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Northern Region
TO: ALL BRANCHES; ORGANISING STAFF; INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS
3 September 2010
Dear Colleague
NORTHERN REGION YOUNG MEMBERS DELEGATION TO CUBA:
1 DECEMBER - 14 DECEMBER 2010
APPEAL FOR BRANCH FINANCIAL SUPPORT
As part of our agreed regional international work programme it is planned to take a group of active young members to help re-activate our twinning arrangements with the Santiago de Cuba region and Northern Region of UNISON. Cuba provides one of the most impressive models of health care, literacy and international solidarity providing medical missions and free public health to over 90 countries throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. While the rest of the world has so far only transferred 10% of the money and resources promised after the earthquake disaster in Haiti, Cuba continues to provide substantial and long term help and has a remarkable programme in training young Haitians as Doctors free of charge on the basis they return and spend at least 10 years practicing medicine in the country and poor areas they come from.
We had a very positive and important twinning arrangement in the past which provided mutually beneficial links between UNISON and our sister union in Cuba the SNTS. The Regional Council are very keen to see these re-established. The aims of our visit are to introduce young activists to some key people; to provide an insight into the Cuban models of education and health care and international solidarity; to forge some lasting links and to hopefully provide an opportunity for a short work brigade with young Cubans on a socially useful health project to experience working alongside ordinary young Cubans.
Hopefully our young members will have a life changing experience. I am sure it will be a tremendous opportunity to increase their political understanding, whilst also devolving some key practical solidarity, and understanding of the importance of international solidarity work.
Each young member on the delegation has committed to organise some fundraising, and their Branches are all making a financial contribution towards the cost which is around £1,500. It would be of considerable help if Branches could provide some financial donation towards this important project. Young members are also very willing to visit branches and explain the purpose of the delegation and will be provide a comprehensive report back to a future regional council meeting. If you would like a speaker please contact us. Please send all cheques payable to “Northern Region” and marked on the back for Cuba.
Could I encourage you to please provide some financial support towards this delegation visit, as it will not only provide support in the development of young activists, but also will strengthen the Region's links with Cuba.
Yours sincerely
Regional Convenor
Friday 3 September 2010
Burma account of humanitarian work on Thai - Burma border
Burma Week Seven August 22nd 2010
When you think it can’t get much worse than Yangon we arrive in Pathein, the Delta area and the third largest city in Burma and as the guide book states, “Famous for its parasols”. This is the second time we have been here and even though it is difficult to get too I promised I would come back. A big military base around 10,000 military based here. You can feel the oppression with soldiers everywhere.
This is the worst affected area of Cyclone Nargis. ‘Heavy rain expected’ was all the regime’s state owned media reported on 2nd May 2008 as Cyclone Nargis sped towards Burma with wind speeds of 190km an hour and a three metre tidal surge, bringing death and devastation to the Irrawaddy Delta. But the regime did know what was coming, the cyclone had formed offshore days before, monitored by weather agencies, and the Indian government was so concerned at the regime’s lack of preparation that they directly informed them about the cyclone.
To ignore warnings and fail to warn the population of the coming cyclone, or give any advice on how to prepare for when it hit is bad enough, but what followed was even more shocking, though sadly not surprising. As news began to trickle out about the scale of the disaster, the United Nations and aid agencies began to mobilize help, only to be told by the regime that they were not welcome.
In the days after the cyclone, as usual, the regime was blocking news from getting out of the country, and Burma Campaign UK mobilized its underground network in the country to find out the scale of the disaster. They told us that there was barely a house in Yangon that hadn’t been damaged. That people had no electricity and no clean water, and that there was no sign of any government officials or the army to help clear up the damage.
The news from Rangoon was bad, but what worried us more was the lack of any news from the delta region, near Pathein. Most people live in bamboo houses held together by dried grass. The area is low lying, so very vulnerable to flooding, and many people live by the sea or rivers which would have been badly hit by the tidal surge. Using UN satellite imagery we were able see the scale of the flooding, and estimated that 2,000 villages had been flooded.
As the regime continued to refuse shipments of aid, Burmese people in Yangon packed cars and vans with supplies and drove to the delta to help people. They returned with horrific stories of death and devastation, of whole villages empty, or where all the children were gone, having been swept from their parents’ arms by the force of the wind. Bodies were everywhere, rotting in fields and villages. People had little or no food or clean water. No shelter and no medicine. There regime’s response was to send the army to the delta, not to help people, but to set up road blocks to stop people going in to deliver aid, and to stop survivors escaping.
The British, French and American governments were asked to use their Navy ships in the area to go in directly and save lives, but France and the USA refused, and the UK didn’t have the capacity to act.
Two weeks after the cyclone had struck; most survivors still hadn’t received any assistance. At last, UN Secretary General Ban Kid-moon, who had repeatedly refused to go to Burma to try to persuade the generals to allow in aid, left for Burma. He appeared to have negotiated a deal to allow aid workers in, but once again the regime had lied to the UN. They granted more visas, but not nearly enough to deal with a crisis on this scale. In the week after the much-hailed agreement, the regime was still turning down visas for aid workers, access to the delta region was still restricted. Even those aid workers that did get visas arrived in Rangoon only to find there were not allowed to leave the city. 350.000 men women and children died, because aid couldn’t get to them. Back pack medics from Dr Cynthia’s were one of the first on the scene with the religious organizations, but when the junta realized they were getting through they put more complicated road blocks in place. There is a Burmese phrase about how much aid was getting in, “it is like tossing a sesame seed into the mouth of an elephant”.
The effects are still visible and we see hundreds, thousands of orphaned children in Pathein, being housed in big boarding houses without parents and a poor uncertain future.
Monday
The children of Pathein play football in the safety of the cathedral compound in the tropical monsoon rain laughing and joking playing in bare feet, with the football shirts we have donated from Newcastle. They play in the relative safety of the compound.
Outside the compound the streets are dirt tracks with very few cars and trishaws. Streets have open sewers and as I sit and rest I watch a rat scurry up the wall. A man comes out of his house, hits the rat and throws it into the middle of the street. It looks like turn-of-the-century London nothing changed in 100 years. It is densely populated and has had no development for years. Everywhere there is filth and rubbish with noisy people throwing dirty buckets of water out of windows and lots of street traders selling crickets and other suspicious creatures. The people are so friendly and shout out "Minglaba" hello as they don't see any westerners. On an evening while walking home in the dark we are serenaded by young lads singing in perfect harmony with their battered old guitars. Electricity goes off at regular occasions, the hospital has no medicines and children left on the dirty floor on stretchers dying of Dengue fever which is a preventable disease.
During a lunch of Fish paste and Rice the priest asks Declan about young voluntary teachers teaching English in this part of the world. In Mae Sot they often get volunteer unqualified teachers teaching English and practicing western concepts on these vulnerable children. I think it is important to remind ourselves that we don’t want Burmese children to think like westerners, we want them to have a balanced cultural appropriate education. I am aware after spending time just being with these communities that western development workers should not blindly impose modern improvements on ancient cultures but that industrialized countries have lessons to learn from Burmese people, about educating and building sustainable societies.
Fr H an old friend asked Declan if he would come back and teach English. He took a long time to reply, he said slowly. Teaching is a highly specialized skill, teachers in the UK take many years to train, then practice to become proficient. He said I would not want to practice on these communities as they are so vulnerable. He said he would stick to immersing the children in the English language through a vocational subject eg sport, something they enjoy, in addition to learning Burmese.
Tuesday
The priests know how difficult it is for us to stay down here. I have been working from the Cathedral compound with the satellite health workers. I deliver health education to the satellite nurses before they leave Pathein. These nurses are the real heroes. They have been working voluntary for the last six months as there are no funds to pay them. They leave this week to go back to the villages to join the rest of the team including doctors and psychological counselors. They make the very difficult journeys in the monsoon season into the areas most affected by Cyclone Nargis. They travel into this area on the boats delivering aid, medicines and health education. They live and sleep on the boats going from clinic to clinic in the Delta region often seeing 100 patients in one day. They tell me the situation is getting worse in this area. They ask if I can go with them! I reply, I don't think your government will let me! They ask me please let the people of your country know what is happening to us. Please watch VJ Burma a very brave journalist account of post Nargis. I have got copies.
They see very few foreigners in this town and so we stand out,and watvh the spies watching us they are everywhere. Our priest friends live in fear that their underground projects could be closed down at any time on the whim of the SPDC, everything is controlled. Tonight we leave the compound, we are not allowed to stay at anyone's house must be in the guest house and passports numbers handed to local SPDC, our friends said, “it is so difficult for people outside of Burma to understand our needs we are suffering so much because of the psychological oppression”. They say thank you so much for just being with our people and spending the time with us we know it is not easy.
Tonight we visited a tea shop in Pathein. Two sergeants high ranking SPDC decided to pull up chairs and join us. They were practicing their English and were so very polite to us. It was so hard just to sit with them, knowing what they are doing to our friends. As another person in the restaurant decided to join in the conversation the sergeant spoke very harshly and aggressively to this person in Burmese, the look on this persons face was pure fear, he quickly left the tea shop. The owner had a look of fear on her face, I was so scared trying not to say anything too sensitive and worried as to how we were to leave politely as they strongly encouraged us to stay and chat. They asked where we stayed, then our room number!. These soldiers are also a victim of this regime, I was trying so hard to feel sorry for them but just wanted to go back to the room and barricade myself in. Eventually after keeping the conversation safe to football and family we politely said goodbye and left, they shouted “now ma tway may” see you later. We all stayed close together in one room and didn’t sleep. We haven't dared venture far since, after we finish our work and dinner we go straight to our guest house.
Wednesday
Today …… spoke quietly to us and mentioned that someone had come to the Cathedral compound and inquired as to who the foreigners are? And what are they doing in Pathein?. He said ,don’t worry we live with this oppresion all the time it is no problems , but just be careful outside the compound and watch out for the trishaw driver as he is the spy. We notice every morning he sits outside the guest house. As we left this morning for mass at 6 am, we smiled, as we passed him he slept soundly. The mass is in the girls orphanage housing 80 young girls aged 2 years to 15 years old. They are all Cyclone Nargis victims who face a poor and uncertain future. They sing the rosary beautiful in English for our benefit, one of many moving occasions. After mass one young child aged ten speaks holding back her tears, she speaks in perfect English saying thank you for visiting us. My father and mother were washed away in the Cyclone I was left on my own for 3 days holding on to the tree until passing monks rescued me. When you have visited us and seeing you as a family reminds me of my parents this makes me so happy and grateful. Please come back and I will pray for you and your family.
