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Peace Presence Update, February 2006 Congressional representatives who signed Call Congress today and ask your representative to sign on to the Congressional letter urging Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to withhold U.S. military aid to Colombia unless the human rights violations of the Colombian military are addressed. Your call is part of a mobilization by human rights organizations across the country and must be made by Wednesday, February 22nd, when the letter is set to close. The Congressional Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. This Congressional sign-on letter specifically calls for cutting U.S. military aid to Colombia unless the military officers responsible for killings in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó are replaced and the Colombian military addresses its current disregard for human rights. The Fellowship of Reconciliation maintains a team of human rights observers in the San José de Apartadó community. Aid to Colombia depends on the Secretary of State certifying that specific human rights conditions are being satisfied. More than $70 million in military aid was suspended last year in response to the February 2005 massacre of eight Peace Community residents, including the co-founder and three children. (Click here for more information) Initiated by Representatives Sam Farr and Jim McGovern, the letter asks Secretary Rice to refuse to certify human rights compliance. That would allow the United States to withhold a portion of the $670 million mostly-military package to Colombia. Since the February 2005 massacre, two more community leaders have been killed by the Colombian military – in November, 2005 and January, 2006. These killings prompted FOR to work with Representative Farr to forge a response that would impact the 17th Brigade, the unit responsible for the violence against San José de Apartadó and communities throughout northwestern Colombia. As a result, Reps. Farr and McGovern, wrote a letter to their colleagues in Congress urging them to join in calling on Secretary Rice to cut funding for the Colombian military. (Click here to see the letter.) Many in Congress hope that such cuts will end the cycle of violence and impunity from the law. The letter to Condoleezza Rice notes that more than 160 members of the Peace Community have been killed since it declared itself neutral in 1997, and states that a Colombian army soldier recently was overheard threatening to ‘cut off the head’ of a Fellowship of Reconciliation human rights observer living in the community. To read the full text of the letter scroll to the end of this update or go to: Community leaders have told FOR that they count on us for their safety and survival. Now we need your help to hold U.S. policy accountable to the conditions laid out in the human rights certification process. Please call your representative this week and ask to speak to the foreign policy aid. Urge the representative to sign on to the Farr/McGovern letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Colombia. The person you talk to can get a copy of the letter from Ann Vaughan in Sam Farr's office. (Please do not contact Ms.Vaughan yourself; call your Representative and ask him or her to do so.) Letter to Congressional Representatives Dear Colleague: We respectfully request that you sign the attached letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging her to take important steps in promoting human rights in Colombia. Specifically, we are requesting that she withhold Colombia certification until the Colombia government meets the human rights conditions included in the conference report for the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for FY2005 and FY2006. Aid to Colombia should not be a blank check. By law, the Secretary of State must certify that the Colombian military is complying with specific human rights conditions in order for the government of Colombia to receive over $860 million in military and police assistance for FY05 and FY06 provided by the respective foreign operations appropriations bills. While only a maximum of 25% of this total can be held up by withholding certification -- certification is our only Congressional oversight tool for urging the Colombian government to comply with international human rights norms. While the Colombian military has made strides in improving security in the country, we continue to receive reports of gross violations of human rights committed by members of the military as well as continued collaboration by security force members with illegal paramilitary groups. Particularly egregious is the conduct of the Colombian 17th Brigade, which has been allegedly involved in numerous deaths of members of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartadó and violations against Afro-Colombian communities. As one of the largest recipients of US foreign assistance, improving the security environment in Colombia is a key foreign policy goal for the United States. Respect for international human rights norms and strengthening the rule of law, including the recognition that civilians are non-combatants, are equally important for creating a sustainable peace in Colombia. Please join us in signing the attached letter to Secretary Rice and help promote a U.S. foreign policy that is based firmly on human rights and the promotion of sustainable security. Please contact Ann Vaughan in the Office of Rep Farr (5-2861) or Cindy Buhl in the Office of Rep McGovern (5-6101). Sincerely, Sam Farr James