of hope — along with a powerful and hopeful
belief:
Es mas Fuerte Lo que nos une que lo que nos separa
Somos colombia
What unites us is stronger than what separates us.
We are Colombia.
In Colombia, as in many other parts of the world,
Church World Service stands with those uprooted by
war, disaster, and famine, that they may never lose
hope.
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Three million Colombians have been displaced within the
country since 1985 — more than 400,000 in 2002 alone.
A disproportionate number of the displaced are rural Afro-Colombians.
The U.S. State Department attributed 55 percent of the
2002 displacement to actions of the illegal right-wing
paramilitaries, and 40 percent to actions of insurgent
guerrillas.
Away from homes and livelihoods, families lack
adequate food, shelter, and other necessities. Some communities
have been overrun by violence and outright massacres.
In other areas, militias are physically preventing people — under
threat of death — from getting to the nearby lands
that they must farm for survival.
“Some communities are subsisting on soup made from
roots,” explains Danilo Rueda, a member of the Ecumenical
Network. “The situation is grave, and it’s only
going to worsen if we don’t act to help protect the
lives of people in the affected areas.”
Both guerrillas and paramilitaries are committing atrocities
against civilians, actively recruiting children, and are
considered terrorists by the U.S. State Department, reports
the Washington-based U.S. Office on Colombia (USOC). U.S.
citizens should be particularly concerned about the paramilitaries
not only because of their widespread violation of human
rights, but because they often receive support from the
U.S.-backed Colombian military, notes the USOC.
Another prevalent concern: “The Plan Colombia approach
of fumigate, fumigate, fumigate is simplistic. It isn’t
having the effects that are intended. Meanwhile, you affect
people’s lives and health,” says an on-the-scene
specialist who prefers not to be quoted by name.
“The U.S. Plan Colombia is contributing to the displacement
of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, destruction
of food crops, damage to the health of people and their
environment, and further deterioration of human rights," reports
CWS’s McCullough. "The whole region is ripe
for increased violence."
“Human rights is at the heart of the Christian
gospel,” continues
McCullough. “And, based on what I’ve seen and
heard, the protection of human rights across the board in
Colombia needs to become a top priority for the Colombian
government and for the U.S. government.”
“It’s important that churches and organizations
in the U.S. be interested in what is going on in Colombia,” says
Michael Fruhling, Director of the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights Office in Colombia. Widespread violence
is especially affecting poor people, and disproportionately
Afro-Colombians and women and children, notes
Fruhling.
To help protect the well-being of Colombians, Mejia urges
letters and e-mails to Colombian and U.S. authorities,
calling for the recognition and guarantee of human rights,
and respect for displaced persons, human rights organizations,
and other groups working with them.
Instead of spending billions of dollars via the U.S.’s
Plan Colombia to build up Colombia's military apparatus,
CWS is advocating for change in the U.S. policy and role
vis-à-vis Colombia, and for increased awareness
among U.S. churches about the situation of the displaced
and Afro-Colombians.
Church World Service has been responding to the humanitarian
crisis in Colombia, providing more than $120,000 in support
for food security projects, and assistance to displaced
families and vulnerable children in the last three years.
To learn more about Colombia and to support our humanitarian
work there, visit CWS
Colombia page.
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