Declan says quietly I Know what mother Teresa felt when she said "love till it hurts".
Thursday
One of the reasons we have travelled so far into the Delta region is that we wanted to see a project Burma link has been funding. We tried to get to it last year but had an accident along the way and had to keep a low profile. At the beginning of the week we spoke to Fr…. on the phone and he asked permission for us to come and stay overnight in his village, but unfortunately because of the forthcoming elections and extra security problems we are not allowed. So we have to do the journey to his village in one day from Pathein. We met this priest ten years ago in Mae Sot and lost contact and only found him again last year. He was asked to leave Mae Sot quickly or he would be deported .Tony, Declan and I were anxious to meet up with him again especially as last year's visit was so difficult, he had the responsibility of sorting out all the security following the accident, not easy when he had to keep a low profile from the authorities…
Monsignior… spoke quietly to me, he expressed his concern about us visiting the village. He said it would be best to set off early to avoid immigration. Even the evening before we were due to leave the trip was still uncertain, in case we would be stopped by the authorities along the way.
Friday
Bethany Mercy Centre
After a difficult 2 hours journey along roads washed away by the Cyclone we arrived into the very poor village the roads are being rebuilt by thousands of people.. As we passed through immigration the priest waved to the soldiers and we were asked to pull the curtains across the window and keep our heads low.
We were here to visit the orphanage (70 children) that BLUK has been supporting but I didn’t expect it to be so poor. This is a step down from Pathein and Yangon!. It is really hard to describe how poor it is. As I looked around the compound I realized it doesn’t get much darker than this. The children slept on dirty floors and had very little to eat. The kitchen was dark small and damp with charcoal fires. I realized very quickly I was seeing some of the poorest village communities in the world. Most of the children are orphans who lost their parents Cyclone Nargis. The children looked clean and dressed in white Karen tops they greeted us with beautiful singing and every child presented us with a single rose. As the children introduced themselves they talked about their ambitions for the future and what they would like to do with their lives and sent thanks that we had made the journey to see them. They had nothing, but yet they had so much love to give. It was a very emotional occasion and whilst the children sang their hearts out, it was too much for Declan who put his head down and broke down, at the same time some of the children looked at him and also started crying.
Over a small lunch of rice and fish paste Fr G told us that that this year had been the most difficult yet, he worries so much for the children. They sometimes only have enough food for two meals a day and go to bed hungry. He has to go to the local farmers and ask to borrow a bag of rice until he gets money from us then he pays them back. He thanked all the people who had sent donations as this had definitely kept the children from starving. He said in Mae Sot if he could not feed the children he would get them into the refugee camp where they got rice and an education here he could not send them back to the Delta area they would starve to death. As we handed out football shirts my heart was breaking at the look of sheer joy on their faces. I looked into the eyes of one 13 year girl, Fr G had found her alone 6 years old wandering in the market left there by her mother. I was saddened to think these children do not deserve this, they are human beings and deserve to be treated like any young person with freedom and opportunities.
The previous evening Fr G had spoken to them about us and said do not be frightened of the foreigner do not run away, stand proud and speak English to them. These children have not seen a foreigner in this village. He said that in Mae Sot we see lots of NGOs but here due to our government we do not get any help.
It dosnt get much darker than down here, but you know in the bleakest area where there is no light, that’s when the stars shine the brightest, and here, the hope, the smiles, the courage and strength of all these children are something that will stay with all of us. As we prepared to leave he asked us, please do not forget about us, change must come soon. On the way back to Pathein, no one spoke, a very emotional day.
Funding or should I say lack of it, is a big issue inside Burma as the government refuses to allow NGOs work visas’ and only allows them to work inside if they pay money to the government. The government, monitors their own CBOs very carefully, making it very difficult for them to do anything without government restrictions, often allowing them to work only when they have given the government their cut. Caritas Thailand is helping to fund the small clinic's and satellite health teams or mobile clinics, but this is not enough.
We thank our kind friends for their hospitality and pray that they will not get the knock on the door from the authorities because of us visiting.! We leave Pathein and travel back to Yangon then to the UK on our slow journey physically and psychologically back to our rich free existence, a complete opposite to this country. I would like to say thank you to all the teams of health workers I have worked with and everyone who is contributed to my safety during the trip even sometimes at great personal risk. I am so grateful to their courage dignity and patience in their 65 years struggle for peace,also thanks to everyone who has sent emails of support from the UK.
During our time in Burma we take our own holidays pay all our own expenses accommodation and travel. We live, sleep and eat with the local Burmese. We travel on foot bike or on local transport. This is so important, not only that all donations go directly to the projects intended without any hidden costs, but also that we show solidarity and respect by being uncomfortable with the Burmese. Because of this we gain credibility and trust.
A lot of people have asked what they can do to help. There are so many more things we can all do. It is so important that we actively campaign for change, ask the question why is this still happening, ? And also speak out about this desperate inhumanity. As Ellie Wiesel states “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented”. I see so many NGO’s, driving into refugee camps in Thailand in new four wheeled trucks earning decent salaries making money out of the refugees, this just maintains the status quo and the situation remains the same. We need to help the Burmese become liberated they can't do it themselves.
As a small organization we fund projects most in need and were they are not getting any funds. One project is a fish and pig farm in Karen liberated area inside Burma. This is a small local project that will hopefully be sustainable and develop within one year. This culturally appropriate project is giving local children sustainable food, education and a hand up not a handout.
Other things we can all do;
. Contact the Burma campaign UK or local group Burmalink UK to get information on campaigns and share it with family and friends.
. Contact your local MP’s asking what the government is doing to help release all political prisoners including ASSK. Write letters asking for their release.
. In response to calls from Burma’s democracy movement, the Burma Campaign UK and other campaign groups around the world have been pressuring companies to sever business ties with Burma.
Please contact one or more of the companies on the Dirty List, see Burma Campaign ask them to cut their ties with Burma’s military government. If appropriate, tell them you will not purchase their products as long as they continue to support the regime in Burma.
. Before we left Fr G orphanage he mentioned that Barclays Bank had been investing with Burmese general’s money for 20 years. We have got very little info on this as all websites are blocked here. Please boycott Barclays Bank, if you have accounts or investments write to them and close accounts.
. Total oil continues to be one of the main investors inside Burma. “Total has become one of the main supporters of the military regime” Aung San Suu Kyi. Boycott Total oil.
. Get your Union link going or get involved with existing international union links.
. I have attached a flyer with regard to the Orphans of Cyclone Nargis from Pathein who are by far the most in need of funds. All Cheques made payable to: Burmalink UK. 51 Woodbine Road Gosforth Newcastle NE3 1DE England. 01912859820
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
“Martin Luther King”
When you think it can’t get much worse than Yangon we arrive in Pathein, the Delta area and the third largest city in Burma and as the guide book states, “Famous for its parasols”. This is the second time we have been here and even though it is difficult to get too I promised I would come back. A big military base around 10,000 military based here. You can feel the oppression with soldiers everywhere.
This is the worst affected area of Cyclone Nargis. ‘Heavy rain expected’ was all the regime’s state owned media reported on 2nd May 2008 as Cyclone Nargis sped towards Burma with wind speeds of 190km an hour and a three metre tidal surge, bringing death and devastation to the Irrawaddy Delta. But the regime did know what was coming, the cyclone had formed offshore days before, monitored by weather agencies, and the Indian government was so concerned at the regime’s lack of preparation that they directly informed them about the cyclone.
To ignore warnings and fail to warn the population of the coming cyclone, or give any advice on how to prepare for when it hit is bad enough, but what followed was even more shocking, though sadly not surprising. As news began to trickle out about the scale of the disaster, the United Nations and aid agencies began to mobilize help, only to be told by the regime that they were not welcome.
In the days after the cyclone, as usual, the regime was blocking news from getting out of the country, and Burma Campaign UK mobilized its underground network in the country to find out the scale of the disaster. They told us that there was barely a house in Yangon that hadn’t been damaged. That people had no electricity and no clean water, and that there was no sign of any government officials or the army to help clear up the damage.
The news from Rangoon was bad, but what worried us more was the lack of any news from the delta region, near Pathein. Most people live in bamboo houses held together by dried grass. The area is low lying, so very vulnerable to flooding, and many people live by the sea or rivers which would have been badly hit by the tidal surge. Using UN satellite imagery we were able see the scale of the flooding, and estimated that 2,000 villages had been flooded.
As the regime continued to refuse shipments of aid, Burmese people in Yangon packed cars and vans with supplies and drove to the delta to help people. They returned with horrific stories of death and devastation, of whole villages empty, or where all the children were gone, having been swept from their parents’ arms by the force of the wind. Bodies were everywhere, rotting in fields and villages. People had little or no food or clean water. No shelter and no medicine. There regime’s response was to send the army to the delta, not to help people, but to set up road blocks to stop people going in to deliver aid, and to stop survivors escaping.
The British, French and American governments were asked to use their Navy ships in the area to go in directly and save lives, but France and the USA refused, and the UK didn’t have the capacity to act.
Two weeks after the cyclone had struck; most survivors still hadn’t received any assistance. At last, UN Secretary General Ban Kid-moon, who had repeatedly refused to go to Burma to try to persuade the generals to allow in aid, left for Burma. He appeared to have negotiated a deal to allow aid workers in, but once again the regime had lied to the UN. They granted more visas, but not nearly enough to deal with a crisis on this scale. In the week after the much-hailed agreement, the regime was still turning down visas for aid workers, access to the delta region was still restricted. Even those aid workers that did get visas arrived in Rangoon only to find there were not allowed to leave the city. 350.000 men women and children died, because aid couldn’t get to them. Back pack medics from Dr Cynthia’s were one of the first on the scene with the religious organizations, but when the junta realized they were getting through they put more complicated road blocks in place. There is a Burmese phrase about how much aid was getting in, “it is like tossing a sesame seed into the mouth of an elephant”.
