PO Box 10372
San Antonio TX 78210-0372
Telephone: 877 814 6972
E-mail: [email protected]

A Letter from Colombia: July 1999 by Lizzie Brock

If you�ve been following the news in Colombia at all, you know that little�of it�s good. The peace negotiations have been postponed again until at�least July 30, after a recent guerilla offensive and reprisals by the armed�forces the weekend of the 12th resulting in more than 200 dead guerilla�combatants and 59 soldiers, according to military reports. The most recent�of a number of paramilitary massacres in the department of Norte de�Santander left another fourteen peasant farmers dead this Saturday with�another approximately 26 unaccounted for. Meanwhile Defense Minister Ramirez�Acu�a is in Washington this week requesting $500,000,000 more in military�aid from the US government. The Clinton Administration is openly expressing�its desire to support the counter-insurgency war, a rhetorical turn of�events that developed out of a previous position that all aid was intended�for the War on Drugs.

Lizzie was the staffperson for Peace Brigades International�s USA�office until recently when she joined the PBI team in Colombia. This is from�her first open letter home. -Ed

�In this complex and polarized context, PBI�s position is one of�impartiality towards the armed actors. We are, however, partial towards and in�support of the civilian population in its unarmed search for human rights�and social justice, and of its rights within Colombian and international law�(Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law). Practically, this means�we accompany unarmed civilian organizations working to promote respect for�human rights, and do not communicate with illegal armed actors of any�description. Both philosophically and on the ground it is vital to our�security�and therefore our effectiveness�and that of the human rights�defenders we accompany, that we maintain our right to these civilian�political spaces without appealing to illegal armed groups for their�approval.�

For me personally in Bogota, this means typically that I accompany a number�of organizations in their daily work, and from time to time, particularly�harassed individuals on specific assignments. Every day, one member of the�Bogota team heads downtown in one of our bright green windbreakers to do the��ronda� or round of the offices pertaining to the groups we accompany. The�idea is that anyone watching will know that we are keeping tabs on the�organizations and their security. A couple of times I have met people at�their homes and accompanied them to work, in this case human rights lawyers�with the Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers� Collective, a group of human rights�lawyers working through the various branches of the legal system to seek an�end to impunity for violations. Every month we meet with members of these�groups to inquire about their security and how we can improve our �service��of international presence.

The other half of the accompaniment equation includes regular meetings with�members of the government, embassies, the military, the UN, and other�international organizations. Particularly in Bogota, we are responsible for�a large part of this work, which ensures that the authorities and the�international community receive our reports and are aware that we maintain a�presence with human rights defenders and displaced communities. I have�visited the head of Human Rights for the National Police, UN offices, and�the official in charge of a coordinated government effort to aid displaced�people in the region of Uraba. Our role is always to explain our work,�provide information on the situations faced by our clients, and request�their support.

It can look pretty hopeless, and I�ve only been here a month in a situation�of relative safety. Colombian human rights defenders, in this case families�of the victims, have obviously already lost more than I can imagine, and�they risk their own lives in pressuring for change. �[A] woman from another organization was followed for two�hours one day near her office, and later someone took pictures of her in a�restaurant. These occurrences are the norm and represent a constant level of�intimidation that human rights defenders endure on a regular basis. In�crisis, and more frequently in our more rural subteams, threats are a lot�more tangible and grave.

For information contact: PBI, 1904 Franklin St., Ste 505, Oakland CA 94612; tel: 510-663-2362; e-mail: [email protected]; website: www.igc.org/pbi/usa.html.

TOP • CURRENT Issue Index • PTN Index • HOME