Colombian Community:

“Telling the Truth is not a Sin”

By Emily Greenleaf

Six years ago, a group of peasant families in northwest Colombia found themselves crowded into a shelter in the town of Dabeiba. They had been made homeless and destitute by a four-day attack on their village by armed men, during which their homes and farms were sacked, and 30 people massacred.

The nearby town to which they fled, Dabeiba, is described as the “Door to Urabá.” This northwest region of Colombia is popular among smugglers for its border with Panama, as well as coastal access to both the Caribbean and Pacific. Control of Dabeiba means control of the land route to Urabá, and peasants who live in the area have been caught in the crossfire of this territorial dispute. They refer to the different groups of men with guns as “armed actors” or more despairingly as tipos—those types.

One of the armed actors is the guerrilla group known as the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. In the years preceding their displacement, several members of the Dabeiba refugee group were killed by the FARC. After their displacement, they decided they couldn’t return to their land, in part because the FARC have a policy in the area of obligatory conscription of children over 14.

The second illegal armed group in the area is the AUC, or United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia. This is the group that carried out the massacres and displacements in 1997.

Determined to preserve their way-of-life as farmers, the Dabeiba displaced families started to organize. They wanted to have a choice about how and where they would bring up their children. They wanted to speak out about what had happened to them without being killed for it. Calling themselves the Balsita Community of Life and Work, they set about negotiating with the Colombian government for a resettlement.

From the beginning, one of the principle concerns of the Balsita families was the evidence of collaboration between the Colombian army and the paramilitaries. This collaboration continues today. For example, though occupied by the Fourth Army Brigade since late December 2001, visitors to Dabeiba pass through (and pay a tax to) a paramilitary checkpoint at the entrance to town, mere blocks from where members of the Fourth Brigade patrol.

For this reason, once they had been resettled on a new farm near Dabeiba after 4 years in the shelter, the Balsita community’s most important survival strategy was to not allow any armed groups on their land, including members of the Colombian military. They know that any perceived or actual involvement with one armed group—including occupation of their land without permission—can invite attacks from the other.

Another strategy has been to publicly denounce what has happened to them, both nationally and internationally. They feel that international friendships can elevate the community’s profile, and make further actions against them more costly for the military and paramilitaries (to date, the FARC has not bothered them in their new location).

Their focus in the two years they’ve lived on their new land has been sowing new crops, building homes for their families and schools for their children.

In spite of these successes, the community still lives in fear. They have suffered repeated military and paramilitary incursions onto their farm. A new commander of the Fourth Brigade in Dabeiba is currently threatening to occupy the farm if community members refuse to meet with him.

The Balsita community is just one of many groups around Colombia that is resisting the country’s war, the continuing human rights abuses and impunity. They have a vision for a path to peace. In their own words:  "To tell the truth is not a sin, and if one must die to tell it, we will die. Thanks to the denunciations we have made, the truth is known; the injustice taking place in Colombia is known. On every side and at every moment, we have said WORK. At no place or time have we said war. We do not need arms. We need to educate our children for WORK, and not for war."  (Messages of Dignity 2, June 2001).

Emily Greenleaf and photo-journalist Betty Udesen have made two trips to Dabeiba to document the lives of members of the Balsita community. For more information about the community and the documentary project, please visit www.udesen.com.