The effects are still visible and we see hundreds, thousands of orphaned children in Pathein, being housed in big boarding houses without parents and a poor uncertain future.
Monday
The children of Pathein play football in the safety of the cathedral compound in the tropical monsoon rain laughing and joking playing in bare feet, with the football shirts we have donated from Newcastle. They play in the relative safety of the compound.
Outside the compound the streets are dirt tracks with very few cars and trishaws. Streets have open sewers and as I sit and rest I watch a rat scurry up the wall. A man comes out of his house, hits the rat and throws it into the middle of the street. It looks like turn-of-the-century London nothing changed in 100 years. It is densely populated and has had no development for years. Everywhere there is filth and rubbish with noisy people throwing dirty buckets of water out of windows and lots of street traders selling crickets and other suspicious creatures. The people are so friendly and shout out "Minglaba" hello as they don't see any westerners. On an evening while walking home in the dark we are serenaded by young lads singing in perfect harmony with their battered old guitars. Electricity goes off at regular occasions, the hospital has no medicines and children left on the dirty floor on stretchers dying of Dengue fever which is a preventable disease.
During a lunch of Fish paste and Rice the priest asks Declan about young voluntary teachers teaching English in this part of the world. In Mae Sot they often get volunteer unqualified teachers teaching English and practicing western concepts on these vulnerable children. I think it is important to remind ourselves that we don’t want Burmese children to think like westerners, we want them to have a balanced cultural appropriate education. I am aware after spending time just being with these communities that western development workers should not blindly impose modern improvements on ancient cultures but that industrialized countries have lessons to learn from Burmese people, about educating and building sustainable societies.
Fr H an old friend asked Declan if he would come back and teach English. He took a long time to reply, he said slowly. Teaching is a highly specialized skill, teachers in the UK take many years to train, then practice to become proficient. He said I would not want to practice on these communities as they are so vulnerable. He said he would stick to immersing the children in the English language through a vocational subject eg sport, something they enjoy, in addition to learning Burmese.
Tuesday
The priests know how difficult it is for us to stay down here. I have been working from the Cathedral compound with the satellite health workers. I deliver health education to the satellite nurses before they leave Pathein. These nurses are the real heroes. They have been working voluntary for the last six months as there are no funds to pay them. They leave this week to go back to the villages to join the rest of the team including doctors and psychological counselors. They make the very difficult journeys in the monsoon season into the areas most affected by Cyclone Nargis. They travel into this area on the boats delivering aid, medicines and health education. They live and sleep on the boats going from clinic to clinic in the Delta region often seeing 100 patients in one day. They tell me the situation is getting worse in this area. They ask if I can go with them! I reply, I don't think your government will let me! They ask me please let the people of your country know what is happening to us. Please watch VJ Burma a very brave journalist account of post Nargis. I have got copies.
They see very few foreigners in this town and so we stand out,and watvh the spies watching us they are everywhere. Our priest friends live in fear that their underground projects could be closed down at any time on the whim of the SPDC, everything is controlled. Tonight we leave the compound, we are not allowed to stay at anyone's house must be in the guest house and passports numbers handed to local SPDC, our friends said, “it is so difficult for people outside of Burma to understand our needs we are suffering so much because of the psychological oppression”. They say thank you so much for just being with our people and spending the time with us we know it is not easy.
Tonight we visited a tea shop in Pathein. Two sergeants high ranking SPDC decided to pull up chairs and join us. They were practicing their English and were so very polite to us. It was so hard just to sit with them, knowing what they are doing to our friends. As another person in the restaurant decided to join in the conversation the sergeant spoke very harshly and aggressively to this person in Burmese, the look on this persons face was pure fear, he quickly left the tea shop. The owner had a look of fear on her face, I was so scared trying not to say anything too sensitive and worried as to how we were to leave politely as they strongly encouraged us to stay and chat. They asked where we stayed, then our room number!. These soldiers are also a victim of this regime, I was trying so hard to feel sorry for them but just wanted to go back to the room and barricade myself in. Eventually after keeping the conversation safe to football and family we politely said goodbye and left, they shouted “now ma tway may” see you later. We all stayed close together in one room and didn’t sleep. We haven't dared venture far since, after we finish our work and dinner we go straight to our guest house.
Wednesday
Today …… spoke quietly to us and mentioned that someone had come to the Cathedral compound and inquired as to who the foreigners are? And what are they doing in Pathein?. He said ,don’t worry we live with this oppresion all the time it is no problems , but just be careful outside the compound and watch out for the trishaw driver as he is the spy. We notice every morning he sits outside the guest house. As we left this morning for mass at 6 am, we smiled, as we passed him he slept soundly. The mass is in the girls orphanage housing 80 young girls aged 2 years to 15 years old. They are all Cyclone Nargis victims who face a poor and uncertain future. They sing the rosary beautiful in English for our benefit, one of many moving occasions. After mass one young child aged ten speaks holding back her tears, she speaks in perfect English saying thank you for visiting us. My father and mother were washed away in the Cyclone I was left on my own for 3 days holding on to the tree until passing monks rescued me. When you have visited us and seeing you as a family reminds me of my parents this makes me so happy and grateful. Please come back and I will pray for you and your family.
Declan says quietly I Know what mother Teresa felt when she said "love till it hurts".
Thursday
One of the reasons we have travelled so far into the Delta region is that we wanted to see a project Burma link has been funding. We tried to get to it last year but had an accident along the way and had to keep a low profile. At the beginning of the week we spoke to Fr…. on the phone and he asked permission for us to come and stay overnight in his village, but unfortunately because of the forthcoming elections and extra security problems we are not allowed. So we have to do the journey to his village in one day from Pathein. We met this priest ten years ago in Mae Sot and lost contact and only found him again last year. He was asked to leave Mae Sot quickly or he would be deported .Tony, Declan and I were anxious to meet up with him again especially as last year's visit was so difficult, he had the responsibility of sorting out all the security following the accident, not easy when he had to keep a low profile from the authorities…
Monsignior… spoke quietly to me, he expressed his concern about us visiting the village. He said it would be best to set off early to avoid immigration. Even the evening before we were due to leave the trip was still uncertain, in case we would be stopped by the authorities along the way.
Friday
Bethany Mercy Centre
After a difficult 2 hours journey along roads washed away by the Cyclone we arrived into the very poor village the roads are being rebuilt by thousands of people.. As we passed through immigration the priest waved to the soldiers and we were asked to pull the curtains across the window and keep our heads low.
We were here to visit the orphanage (70 children) that BLUK has been supporting but I didn’t expect it to be so poor. This is a step down from Pathein and Yangon!. It is really hard to describe how poor it is. As I looked around the compound I realized it doesn’t get much darker than this. The children slept on dirty floors and had very little to eat. The kitchen was dark small and damp with charcoal fires. I realized very quickly I was seeing some of the poorest village communities in the world. Most of the children are orphans who lost their parents Cyclone Nargis. The children looked clean and dressed in white Karen tops they greeted us with beautiful singing and every child presented us with a single rose. As the children introduced themselves they talked about their ambitions for the future and what they would like to do with their lives and sent thanks that we had made the journey to see them. They had nothing, but yet they had so much love to give. It was a very emotional occasion and whilst the children sang their hearts out, it was too much for Declan who put his head down and broke down, at the same time some of the children looked at him and also started crying.
Over a small lunch of rice and fish paste Fr G told us that that this year had been the most difficult yet, he worries so much for the children. They sometimes only have enough food for two meals a day and go to bed hungry. He has to go to the local farmers and ask to borrow a bag of rice until he gets money from us then he pays them back. He thanked all the people who had sent donations as this had definitely kept the children from starving. He said in Mae Sot if he could not feed the children he would get them into the refugee camp where they got rice and an education here he could not send them back to the Delta area they would starve to death. As we handed out football shirts my heart was breaking at the look of sheer joy on their faces. I looked into the eyes of one 13 year girl, Fr G had found her alone 6 years old wandering in the market left there by her mother. I was saddened to think these children do not deserve this, they are human beings and deserve to be treated like any young person with freedom and opportunities.
The previous evening Fr G had spoken to them about us and said do not be frightened of the foreigner do not run away, stand proud and speak English to them. These children have not seen a foreigner in this village. He said that in Mae Sot we see lots of NGOs but here due to our government we do not get any help.
It dosnt get much darker than down here, but you know in the bleakest area where there is no light, that’s when the stars shine the brightest, and here, the hope, the smiles, the courage and strength of all these children are something that will stay with all of us. As we prepared to leave he asked us, please do not forget about us, change must come soon. On the way back to Pathein, no one spoke, a very emotional day.
Funding or should I say lack of it, is a big issue inside Burma as the government refuses to allow NGOs work visas’ and only allows them to work inside if they pay money to the government. The government, monitors their own CBOs very carefully, making it very difficult for them to do anything without government restrictions, often allowing them to work only when they have given the government their cut. Caritas Thailand is helping to fund the small clinic's and satellite health teams or mobile clinics, but this is not enough.
We thank our kind friends for their hospitality and pray that they will not get the knock on the door from the authorities because of us visiting.! We leave Pathein and travel back to Yangon then to the UK on our slow journey physically and psychologically back to our rich free existence, a complete opposite to this country. I would like to say thank you to all the teams of health workers I have worked with and everyone who is contributed to my safety during the trip even sometimes at great personal risk. I am so grateful to their courage dignity and patience in their 65 years struggle for peace,also thanks to everyone who has sent emails of support from the UK.
During our time in Burma we take our own holidays pay all our own expenses accommodation and travel. We live, sleep and eat with the local Burmese. We travel on foot bike or on local transport. This is so important, not only that all donations go directly to the projects intended without any hidden costs, but also that we show solidarity and respect by being uncomfortable with the Burmese. Because of this we gain credibility and trust.
A lot of people have asked what they can do to help. There are so many more things we can all do. It is so important that we actively campaign for change, ask the question why is this still happening, ? And also speak out about this desperate inhumanity. As Ellie Wiesel states “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented”. I see so many NGO’s, driving into refugee camps in Thailand in new four wheeled trucks earning decent salaries making money out of the refugees, this just maintains the status quo and the situation remains the same. We need to help the Burmese become liberated they can't do it themselves.
