I will rotate them as I bring them in, the, at some point, archive them. I will not necessarily go according to date, except that I am starting with the most recent as some may be time-dependent and it may not be too late.
Subject: Letter regarding Colombia
From: oakleyruth
Date: Sunday January 9, 2000 at 9:54pm
Message:
To SOA activists throughout the United States –
Hello, my name is Justin Delacour, and I'm a supporter of the campaign
to shut down the School of the Americas, as well as a member of group
in Seattle called the Seattle Colombia Committee. I write you to call
your attention to the situation in Colombia, and to inquire about whether or not your SOA group would be
willing to sign a letter opposing increased military aid to Colombia.
As you probably know, the human rights situation in Colombia is
terrible, and a drastic increase in military aid from the United States will only
make the situation worse. We, as members of the Seattle Colombia Committee,
feel that increased military aid will be used to murder more trade
unionists, more peasants and more human rights' workers, among other
non-combatants.
The Seattle Colombia Committee has just embarked on a collaborative
effort to draft a letter - intended for the President - opposing the
proposals for increased military aid to Colombia. This effort is
being carried out in collaboration with Colombia Vive (a group in Boston).
In this process of drafting a letter we also intend to include the
national offices of the two Colombia networks in the United States (the
Colombia Support Network and the Colombia Human Rights Network) and the Boston
chapter of the Colombia Support Network. We intend to gather
signatures from hundreds of organizations throughout the world for
this letter. In addition to our Spanish and English version of the letter,
we have people lined up to translate the final letter into 10
additional languages. The letter that we have produced is now being revised by
Colombia Vive in Boston. Soon we will be putting it on the table for
the revisions of the national offices of the Colombia Support Network
and Colombia Human Rights Network.
We feel that gathering the signatures of hundreds of groups throughout
the world for this letter will be very important as a rejection of
the Clinton Administration's imminent proposal for massive increases in
military aid to Colombia. We feel that such a broad-based rejection
of that proposal is imperative for any successful campaign to stop
increased military aid. Below is the letter that is being revised right
now. It is roughly what the final letter will look like. If you're
group is interested in endorsing the letter, please send me a message.
Feel free to pass this message on to other groups that would be
interested in endorsing the letter.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Justin Delacour
Seattle Colombia Committee
January 24, 2000
William J. Clinton
President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
Those of us who sign this letter are citizens of various countries of
the world with diverse political creeds, religions and philosophies, and we write to
you to call your attention to the current tragedy that the country of Colombia is
experiencing.
We begin by clarifying that it is impossible to summarize in one
letter all the details of the dramatic situation of that country, but we want
to highlight the points that seem most alarming to us.
1. For many consecutive years the annual reports of the U.S. State
Department have denounced the continuing collaboration - and, in many
cases, open alliances -
between members and units of the Colombian military and paramilitary
groups. The paramilitaries, according to these reports, are
responsible for 69% to 75% of the cases of assassinations, kidnappings, tortures
and massacres against civilian non-combatants. To this date, few
implicated officials and soldiers have been investigated and punished, while the
collaboration between the armed forces and the paramilitaries
continues.
2. According to information from the United Nations, the armed
conflict
has forced more than 1.5 million internal refugees to seek protection
for their lives and well-being, which the Colombian state does not
guarantee. The number of families separated from their homes in
Colombia exceeds the forced exodus that the world has witnessed with
horror in both Kosovo and East Timor. In various cases, neighboring
countries have not respected the rights of refugees, turning away
hundreds of families that seek to escape the crossfire without
providing
any guarantees of safety.
3. Unfortunately, the peace process initiated by President Andres
Pastrana with the armed opposition groups has encountered obstacles.
Now the Colombian government asks for more military aid, which will
only
intensify the conflict, increasing the number of deaths and massacres
carried out by all the armed groups and eliminating whatever real
possibilities of peace for Colombia.
In summary:
* In light of the fact that Colombia is the country that receives the
most military aid in the Americas - and the third most in the world -
from the United States, we
ask that you exercise your leadership to actively support the peace
process and not to intensify the war. Given the Colombian army's
continuing complicity with paramilitaries (such as in the case of the
massacre at Mapiripan), we reject whatever increases in military aid
to Colombia. In light of the Drug Enforcement Administration's
acknowledgment that many of the paramilitary leaders are outright drug
traffickers, we object to the use of the war against drugs as even a
partial pretext for increased military aid.
* Based on the experience of the peace negotiations in Central
America, we believe
in the urgency of supporting whatever initiative of international
mediation - with possible mediators including the European Parliament, the Secretary
General of the
UN, the UN High Commission for Refugees and the International
Committee of the Red Cross. Such international participation could be utilized
for the mediation and negotiation of the conflict and the basic
humanitarian protection of the affected
civilians.
* On October 24th, 1999 the world was witness to the marches for
peace that mobilized more than nine million Colombians of all ages and
social positions. If the United States truly seeks to strengthen the
democratic processes in the world with respect to human rights, this
is its opportunity to echo the popular clamor for peace by opting for the
path of negotiation and support for a peaceful settlement in Colombia.
Respectfully,
(Signatures follow)
Name - Country - Affiliation (if applicable)
Subject: Two Million Too Many!