The Pastoral Social of Apartadó and Quibo:
denounces the intimidation, threats and massacres by paramilitaries who use ex-guerilla collaborators. It is with extreme concern that the Dioceses of Apartadó and Quibo feel obligated to react publicly to the increasingly more frequent phenomenon of armed conflict and polarization of power. A terrible threat befalls communities when a guerilla decides to collaborate with the paramilitary. Innumerable cases are known where these ex-guerrillas don’t have the least compunction in identifying for assassination people who, for fear of guns or intimidated by their threats, at some point gave them a drink of water, delivered a letter to them or gave them something to eat. Also, people have been murdered who had absolutely no relation to any subversive group. In such a way, those who change sides become masters and owners over the life and death of many innocent people, according to their whims. For many communities, for entire villages, the ex-guerrillas have become a phantom of terror because of the threats and accusations they launch against them. Via a macabre maneuver the guerrillas try to gain trust and prestige within the new armed forces (who are manipulating them) by accusing the communities (who had to put up with their abuses as guerrillas) of being collaborators and the originators of guerrilla presence in their towns. The strange thing about all this is that they make the civilian population appear responsible for the strength enjoyed by the subversives, and the ones who facilitate their strategic ability to act. The manipulation of this vile phenomenon of violence against the civil population is generating countless deaths and creates anguish and terror in the communities, who cannot understand such an unjust procedure on the part of those who claim to be “on the people’s side” and who make them pay with their lives for something they never did. People die regardless, damned if they did and damned if they don’t.
Those of us who support the life-affirming projects of the communities and their great efforts to return to their land or to not be forcibly removed from them, cannot help but be horrified by these terroristic practices that don’t touch those truly responsible. Recently, Patricia Teheran deserted the Fifth Front of the FARC and her declarations have become the biggest threat to the peace community of San José de Apartadó, not to the guerrilla forces. She accuses the community of allowing into their midst the guerrilla militia (out of uniform but with radios tucked in their boots) that at night is entrusted with picking up the supplies that arrive for them at the stores. She also says Comandante Samur of the Fifth Front keeps up his public relations, kidnapings and extortion from the public telephone exchange of the town. The guerrillas, according to her declarations, can go to the town in civilian clothes and even use the badge of the peace community in order to move about freely. Even if it were true, the party responsible for all these anomalies would be the guerrillas themselves, who would be manipulating the civilians and violating the agreement of respect for the declaration of the Peace Community that the farmers made. A similar circumstance was experienced in the San Francisco de Asís of Rio Sucio-Chocó peace communities when members of those communities were also slandered, causing the deaths of 18 people and terror and displacement for many more. Another serious case has been happening since August this year in the communities of the Medio Atrato who are in panic because of the finger-pointing of an ex-guerrilla, from the El Boche Front, named “Ever,” who went over to the paramilitaries and has already caused the deaths of various farmers in the region. This said person is a member of the squads that the paramilitaries place in different sites on the Atrato River and arbitrarily points the finger at farmers as collaborators with the guerrillas. In October a community received a letter from this individual, dated September 30, that reveals all his brutality, ignorance and blasphemy. In the middle of a barrage of unrepeatable insults and threats he says the following: “I, Ever, who was a guerrilla and who now am a paramilitary, finally got to have you all in my hands . . . Ever the paramilitary says goodbye I kill and I order killings and God forgive me.” It is unheard of and reveals the paranoia of the internal armed conflict: these people are devoid of all credibility, they are dishonest, unbalanced over a conflict they don’t understand and yet have made it into their way of life; they sell themselves to the highest bidder and are indicators of the senseless degradation of the war, since they emerge from their different groups and then are taken to be witnesses against the very efforts that the peace communities and the communities of the Medio Atrato make to resist their forced displacement in the midst of an armed conflict in which they play no part. It is precisely because of this that on behalf of the Church and the organizations that are working with us we have always insisted that nobody involve themselves with any of the armed groups, because innocent people have always been the victims. Our path is that of the Gospel and is faithful to the teachings and the example of Jesus of Nazareth, and for that reason we say once more “No” to the war and, as long as this exists, we demand that the armed participants heed the norms of International Humanitarian Law and respect the dignity and safety of the civilian population and their property.
requests a declaration from the belligerents concerning the peace communities. A public communiqué directed to the armed agents in the conflict in Columbia to national and international public opinion: Since the first few months of 1997, when the first Peace Community in Columbia was established at San José de Apartadó, the civilian victims of the crossfire between the armed agents of the Choacan and Antiochian regions of Uraba have sought means of peaceful coexistence that will permit them to live–or simply even survive--in the midst of a conflict to which they have brought to much blood already, an innocent blood that in solidarity has been hopeful for a just and peaceful coexistence. The Antiochan and Choacan farmers who have adhered to this hopeful formula for life are today about 15,000 strong, and have earned international respect and recognition (as is attested by numerous awards and visits from diplomatic delegations, by foreign bishops, by institutions for humanitarian aid) as well as national (they have been nominated for the last National Peace Prize). These communities, together with the displaced of the Cacarica basin who have just begun their return, have PUBLICLY expressed in front of the national and international community their desire to live apart from a conflict in which all the armed actors claim to represent them, but of whom they are successively victims, first of the ones, then of the others. Every member of the Peace Communities has publicly pledged not to provide any information to any of the armed agents of the conflict, not to carry arms and not to collaborate in any way with any of them. The farmers of the Peace Communities have respected this promise. It was the farmers who formed themselves as the Peace Communities, it is they who directly exercise one of the most intimate rights of human beings: that of deciding, individually and collectively, their own destiny. In spite of the respect of these communities for their own pledge, for over more than two years they have suffered alternatively direct attacks by the armed agents. Of this the innocent leaders slain by both sides are a sad reminder, both in the Chocó communities and in the Uraba. Just as serious as the killing of community leaders is the intent of the armed forces to remain inside the communities, relying on the strength bestowed upon them by their arms and the fear that they instill in a community that only has a FIRM ETHICAL DECISION TO LIVE IN PEACE AND OUTSIDE THE CONFLICT. Today, when Colombia observes with hope the beginning of peace talks, the armed agents seriously jeopardize the survival of these Peace Communities. For that reason we demand of the armed agents, who claim to represent an idea of a just and peaceful Colombia, that they PUBLICALLY manifest their complete respect for the communities that opted for non-violence.
Men and women commanders of the FARC, of the AUC, of the ELN, we urge you to make a PUBLIC declaration of respect for unarmed farmers. This respect is something very concrete and is summed up in just a few words: Not to carry out or politically promote acts of violence, nor to settle in the heart of regions where the Peace Communities are located, nor in the surrounding farmlands that allow them to survive. . . Not to harm in any way any of the members of Peace Communities. Commanders: the lives of each one of the Peace Community members depends on your complete respect for these two points. Colombia cannot allow that such a just and precious initiative be harmed. All the agents of the conflict will be responsible if they don’t agree to these points since their presence in the peace communities and the violence they commit against their members will serve as justification for their opponents to disrespect them and continue the bloodshed that inundates the country. Commanders of the armed groups: Colombians and international public opinion demand respect for this just initiative that emanates from people who, in the midst of their sufferings, so valiantly stand firm before the World and History in their decision to be a Peace Community, WHEN WILL WE HEAR YOUR PUBLIC DECLARATION OF RESPECT??