As a small organization we fund projects most in need and were they are not getting any funds. One project is a fish and pig farm in Karen liberated area inside Burma. This is a small local project that will hopefully be sustainable and develop within one year. This culturally appropriate project is giving local children sustainable food, education and a hand up not a handout.
Other things we can all do;
. Contact the Burma campaign UK or local group Burmalink UK to get information on campaigns and share it with family and friends.
. Contact your local MP’s asking what the government is doing to help release all political prisoners including ASSK. Write letters asking for their release.
. In response to calls from Burma’s democracy movement, the Burma Campaign UK and other campaign groups around the world have been pressuring companies to sever business ties with Burma.
Please contact one or more of the companies on the Dirty List, see Burma Campaign ask them to cut their ties with Burma’s military government. If appropriate, tell them you will not purchase their products as long as they continue to support the regime in Burma.
. Before we left Fr G orphanage he mentioned that Barclays Bank had been investing with Burmese general’s money for 20 years. We have got very little info on this as all websites are blocked here. Please boycott Barclays Bank, if you have accounts or investments write to them and close accounts.
. Total oil continues to be one of the main investors inside Burma. “Total has become one of the main supporters of the military regime” Aung San Suu Kyi. Boycott Total oil.
. Get your Union link going or get involved with existing international union links.
. I have attached a flyer with regard to the Orphans of Cyclone Nargis from Pathein who are by far the most in need of funds. All Cheques made payable to: Burmalink UK. 51 Woodbine Road Gosforth Newcastle NE3 1DE England. 01912859820
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
“Martin Luther King”
Thursday 2 September 2010
Families remember victims of brutal paramilitary massacres
People from varied social sectors gathered on Sunday 29th August to commemorate the victims of a series of massacres committed against inhabitants of rural afro-Colombian communities by right-wing paramilitaries allied to the state in Southwest Colombia. Over just a few months in the year 2000, hundreds of heavily-armed paramilitaries terrorised the defenceless afro-Colombian communities which live in Buenaventura municipality, close to the main road between the port city of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca, and the regional capital, Cali. The paramilitaries, working in collaboration with state forces and funded by businesses and landowners, sought to force the local communities to flee for their lives, thus taking away the ‘social base’ of left-wing guerrilla groups, whilst at the same time leaving the path open for mega-projects such as a major widening of the main road. Their brutal methods included cutting their victims up with chainsaws, slitting throats, and forcing families to watch the murder of their loved ones. Locals tell how the army disappeared the day before each massacre, and returned the day after, allowing the paramilitaries to carry out their work undisturbed. The true number of victims of the massacres is still unknown, but is thought to be hundreds.
One of the massacres took place in the small hamlet of Triana. As in other communities, all of Triana’s inhabitants fled the community in the aftermath of the killings, leaving a ghost town in their wake. It was only in 2005 that the community was able to return to the area. In 2007 a small group of women from the community who had lost sons, daughters, husbands and fathers began to organise themselves and became part of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE). Gradually, more and more women have felt able to defy the fear that still grips many of them, and the group is now made up of around 40 women. It is particularly terrifying for the women to speak out because there are still active paramilitaries in the area, despite keeping a lower profile these days. “We know that they’re here, and that they’re keeping an eye on us, but they need to know that we don’t care- they can’t take anything else from me now, they already took my beloved son”, said one of the women. Unison Northern has developed links with the Triana Women’s group over the past 3 years, and was proud to be able to provide the funding for such an important and symbolic event.
Around 100 people from around the Valle del Cauca region attended the event, representing 17 different communities and organisations including trade unions, human rights organisations, and student groups. The day began with a symbolic ‘convoy’ along the route taken by the paramilitaries when they committed the massacre: stopping at the scenes of 14 massacres along the way to plant a tree at each. The tree symbolized the sowing of life in the place where paramilitaries had sown death and destruction.
The National Movement for the Victims of State Crimes campaigns for truth, justice and comprehensive reparation for the crimes which robbed them of their loved ones. However, as in the overwhelming majority of cases of human rights violations in Colombia, there is little sign of justice being done for the victims’ families. The only person who is facing trial for the massacres is former paramilitary leader Ever Veloza Garcia, aka ‘HH’. ‘HH’ confessed to the crimes under the highly controversial ‘Justice and Peace’ law, which allows paramilitary chiefs who are responsible for some of the worst atrocities in recent human histories to be given maximum sentences of eight years in return for confessing their crimes. “Its a joke,” says Viviana, one of the group’s leaders, “that’s why paramilitaries are still killing today- because they got away with it. And they will keep getting away with it unless we do something about it. But the most important thing about today is that we know we can see that we’re not alone. That helps us in our search for justice- we’re not going to stop until we see justice done.”
Unison Northern regional convenor Clare Williams said, “Showing solidarity with groups such as the women in Triana is crucial, as many victims in Colombia continue to be in grave danger, particularly those who are organising. This is what trade union solidarity is about: supporting those who have suffered injustice, and to provide practical support to their struggle. It’s important to understand that these paramilitary massacres were not just violence for the sake of it- they had clear political motives, and were funded and supported by big business, politicians and the state. Helping the victims’ search for justice and truth can also help us to further understand the true nature of the capitalist system in which we live.”
Unison Northern has developed links with South-West Colombia over the past 3 years, supporting trade unions, women’s groups, indigenous and afro-Colombian communities and human rights defending organisations, and will continue this work with a particular focus to develop links between branches and women’s groups.
Thursday 12 August 2010
Uribe's appointment to flotilla probe guarantees its failure
Taken from The Electronic Intifada website http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11449.shtml
At the beginning of this month the Israeli government announced it would cooperate with one out of two international UN-sponsored investigation commissions into the 31 May Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre, a move which UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon claimed was "unprecedented." However, the details of this commission and who will take part in it -- particularly the notorious outgoing president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez -- cast doubt over its impartiality.
The commission is composed of four persons, one chosen by Turkey, one chosen by Israel and two chosen from a list provided by Israel. The latter two are former Prime Minister of New Zealand Geoffrey Palmer, who will be the chair, and Uribe, who will serve as vice-chair. While Palmer, an expert in international law, is an uncontroversial choice, the appointment of Uribe is as perplexing as it is shocking. It appears that "balance" in this commission involves balance between someone versed in international and human rights law and someone who is adamantly opposed to it. This notion of balance fatally weakens this commission even before it has started, and tarnishes the process of international law.
Uribe is a controversial president whose regime has engaged in severe human rights abuses; illegal surveillance and harassment of human rights defenders by the intelligence service (DAS); international law violations (such as the bombing of Ecuadorian territory); corruption; crimes against humanity and excesses by the army in their US-sponsored counterinsurgency warfare.
Uribe's scorn for human right defenders is notorious. According to Human Rights First, "President Uribe and other administration officials have branded [human rights defenders] as terrorist sympathizers and have insinuated that illicit connections exist between human rights NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and illegal armed groups. Irresponsible comments by government officials in Colombia put the lives of human rights defenders at even greater risk and threaten to undermine the value and credibility of their work" ("Human Rights Defencers in Colombia").
In September 2009 Colombia was visited by Margaret Sekaggya, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders from the UN Human Rights Commission. Sekaggya found that constant problems faced by human rights defenders in Colombia include "Stigmatization [of human rights defenders] by public officials and non-State actors; their illegal surveillance by State intelligence services; their arbitrary arrest and detention, and their judicial harassment; and raids of nongovernmental organizations' (NGOs) premises and theft of information" ("Report of the Special Rapporteur ...," 4 March 2010, pp. 13-18 [PDF]).
Public officials in Colombia constantly attack human rights defenders and members of the political and social opposition as aides of "terrorists," that is, left-wing guerrillas.
Uribe has led these attacks, calling human rights defenders "rent-a-mobs at terrorism's service who cowardly wave the human rights flag," "human rights traffickers," "charlatans of human rights," "bandits' [ie. guerrillas] colleagues," "intellectual front of the FARC [the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]" and he has stated that "Every time terrorists and their supporters feel they will be defeated, they resort to denouncing human rights violations."
Uribe has referred in particularly harsh terms both to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch: "Amnesty International do not condemn international humanitarian law violations by the guerrillas and they give legitimacy to terrorism [...] they go around European bureaus like library rats, gossiping in low voices, undermining Colombian institutions." He said of the director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, José Miguel Vivanco: "Before Vivanco, a FARC defender [and] accomplice, came here to criticize our policy of democratic security, we were making serious efforts to put our country on its feet -- I don't have anything to learn from Mr. Vivanco when it comes to human rights" ("Defensores de derechos humanos: bajo el estigma del presidente Uribe," Agencia de prensa (IPC), 23 October 2009).
This is just a brief overview of Uribe's systematic attacks on human right defenders. In June 2010 an international human rights mission investigated the biggest mass grave in the western hemisphere -- containing some 2,000 execution victims who had been dumped there since 2004 -- which had just been discovered in the Colombian town of La Macarena. At the same time Uribe travelled to that very locality but not to pay his condolences to the victims' families, or guarantee that an investigation would determine what happened there. Instead, he went to visit the local military base -- exactly the same people that, according to victims' reports, filled that mass grave with its grisly contents -- to praise them for their work.
Uribe said on that occasion: "I want the country to know that now terrorists want to damn our partial victory by combining their means of struggle. Now the terrorists' spokespeople are talking of peace to have a break in order to recover, before we achieve our final victory. Terrorism combines means of struggle, so some of their spokespersons talk of peace; others come here to La Macarena to look for ways to discredit the Armed Forces and to implicate it in human rights violations. We will not fall into that trap, stay firm!" ("Voceros del terrorismo estan proponiendo la paz para poderse recuperar: Uribe," El Espectador, 25 June 2010).
It is hard to believe that, in spite of Uribe's appalling human rights record, he has been chosen to be part of a UN human rights commission. Going beyond Uribe himself, any representative of the Colombian state must be suspect when it comes to investigating human rights violations as official and "unofficial" state-sanctioned human rights abusers act with impunity; 98 percent of such cases remain unprosecuted ("Baseless Prosecutions of Human Rights Defenders in Colombia," February 2009).
