Call for peace

A call for peace in Colombia

Subj: Military escalation in Colombia

Date: 2/23/02

from Alice Winters, Presbyterian mission co-worker in Colombia

Dear friends:

Here in Barranquilla the sun shines and a soft breeze from the sea relieves the tropical heat. I hear the shouts of children playing, the call of a fruit vendor, cars stopping at the intersection ... Everything seems normal. But since last Wednesday things are different.

On that day the President of Colombia ended the demilitarized zone where peace talks were being held with the guerrillas, and the army began a military action to take the area. The first night over 200 air raids were carried out. The destruction of highways, bridges and buildings in the rural areas is being reported in the news media as evidence of military success. Sixteen hours after President Pastrana's declaration, planes arrived in Bogota with aid for the war against terrorism here.

The Colombian operation to recover the demilitarized zone, suggestively named "thanatos" (Greek for 'Death'), appears to have broad civil support, according to the news media. Rapid interviews with spokespersons for industrial associations, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, and men and women in the street have indicated approval for the President's policy of open warfare against the guerrilla forces.

Just before the latest events, the news media had carried out a significant campaign underlining contradictions in the peace process, and the candidate of the extreme right, directly related to one of the paramilitary groups, was hailed in the polls as the probable winner of the presidency in the elections next May. These factors helped to create a favorable atmosphere for the attacks which are being carried out today.

However, I want you to know that the majority of Colombians still hope that the peace negotiations will be restored. I hope you will pray for those who are working for peace here in Colombia, and especially Christians who are involved in this movement, as we seek to respond to the present crisis.

Blessings on you ... Alice Winters

alicia@uolpremium.net.co

PS In this connection I want to share with you the following statement issued by the Presbyterian Church of Colombia:

Barranquilla, Febrero 21 de 2.002

From: Executive Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia

To: Presbyteries and sister churches

Concerning: End of the demilitarized zone and rupture of the peace process in Colombia

Dear brothers and sisters:

With great concern and fear we share with you that yesterday, Wednesday February 22, 2002, after the latest armed actions of the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP), the President of our country announced that he had determined not to continue the peace process with the FARC, and for that reason had decided to end the demilitarized zone, in which dialogues and negotiations with this armed group were being realized, as of midnight today.

In the light of this fact we share with you the following:

1. We observe with great fear and concern the dominance of sectors within both the FARC, the government and the Colombian society who believe that the conflict in Colombia can be resolved by military means.

2. In this context of the display of military power and unwillingness to compromise regarding dialogue and political negotiations, we as a church reaffirm that peace will possible when all sectors of the Colombian society can participate in the construction of economic, social and democratic alternatives that will replace the exclusion and the violence that we have lived with in the past fifty (50) years in our country.

3. In the face of the imminent escalation of the conflict, we demand that the parties respect and protect the civil population in rural areas and in cities and especially the inhabitants of the demilitarized zone.

We invite all our member congregations and sister churches to pray and to support the victims of this conflict, and we ask the international ecumenical community to accompany the efforts of the civil society who are insisting on dialogue and negotiations in order to avoid a prolonged war that would deepen the humanitarian and human rights crisis we are experiencing.

Rev. Milton Mejía
Secretario Ejecutivo.

Colombian Christians have issued an urgent plea for action to protest new government military action in the former demilitarized zone.

Alice Winters, a Presbyterian mission co-worker in Colombia, has sent this to us. We are posting both the original Spanish text, and the interlinear English translation. [3-4-02]