McGovern Letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice The Honorable Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice Dear Madam Secretary, We are writing to ask you to refrain from certifying that the Colombia government meets the human rights conditions included in P.L.108-447 and P.L. 109-102, the Foreign Operations Appropriations Acts for FY2005 and FY2006, until the Colombian Army's 17th Brigade improves its human rights practices. We also believe that certification requires more substantial progress in prosecuting a number of other outstanding cases involving allegations of gross human rights violations involving members of the Colombian army, including the killing of three trade union leaders in Arauca, the killing of a family in Cajamarca, and the Mapiripan massacre. In addition, since the inception of Plan Colombia, Congress has approved and President Bush has signed into law a requirement that the Colombian government prosecute key cases of alleged human rights abuses by members of Colombia military. The record of the 17th Brigade is especially deplorable with regard to the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in northwestern Colombia. More than 160 members of the community have been killed by army-backed paramilitary groups, leftist guerrillas, and army soldiers since the community pledged not to support any of the armed groups operating in Colombia in 1997. In February 2005, eight community residents, including three children, were brutally killed in a massacre that witnesses reported was carried out by the Colombian army. This massacre was one of several cases that led the State Department to delay its certification of the human rights conditions for several months in 2005. In direct violation of US law, at the time of certification in August 2005, the Colombian Attorney General's office had made no progress that we are aware of in the investigation of this massacre. We believe that in the absence of any charges against those responsible, further violence against members of the Peace Community ensued. We were deeply disturbed to learn of the killing of Arlen Salas David on November 17, 2005, which occurred, according to eyewitness accounts, after an army soldier fired a grenade as Salas and others were weeding a cornfield. Shortly after, according to community members and a local teacher, soldiers fired on the village itself, shooting at a school and wounding a second person, Hernán Goez. A delegation from the community and an international observer who took Goez to the hospital were detained by a group of soldiers from the 17th Brigade who allegedly said they were going to kill them and destroy the community. On January 12, 2006, according to a military spokesman quoted in the Colombian newspaper "El Colombiano," the Army killed Edilberto Vásquez Cardona, a member of the Peace Community. While the Army does not contest that it killed Vásquez Cardona, it asserts that he was a guerrilla, which community members insist is not the case. The US Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), an interfaith organization that has permanent human rights observers in San José de Apartadó, has been harassed by Colombian Army soldiers operating in the area. In October 2005, a Colombian soldier in San José was overheard threatening to "cut off the head" of a FOR observer. The Department of State's certification decision transmitted to Congress last August records more than 200 reports of violations by the 17th Brigade against members of the Peace Community. The 17th Brigade has also been implicated in collaboration with paramilitary groups and for human rights violations against Afro-Colombian communities. We applaud the decision, noted in your certification letter of August 2005, that the US "will not consider providing assistance to the 17th Brigade until all significant human rights allegations involving the unit have been credibly addressed." Because the Brigade is a component of the Colombian Armed Forces' command structure and has been implicated in the above referenced human rights violations, we implore you to abide by both the letter of the law and the spirit of the law by withholding human rights certification for Colombia until the following conditions are met: (a) the Colombian Prosecutor's office follows all available leads and shows substantial progress in investigations into the most serious crimes against the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, no matter who the perpetrators may be, ( b) in the specific case of the 17th Brigade, its leadership is suspended from duty until such a time that full and impartial criminal investigations establish those officers' innocence or guilt, and (c) there is substantial reform of the 17th Brigade's operations, as reflected in its conduct in San José de Apartadó, Afro-Colombian communities, and other communities within its jurisdiction. We believe that withholding certification at this time will contribute to stimulating the political will in Colombia to address these issues that the Congress is monitoring. These steps are necessary in addition to progress on other well-known cases of credible allegations of human rights violations by members of the security forces. Thank you for your consideration of this important matter. Sincerely, Rep. Congressional Representatives who signed the above letter
If you have any further questions about the FOR Colombia program, please contact us. Thank you again for your ongoing support. Fellowship of Reconciliation
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