It also strains credibility to believe that Colombia, the biggest recipient of US military "aid" after Israel and Egypt, a country that has agreed to host seven new US military bases on its territory last year, can be impartial in relation to Israel. Both the Israeli and Colombian governments share an ideological approach to their opponents, based on a belief that respecting human rights is a non-issue when it comes to pursuing their military goals against rebel groups. Unsurprisingly, there is also large-scale military cooperation between the two rogue states.
In recent years, according to news reports, Israel has become Colombia's number one weapon supplier, with arms worth tens of millions of dollars, "including Kfir aircraft, drones, weapons and intelligence systems" being used against opponents of the Colombian regime ("Report: Israelis fighting guerillas in Colombia," Ynet, 10 August 2007). According to a senior Israeli defense official, "Israel's methods of fighting terror have been duplicated in Colombia" ("Colombia's FM: We share your resilience," 30 April 2010).
There is a reason that Latin Americans often refer to Colombia as the "Israel of Latin America," and indeed why Colombian President-elect Juan Manuel Santos, ex-Minister of Defence and right hand of Uribe, expressed his pride at such a comparison ("Santos, orgulloso de que a Colombia lo comparen con Israel," El Espectador, 6 June 2010).
The Colombian government's bias in Israel's favor was made clear during an April 2010 visit of Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez to Israel. The Jerusalem Post reported Bermudez's "desire to strengthen Colombia's military relationship with Israel" and of the "need to do more in terms of the fight against terrorism." He confidently predicted that "whoever wins [Colombia's] presidential election next month will be supportive of [Israel]. I admire your people. I admire your country and I admire you. You have many friends in Colombia" ("Colombia's FM: We share your resilience").
The admiration is mutual, and Uribe undertakes his role of impartial investigator weighed down with awards from various Zionist organizations. These include the American Jewish Committee's "Light unto the Nations Award" and descending further into Orwellian doublespeak, the "Presidential Gold Medallion for Humanitarianism" from B'nai Brith.
While the Colombian government and Uribe are entitled to their choice of friends, this -- to say the least -- indicates that there will be no objectivity whatsoever with regard to Uribe's role in the commission.
It appears that Israel only agreed to cooperate with this particular UN inquiry as there is very little chance this commission will take an independent stance and deliver an unbiased verdict on the brutal Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Indeed, Israel has declined to cooperate with the other UN commission into the attack appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. It can be reasonably argued that Colombian and Israeli cooperation in this matter is a further step towards jointly "doing more in terms of the fight against terrorism" (to paraphrase Bermudez' remarks in Israel).
In reality this means attacking human rights defenders and aid workers and further undermining international law and respect for human rights. Participating in a whitewash of the illegal and brutal murder of human rights activists and painting them as "terrorists in disguise" will serve the military objectives of both countries as they struggle to undermine human rights defenders and "enemy communities" in their respective countries.
This is a maverick commission lacking credibility, which will serve only to show the influence of the United States and Israel on Ban Ki-moon's office. Such a commission will disappoint anyone expecting a neutral, impartial investigation that reveals the truth about the massacre of 31 May. This commission further undermines the credibility of the UN and serves to turn international and human rights law into a game played between the violators of these laws.
José Antonio Gutiérrez and David Landy are activists based in Ireland, involved respectively with the Latin American Solidarity Centre and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. José Antonio Gutiérrez writes frequently on Colombia for www.anarkismo.net
Wednesday 28 July 2010
Huge mass grave uncovered in Colombia
• Believed to be one of the biggest in Latin American history, with around 2000 corpses
• Many bodies believed to belong to victims of army’s extrajudicial executions
Human rights NGOs, politicians and local communities used a public audience at the weekend to denounce the existence of a mass grave which is believed to contain as many as 2,000 corpses of victims of extrajudicial executions which date from 2005 onwards. The audience had the participation of an international delegation made up of MPs from the UK, the European parliament, Spain and the US, as well as trade unionists and several highly renowned human rights defenders from both Colombia and abroad.
On January 26th, Spanish newspaper Publico reported the discovery of the grave of up to 2000 bodies which date back to 2005. The newspaper says that the bodies were buried there by the Colombian army, who have a heavy presence in the area around the site in the town of La Macarena, in Meta department, about 200km south of Bogota. It is one of the biggest mass graves discovered in the history of conflicts in South American. Jairo Ramirez, from the Committee for the Permanent Defence of Human Rights, said, “The army commandant told us that they (the bodies) were guerrillas fallen in combat, but people in the region have told us about the large number of social leaders, campesinos and community defenders who disappeared without a trace” (http://www.publico.es/internacional/288773/aparece/colombia/fosa/comun/cadaveres). It is thought there could be more than 1000 mass graves in Colombia. The Prosecutor General’s office records show that there are around 25,000 ‘disappeared’ people in the country.
Since the discovery was announced, the government has strenuously denied its existence, thus the decision of victims’ families, local communities and human rights organisations to organise the high profile event last weekend. President Uribe responded by claiming that the event, which was attended by around 1000 people from local communities, was organised by “terrorists who are the enemies of the armed forces”, whilst exalting the “heroism” of the armed forces. Exhumations and investigations into the mass grave are continuing.
Monday 28 June 2010
URGENT ACTION
Yet more death threats against human rights organisations in South-West Colombia
by Asociacion Nomadesc
Santiago de Cali, 28th June 2010
At 10.22pm on Sunday June 27th 2010, a new death threat against a number of human rights organisations was sent via text message to human rights defender CRISTINA CASTRO GOMEZ(to the phone number 3177009645). Cristina works with the human rights NGO Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners (Fundacion Comite Solidaridad con Presos Politicos- FCSPP). The threat was sent from the same phone number (3157319271) as the previous threat which was received on 14th June by Cristina Castro Gomez and Aida Quilcue ex-leader of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (Consejo Regional Indigena del Cauca). The same organisations are threatened in both cases: human rights NGO Nomadesc, FCSPP, Permanent Committee of Human Rights (CPDH), community organisation ECATE, and trade union central CUT Valle.
The text of the message sentences to death the members of the organisations, and is as follows.
"guerrilla sons of whores, you are just about crying with fear, you will never be in peace, the Ministry of Interior’s help is coming to an end and you’re at our mercy, demobilize now or you die, no more truce for you FARC ideologists, there are few hours left nobody will save you, death to cpdh, Nomadesc, ECATE, Comittee of Prisoners. Death to you guerrilla sons of whores...and your families. Sincerely New Generation...new extermination policy..xrt"(sic
We stress that we at Nomadesc have received 5 similar threats against the lives of our members during the past two months.
Two of the messages have been received by human rights defender Cristina Castro, one was made via a phone call to the police headquarters in the city of Tulua (all three also threaten the Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and ECATE). The other two were sent via text message to afro-Colombian leaders in Suarez municipality, and named as military objectives Nomadesc, CUT, Sintraunicol trade union, and several indigenous and Afro-Colombian organisations from the north of Cauca department including the Association of Indigenous Authoritis of Northern Cauca (Asociacion de Cabildos Indigenas del Norte del Cauca- ACIN), Black Communities Process(Proceso de Comunidades Negras- PCN), and the communal council of La Toma mining community.
Cristina Castro is a professor at the Valle university (Universidad del Valle) Tulua campus in the Social Work department, and was previously the coordinator of the Nomadesc investigation team. She is also a meber of the Red de Hermandad, a solidarity network which includes national and international human rights organisations.
Requests:
We demand that all actions necessary to protect the lives of the threatened individuals and organisations are taken, and that a thorough investigation is carried out into the repeated threats.
We request that all of you to publicly denounce these threats and demand decisive action from the Colombian state to prevent any attack against the threatened organisations.
We also urge all of you to demand that the Colombian government takes measures to prevent new human rights violations against communities in South-West Colombia.
If you are in Britain, you can direct your correspondence to the Colombian embassy at elondres@cancilleria.gov.co.
More institutional emails (sometimes not delivered):
ALVARO URIBE VELEZ
Presidente de la República
Carrera 8 No. 7 -26 Palacio de Nariño Bogotá
Fax. 5662071
FRANCISCO SANTOS
Vicepresidente de la República
Carrera 8 No.7-57 Bogotá D.C.
fsantos@presidencia.gov.co
General FREDY PADILLA
Ministro de la Defensa (E)
Avenida El dorado con carrera 52 CAN Bogotá D.C.
siden@mindefensa.gov.co
infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co
mdn@cable.net.co
FABIO VALENCIA COSSIO
Ministro del Interior y de Justicia
Avenida El dorado con carrera 52 CAN Bogotá D.C.
Fax. 2221874
ministro@minjusticia.gov.co
GUILLERMO MENDOZA DIAGO
Fiscal General de la Nación
Diagonal 22B No. 52-01 Bogotá D.C.
Fax. 570 20 00
contacto@fiscalia.gov.co
denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co
WOLMAR ANTONIO PEREZ ORTIZ
Defensor del Pueblo
Calle 55 No. 10 – 32 Bogotá D.C.
Fax. 640 04 91
defensoria@defensoria.org.co
secretaria_privada@hotmail.com
ALEJANDRO ORDÓÑEZ
Procurador General de la Nación
Cra. 5 No.15 – 80F Bogotá D.C.
anticorrupción@presidencia.gov.co
reygon@procuraduría.gov.co
Please cc your emails to:
ASOCIACION NOMADESC
Accionjuridica.nomadesc@gmail.com
CAMPAÑA PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR
dhprohibidolvidar@yahoo.com
Monday 21 June 2010
Yet another Trade Unionist murdered in Colombia
Takes toll to 31 already this year
On Thursday 17th June, Nelson Camacho Gonzalez was murdered whilst he waited for a bus to go to work at 5.30am in his home city of Barrancaburmeja. Gunmen on a motorbike shot him several times before making their getaway. Nelson worked for Ecopetrol oil company, and was a member of the USO oil sector workers union. The union currently is currently in dispute with Ecopetrol and BP over working conditions. In a statement the union said that it has been the victim of a systematic campaign of violence and harassment by the government’s paramilitary allies throughout the dispute.
Nelson is the 31st trade unionist to be murdered this year in Colombia, making a mockery of the International Labour Organisation’s decision last week to remove Colombia from a ‘black list’ of countries where labour rights are not respected. The decision by the ILO was met with disbelief by trade unions in Colombia. A report released by the International Trade Union Confederation the same week showed that of the 101 trade unionists that were murdered throughout the world in 2009, 48 were Colombians, almost 50%. The report also stated that 557 trade unionists have been murdered during President Uribe’s eight years in office. Colombia accounts for more than 60% of the trade unionists murdered over the last decade around the world.
We call on all of you to speak out as soon as possible, and demand a clear response from the Colombian state, to stop this violent extermination of activists. We also call on you to demand a full, thorough and timely investigation by the Colombian state to ensure that this case does not end in the same impunity which exists in almost all political murders in Colombia.
If you are in Britain, you can direct your correspondence to the Colombian embassy at elondres@cancilleria.gov.co.
Controversial ex-Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos elected President of Colombia
Colombia’s presidential elections on Sunday 21st June saw ex-Minister of Defence Juan Manuel Santos win a landslide victory over his rival candidate Antanas Mockus. Santos was congratulated by President Alvaro Uribe, and vowed to continue with Uribe’s hardline security and neoliberal policies. Santos gained 69% of the votes to Mokcus’ 27.5%, with an abstention rate of 55%, and will take power on 7th August.
Santos pledged his full support to the armed forces, but promised to ensure that they operate with ‘full respect for human rights’. The claim failed to convince human rights organisations, which point to the fact that Santos was Minister of Defence between 2005-2008, when the bulk of the three thousand cases of extrajudicial executions which are being investigated by Colombian prosecutors took place. The scandal of the ‘false positives’ saw state forces murder civilians then dress them up in combat fatigues to present them as guerrilla combatants. In Chile’s military dictatorship, 3000 people were murdered between 1979 and 1990.
The President-elect also stated that his priority would be to continue to create jobs, whilst also vowing to improve relations with Colombia’s neighbours. Last year an Ecuadorian judge issued an arrest warrant for Santos in relation to an attack by Colombia in 2008, when Colombian commandos crossed the border into Ecuador to attack a camp of FARC rebels, deep in the jungle.
Santos vowed that there will be no negotiation in the armed conflict with FARC guerrillas, and that the only option is to continue to fight the FARC until they surrender. Despite widespread human rights violations, these hardline security policies continue to be popular amongst an electorate suspicious and hostile towards the FARC, which Amnesty International says also systematically violates human rights.
Many have pointed to widespread vote-buying and fraud in the election process in seeking to explain Santos’ victory. However, the margin of the victory is also testament to the success of President Uribe’s 2 administrations, with the help of partisan national media, in shifting public opinion to the right, despite a string of high-profile corruption scandals and international condemnation for its disdain for human rights.
Note: Colombian prosecutors say they are investigating around 2000 false positive cases. However, many human rights organisations and commentatos say that the real number is almost certain higher than 3000, but many victims' families are too fearful of reprisals to come forward.
Friday 18 June 2010
No more violence! No more war! No more threats!
Indigenous, campesino, afro-Colombian communities and social sectors come together for the defence of life, peace and territory
This week more than 5000 people attended the Inter-ethnic and Social Public Assembly in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca department. The event, which took place on 14th and 15th June, saw indigenous, campesino and afro-Colombian communities come together with trade unions, human rights NGOs, students and women’s organisations come together to demand an end to the violence and intimidation which they are being subjected to by all groups in the armed conflict. The event was organised because of the continued intensification of the social and armed conflict in the South-west of Colombia, in particular in Cauca and Valle del Cauca department, under the slogan “for the defence of life, peace and territory”.
This year indigenous and afro-Colombian communities in Northern Cauca department have suffered scores of deaths and casualties at the hands of the army and FARC guerrillas, who have engaged in heavy combat in their territories. Both sides are ignoring International Humanitarian Law and human rights legislation by engaging in combat in civilian areas, and trying to force the civilian population to collaborate with them, thus putting the civilian population in grave danger. Jorge Arias, leader of the ACIN indigenous organisation, said “we say to the armed groups- leave, and leave now. This is not our war. We do not want your war. Army, guerrilla, paramilitaries- all of you- leave now. This is our territory: we will not leave”.
As the presidential elections approach and the administration of President Uribe draws to a close, the past 2 months have also seen a sharp upsurge in paramilitary violence and threats against community leaders, trade unionists, human rights defenders and other social sectors in all of Colombia. A report by Somos Defensores this month said that during May 7 human rights defenders were murdered in Colombia, and 102 social organisations received paramilitary threats. On Sunday 23rd May, campesino leader Alexander Quintero was murdered in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca department. Alexander was President of the Alta Naya Association of Community Councils, and a key figure in the investigation into the Naya massacre, in which paramilitaries with support from state forces killed more 100 indigenous and Afro-Colombian community members in April 2001, and forcibly disappeared another 60.
The assembly began with a colourful and noisy march down the Panamerican Highway, which stopped only once at the point where Andres Quintero was murdered in order for marchers to pay their respects.
The level of paramilitary activity was made clear when several of the organisations involved in organising the event received death threats before the event started on the morning of 14th June. The threats, which arrived by text message, stated “the assembley will be a guerrilla assembley, yet again we have proved that you carry out the FARC’s ideological process death to Nomadesc, FCSPP, CPDH, ECATE, CUT, you will not be saved.x1y” (sic).
Speakers at the event publicly denounced the Colombian state’s non-presence. The government and state institutions responsible for the protection of human rights and the respect of rural communities’ territories were invited to the assembly, but none of the accepted the invitation. “How long are they going to keep killing us? We must organise ourselves, we must keep marching and protesting, its the only way they will take any notice of us. It is our responsibility to protest in the Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance in July. Please join us,” said Feliciano Valencia, indigenous leader and spokesman for the Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance. Social sectors are planning mass demonstrations during July to counter the Colombian state’s celebrations of 200 years of Colombian independence.
Urgent Action
Human rights organisations in Southwest Colombia department receive paramilitary death threats yet again
Upsurge in paramilitary persecution and violence continues in the region
At 1am and 8am respectively on the morning of Monday 14th June, a threat arrived by text message to the mobiles of human rights defender Cristina Castro (Committe of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, FCSPP) and indigenous leader Aida Quilcue. The message declares as military objective the following organisations: human rights NGO Nomadesc, FCSPP, Permanent Committee of Human Rights (CPDH), community organisation ECATE, and trade union central CUT Valle. The text read:
“the assembley will be a guerrilla assembley, yet again we have proved that you carry out the FARC’s ideological process death to Nomadesc, FCSPP, CPDH, ECATE, CUT, you will not be saved.x1y” (sic)
The message refers to the Inter-ethnic and Social Public Assembley held this week on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th June in the town of Santander de Quilichao, Cauca department to denounce and draw attention to repeated human rights violations and violations of International Humanitarian Law committed by state forces, paramilitaries and FARC guerrillas against indigenous, afro-Colombian and campesino communities and social sectors in Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments. All of the organisations mentioned, apart from ECATE, were involved in organising the assembly, which had the participation of the UN and several international human rights organisations. The threat was reported to prosecutor’s office (fiscalia) in Popayan.
Antecedents since the beginning of May
• The threat arrives at a time of increased violence, intimidation and harassment of social sectors in Colombia. A report released last week by Somos Defensores showed that 102 human rights organisations were threatened during May in Colombia, with 7 human rights defenders killed. The Colombian government has remained silent on the issue.
• In the southwest region, on Sunday 23rd May, campesino leader Alexander Quintero was murdered in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca department. Alexander was President of the Alta Naya Association of Community Councils, and a key figure in the investigation into the Naya massacre, in which paramilitaries with support from state forces killed more 100 indigenous and Afro-Colombian community members in April 2001, and forcibly disappeared another 60.
• On 27th May, a man claiming to be a profesional soldier called up the police’s emergency line in the city of Tulua, stating that Berenice Celeyta, coordinator of human rights NGO Nomadesc, ECATE and FSCPP must leave the region immediately because there was an order to kill them.
• Aida Quilcue has been the victim of constant persecution since November 2008, when she led the Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance in a heated public debate with president Alvaro Uribe about the human right situation in Colombia. Her husband Edwin Legarda was murdered by the Colombian army a month after the debate. On Friday 11th June, six soldiers were found guilty of the crime by a judge in the city of Popayan. Aida and her daughter, Mayerly Alejandra Quilcue, were subjected frequent surveillance and harassment during the court case.
• On 5th May, Berenice Celeyta and Nomadesc, CUT Valle and Sintraunicol were named in a paramilitary threat as military objectives along with several human rights defenders, trade unionists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders and organisations from Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments. The threat was signed by Aguilas Nuevas Nueva Generacion (Black Eagles New Generation) paramilitary group.
We call on all of you to speak out as soon as possible, and demand a clear response from the Colombian state, including a full investigation into these acts of violence and intimidation, in order to prevent an attack against any member of the threatened organisations.
If you are in Britain, you can direct your correspondence to the Colombian embassy at elondres@cancilleria.gov.co.
ASOCIACION PARA LA INVESTIGACION Y ACCION SOCIAL NOMADESC
PROCESO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS PCN
ASOCIACION DE CABILDOS INDIGENAS DEL NORTE DEL CAUCA ACIN
CONCEJO COMUNITARIO LA TOMA
COORPORACION SERVICIOS PROFESIONALES COMUNITARIOS SEMBRAR
FUNDACION COMITÉ DE SOLIDARIDAD CON PRESOS POLITICOS VALLE DEL CAUCA
RED DE HERMANDAD Y SOLIDARIDAD CON COLOMBIA REDHER
CAMPAÑA PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR
DEPARTAMENTO DE DERECHOS HUMANOS CUT-VALLE
SINTRAUNICOL
CONSEJO REGIONAL INDÍGENA DEL CAUCA
CRIC
MINGA DE RESISTENCIA SOCIAL Y COMUNITARIA
Monday 14 June 2010
Six soldiers found guilty of the murder of Colombian indigenous leader’s husband
Monday 14th June 2010
Last Friday a judge in the south-western city of Popayan, Colombia, found six soldiers guilty of the charge of murder in relation to the death of Edwin Legarda on 16th December 2008. A seventh soldier was acquitted because it could not be proved that he had fired his weapon. Legarda was the husband of Aida Quilcue, then leader of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC)and spokesperson of the Social and Communitarian Minga. In November 2008 Aida led the Minga’s mass-demonstrations, including a heated televised debate with President Alvaro Uribe. Edwin was killed less than a month after the debate in an attack seemingly meant for Aida herself (you can see Aida’s speech in the debate at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ev5ypoxWL4). The Minga was very successful in drawing national and international attention to the systematic human rights violations by the Colombian army, paramilitaries and the FARC guerrilla group.
The attack took place at 4am whilst he was on his way to pick up Aida, who had just arrived from Geneva where she had participated in the UN Periodic Review of Human Rights. The soldiers fired 116 bullets at the official CRIC car which Edwin was driving, fatally wounding Mr Legarda. Immediately after the killing President Uribe and army figures claimed that Edwin had failed to stop at an army checkpoint, and for this reason the soldiers opened fire. However investigators proved that no such checkpoint existed. Prosecutors in the case stated that had Edwin not managed to drive another 3 kilometres from the scene of the attack before succumbing to his injuries then the soldiers were planning to dress his corpse up in guerrilla fatigues and thus substantiate the government’s claims that the indigenous movement and the Minga are ‘terrorist’ organisations.
The soldiers will be sentenced on August 16th. After the judgement Aida praised the judge’s impartiality in the face of political pressure and intimidation, and insisted that she will not stop until she sees those who gave the order for Edwin’s murder also face justice. “These soldiers (who were found guilty) are all from humble backgrounds: we know they were following orders of their superiors. We demand to know who gave the order, and to see them behind bars too.”
Aida visited the UK in September 2009 at the invitation of Unison, NTUC and the Colombia Solidarity campaign. During her visit she met with MPs, trade unionists, the Latin community and students to raise awareness about the human rights situation in Colombia. She continued, “People must realise that whilst this case has been resolved very quickly, this is a big exception to the rule. There are thousands and thousands of cases which remain in total impunity, and more indigenous leaders, human rights defenders and trade unionists are being the victim of political violence everyday. People need to realise that in Colombia nothing has changed, and not believe what the Colombian government says.”
President Uribe and his government have repeatedly publicly criticised the Colombian justice system when it pursues cases of human rights violations by the armed forces and corruption by his governing coalition. Last week he announced a new legislative project which if approved would see cases of human rights violations and crimes against humanity involving soldiers being tried in the military justice system as opposed to the civilian justice system. Uribe argues that this law is necessary in order to protect soldiers whilst they are serving their country. Human rights groups, however, argue that the move would ensure impunity in the cases.
Last Friday a judge in the south-western city of Popayan, Colombia, found six soldiers guilty of the charge of murder in relation to the death of Edwin Legarda on 16th December 2008. A seventh soldier was acquitted because it could not be proved that he had fired his weapon. Legarda was the husband of Aida Quilcue, then leader of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC)and spokesperson of the Social and Communitarian Minga. In November 2008 Aida led the Minga’s mass-demonstrations, including a heated televised debate with President Alvaro Uribe. Edwin was killed less than a month after the debate in an attack seemingly meant for Aida herself (you can see Aida’s speech in the debate at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ev5ypoxWL4). The Minga was very successful in drawing national and international attention to the systematic human rights violations by the Colombian army, paramilitaries and the FARC guerrilla group.
The attack took place at 4am whilst he was on his way to pick up Aida, who had just arrived from Geneva where she had participated in the UN Periodic Review of Human Rights. The soldiers fired 116 bullets at the official CRIC car which Edwin was driving, fatally wounding Mr Legarda. Immediately after the killing President Uribe and army figures claimed that Edwin had failed to stop at an army checkpoint, and for this reason the soldiers opened fire. However investigators proved that no such checkpoint existed. Prosecutors in the case stated that had Edwin not managed to drive another 3 kilometres from the scene of the attack before succumbing to his injuries then the soldiers were planning to dress his corpse up in guerrilla fatigues and thus substantiate the government’s claims that the indigenous movement and the Minga are ‘terrorist’ organisations.
The soldiers will be sentenced on August 16th. After the judgement Aida praised the judge’s impartiality in the face of political pressure and intimidation, and insisted that she will not stop until she sees those who gave the order for Edwin’s murder also face justice. “These soldiers (who were found guilty) are all from humble backgrounds: we know they were following orders of their superiors. We demand to know who gave the order, and to see them behind bars too.”
Aida visited the UK in September 2009 at the invitation of Unison, NTUC and the Colombia Solidarity campaign. During her visit she met with MPs, trade unionists, the Latin community and students to raise awareness about the human rights situation in Colombia. She continued, “People must realise that whilst this case has been resolved very quickly, this is a big exception to the rule. There are thousands and thousands of cases which remain in total impunity, and more indigenous leaders, human rights defenders and trade unionists are being the victim of political violence everyday. People need to realise that in Colombia nothing has changed, and not believe what the Colombian government says.”
President Uribe and his government have repeatedly publicly criticised the Colombian justice system when it pursues cases of human rights violations by the armed forces and corruption by his governing coalition. Last week he announced a new legislative project which if approved would see cases of human rights violations and crimes against humanity involving soldiers being tried in the military justice system as opposed to the civilian justice system. Uribe argues that this law is necessary in order to protect soldiers whilst they are serving their country. Human rights groups, however, argue that the move would ensure impunity in the cases.
Monday 19 April 2010
Emotional Aida Quilcue speech in public debate with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (with subtitles!)
This video is from the televised public debate between President Alvaro Uribe and his government and the Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance, on 2nd November 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ev5ypoxWL4
Background:
On October 12th 2008, close to 15,000 indigenous protestors gathered in La Maria indigenous reserve, Piendamo municipality, Cauca department in Southern Colombia, demanding a public debate with President Alvaro Uribe. The Indians wanted to discuss the systematic human rights violation and forced displacement which their communities had suffered for years, and which had reached a crescendo under the Uribe administration. When President Uribe refused to meet with the Indians, the protestors blocked the Pan-American highway. The Indian called the mobilisations a 'Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance', 'minga' being an indigenous word for an action carried out in unity by a group of people. The government's reaction to the protests was to use firearms against the unarmed protestors (see video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxcpRabXwyk), which the government initially denied, but was forced to admit when CNN news broadcast a video which showed masked policemen shooting at the protestors with rifles. One protestor was killed, and 122 were seriously injured, many with gunshot wounds.
The Minga attracted a large amount of national and international attention, and President Uribe eventually agreed to a public debate in La Maria, Piendamo. In his opening address, President Uribe criticised the Minga's participants for sitting down during the national anthem, claiming it showed a lack of respect for a national symbol. This video shows Aida Quilcue's opening address, in response to President Uribe's remarks. At the time Aida was spokesperson for the Minga, and leader of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC).
Just over a month after this debate, Aida's husband Edwin Legarda was murdered by the Colombian army in an attack seemingly meant for Aida. On 16th December 2008 he was driving the official CRIC car when he was ambushed. Seven soldiers are currently on trial for the murder, however all are low-ranking regular soldiers. Aida is convinced that the order for the murder came from the top of the government, and vows to ensure that justice is done and those responsible for ordering her husband's death end up behind bars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ev5ypoxWL4
Background:
On October 12th 2008, close to 15,000 indigenous protestors gathered in La Maria indigenous reserve, Piendamo municipality, Cauca department in Southern Colombia, demanding a public debate with President Alvaro Uribe. The Indians wanted to discuss the systematic human rights violation and forced displacement which their communities had suffered for years, and which had reached a crescendo under the Uribe administration. When President Uribe refused to meet with the Indians, the protestors blocked the Pan-American highway. The Indian called the mobilisations a 'Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance', 'minga' being an indigenous word for an action carried out in unity by a group of people. The government's reaction to the protests was to use firearms against the unarmed protestors (see video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxcpRabXwyk), which the government initially denied, but was forced to admit when CNN news broadcast a video which showed masked policemen shooting at the protestors with rifles. One protestor was killed, and 122 were seriously injured, many with gunshot wounds.
The Minga attracted a large amount of national and international attention, and President Uribe eventually agreed to a public debate in La Maria, Piendamo. In his opening address, President Uribe criticised the Minga's participants for sitting down during the national anthem, claiming it showed a lack of respect for a national symbol. This video shows Aida Quilcue's opening address, in response to President Uribe's remarks. At the time Aida was spokesperson for the Minga, and leader of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC).
Just over a month after this debate, Aida's husband Edwin Legarda was murdered by the Colombian army in an attack seemingly meant for Aida. On 16th December 2008 he was driving the official CRIC car when he was ambushed. Seven soldiers are currently on trial for the murder, however all are low-ranking regular soldiers. Aida is convinced that the order for the murder came from the top of the government, and vows to ensure that justice is done and those responsible for ordering her husband's death end up behind bars.
Sunday 21 March 2010
Political Murders Continue in Colombia
Last week one journalist and two social leaders were murdered in unrelated incidents in Colombia. On Monday 15th March, human rights activist Jhonny Hurtado was shot dead near his home on the rural outskirts of La Macarena municipality, Meta department. Jhonny was president of the human rights committee in the La Catalina area of La Macarena. The organisation has stated that it had previously received death threats from paramilitary groups. The La Macarena area is heavily militarized and has a large army presence. The human rights committee had also been intimidated by the army units in the area, who have singled them out as ‘guerrilla collaborators’.
On the evening of Friday 19th March, journalist Clodomiro Castilla was shot dead whilst reading on the terrace in his home in the town of Monteria, Cordoba department. Clodomiro was editor of ‘El pulso del tiempo’ news magazine, and worked on several alternative radio shows. He had received paramilitary death threats because of his work exposing links between important politicians in his region and paramilitary death squads. He was subsequently given a bodyguard by the state, but he gave up the bodyguard last year, arguing that he didn’t trust the state to protect his life.
At 7am on Wednesday 17th March Israel Verona was murdered in his rural home on the outskirts of Saravena municipality, Arauca department. Israel was a member of the Arauca Campesino Association (ACA), an organisation which is being literally exterminated by paramilitary groups. Between the end of October and the 1st of October last year, seven members of the organisation were assassinated.
These latest murders come as the European Union prepares to sign a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, and prove once again that to defend human rights, participate in legitimate, peaceful political activism, or expose corruption is to risk being assassinated in Colombia. Social leaders, trade unionists, journalists, judges and human rights defenders continue to be murdered with alarming frequency, despite the Colombian government’s claims that human rights have improved in the country and that paramilitary groups no longer exist. Because of this situation, the US and Canadian governments are refusing to sign Free Trade Agreements with Colombia until it improves. However, the European Union has stated that human rights have nothing to do with commercial agreements and are not a concern for them. The FTA has met with stern resistance from many politicians and civil society organisations who argue that it will indeed have a negative impact upon human rights in Colombia, and will send the wrong message about the European Union’s attitude towards systematic human rights violations.
On the evening of Friday 19th March, journalist Clodomiro Castilla was shot dead whilst reading on the terrace in his home in the town of Monteria, Cordoba department. Clodomiro was editor of ‘El pulso del tiempo’ news magazine, and worked on several alternative radio shows. He had received paramilitary death threats because of his work exposing links between important politicians in his region and paramilitary death squads. He was subsequently given a bodyguard by the state, but he gave up the bodyguard last year, arguing that he didn’t trust the state to protect his life.
At 7am on Wednesday 17th March Israel Verona was murdered in his rural home on the outskirts of Saravena municipality, Arauca department. Israel was a member of the Arauca Campesino Association (ACA), an organisation which is being literally exterminated by paramilitary groups. Between the end of October and the 1st of October last year, seven members of the organisation were assassinated.
These latest murders come as the European Union prepares to sign a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, and prove once again that to defend human rights, participate in legitimate, peaceful political activism, or expose corruption is to risk being assassinated in Colombia. Social leaders, trade unionists, journalists, judges and human rights defenders continue to be murdered with alarming frequency, despite the Colombian government’s claims that human rights have improved in the country and that paramilitary groups no longer exist. Because of this situation, the US and Canadian governments are refusing to sign Free Trade Agreements with Colombia until it improves. However, the European Union has stated that human rights have nothing to do with commercial agreements and are not a concern for them. The FTA has met with stern resistance from many politicians and civil society organisations who argue that it will indeed have a negative impact upon human rights in Colombia, and will send the wrong message about the European Union’s attitude towards systematic human rights violations.
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Indigenous Leader Aida Quilcue Loses Out in Senate Elections
Aida Quilcue narrowly missed out on a seat in the Colombian Senate in the national election on Sunday 14th March. Despite winning more votes than any of the other candidates for the two Senate seats reserved for indigenous leaders, Aida lost out because the competition is based on the total number of votes accrued by each party. Aida broke away from the national Social Indigenous Alliance party (Alianza Social Indigena)to start the Social and Indigenous Movement (Movimiento Social e Indigena) because of its support for Sergio Fajardo’s candidacy for the presidency, despite Fajardo’s support for the current government’s militaristic Democratic Security policy which has seen a huge increase in human rights violations and forced displacement in Colombia.
Aida, who visited the UK in September at the invitation of Unison Northern and Northern TUC, and in conjunction with the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, vowed to continue to work for a change in Colombia and to continue her community-oriented work, saying “Not much changes, it just means I will continue the struggle from outside the Senate not from within it”. Aida has campaigned for human rights and social justice in Colombia, and until last year was the spokesperson for the Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance, a broad-based social process led by Colombia’s indigenous movement.
The elections were dominated by parties which form part of the hard-line right-wing governing coalition of Alvaro Uribe. They were, however, steeped in controversy, with much talk of armed groups interfering with the electoral process in rural areas, and many seats were won by family members and close friends of politicians who are currently in prison for their links to ultra-right wing paramilitary death squads. Colombia’s presidential elections will be held in May.
Aida, who visited the UK in September at the invitation of Unison Northern and Northern TUC, and in conjunction with the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, vowed to continue to work for a change in Colombia and to continue her community-oriented work, saying “Not much changes, it just means I will continue the struggle from outside the Senate not from within it”. Aida has campaigned for human rights and social justice in Colombia, and until last year was the spokesperson for the Minga of Social and Communitarian Resistance, a broad-based social process led by Colombia’s indigenous movement.
The elections were dominated by parties which form part of the hard-line right-wing governing coalition of Alvaro Uribe. They were, however, steeped in controversy, with much talk of armed groups interfering with the electoral process in rural areas, and many seats were won by family members and close friends of politicians who are currently in prison for their links to ultra-right wing paramilitary death squads. Colombia’s presidential elections will be held in May.
Wednesday 10 March 2010
Thousands participate in Victims’ Marches all around Colombia
On Saturday 6th March, International Day for the Victims of State Crimes, thousands of victims’ relatives, social organisations and concerned citizens took part in marches all around Colombia . The marchers voiced their opposition to the government’s Democratic Security policy which has seen the complete militarization of civil society, large–scale systematic human rights violations, and massive displacement during Alvaro Uribe’s 8 years as President. They also protested the bubble of impunity surrounding almost all cases of human rights violations committed against the civil population by the army and paramilitary death squads aligned with the government.
Prosecutors in Colombia are investigating more than 1200 ‘false positive’ extrajudicial execution cases, where state forces murder civilians and dress them up in guerrilla uniforms to claim cash rewards offered by the government in return for dead ‘enemy combatants’. Meanwhile, despite the supposed demobilisation of paramilitary death squads they remain active and several respected NGOs have reported that they are growing at an alarming rate. Of the 35,353 paramilitaries who supposedly demobilised in 2003 and 2004, only 698 (1.98%) have been convicted for their offences, despite them being responsible for some of the most horrific, large scale violent crimes against humanity in recent human history. The National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) issued a statement voicing its concern that the vast majority of candidates in May’s Presidential election have vowed to continue with the Democratic Security policy.
This was the third year that Colombia’s victims have marched, and victims talked of the fear and harassment which they must conquer in order to demonstrate in public. “We are treated as criminals and enemies of the state rather than victims. Something must be done about the threats and violence against victims’ families in Colombia” said one victim’s relative who asked not to be named.
Prosecutors in Colombia are investigating more than 1200 ‘false positive’ extrajudicial execution cases, where state forces murder civilians and dress them up in guerrilla uniforms to claim cash rewards offered by the government in return for dead ‘enemy combatants’. Meanwhile, despite the supposed demobilisation of paramilitary death squads they remain active and several respected NGOs have reported that they are growing at an alarming rate. Of the 35,353 paramilitaries who supposedly demobilised in 2003 and 2004, only 698 (1.98%) have been convicted for their offences, despite them being responsible for some of the most horrific, large scale violent crimes against humanity in recent human history. The National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) issued a statement voicing its concern that the vast majority of candidates in May’s Presidential election have vowed to continue with the Democratic Security policy.
This was the third year that Colombia’s victims have marched, and victims talked of the fear and harassment which they must conquer in order to demonstrate in public. “We are treated as criminals and enemies of the state rather than victims. Something must be done about the threats and violence against victims’ families in Colombia” said one victim’s relative who asked not to be named.
Tuesday 2 March 2010
Two Thousand March After Another Indigenous Leader Murdered in Cauca Department, Colombia
Civilian Population Suffering Consequences of Escalation in Violence
More than two thousand indigenous community members and representatives from national and international social organisations marched on Friday 26th February in protest over the murder of yet another indigenous leader by armed groups in Cauca department. Andres Muelas was killed in mysterious circumstances on Wednesday 24th February when he was returning home on his motorbike on the Pan-American highway. He was shot in the head and died instantly, possibly in cross-fire between armed groups, or possibly deliberately targeted. The army’s official version of events does not match that of witnesses, arousing suspicion within the indigenous community. What is certain is that Andres was a very popular, respected young leader who at 28 years old was already directing literacy projects and had held several positions on the council of his community.
This year has seen an intensification of the armed conflict in Northern Cauca department after the army installed a battalion with 2000 soldiers in the area. The impact on the civil population has been catastrophic, with several indigenous community members killed in cross-fire, dozens injured, and large-scale displacement of people fleeing the violence which has engulfed the area. Neither the army, the FARC guerrilla group, nor ultra-right wing paramilitaries aligned to the government are showing any regard for the safety of the local population, and are instead seeking to involve locals in the conflict by demanding trying to force their co-operation and forcibly recruiting youngsters. All sides regularly violate international humanitarian law and are responsible for systematic human rights violations.
On Saturday 20th February, six houses and the local hospital were destroyed when the army and FARC combatants engaged in heavy fighting in Jambalo village. Instead of ordering the army to respect the local population, President Uribe claimed that the local indigenous population had stopped the army from capturing some drugs traffickers in indigenous territory, and stated in a clear reference to indigenous communities that the government will not permit the existence of ‘mini Republics of delinquents’. This is in line with the Uribe administration’s policy of claiming that indigenous communities are linked to the FARC, a cynical tactic which makes them legitimate targets for army and paramilitary violence and also fails to recognise the indigenous movement’s categorical rejection of all armed groups and its own political process which has been attacked by all sides in the armed conflict. President Uribe’s comments also ignore the fact that FARC guerrillas have murdered several indigenous leaders in Northern Cauca department after the indigenous population dismantled several FARC cocaine laboratories in indigenous territory.
In the public rally which followed Friday’s march, Cauca indigenous leader Jorge Arias angrily called on all armed groups to respect the autonomy of indigenous communities and abandon indigenous territories immediately, and to “open their dark hearts”. Andres Muela’s brother, Ruben Dario, asked ‘how many more brothers and sisters do we have to lose before they realise that they aren’t going to force us to abandon our territory?”.
Please write to the Colombian embassy and demand that the government respect international humanitarian law and the human rights of the civil population in Cauca department, as well as the territorial autonomy of indigenous communities. You can email the Colombian embassy in London at elondres@cancilleria.gov.co and mail@colombianembassy.co.uk
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