25/05/2005
stampa
invia
In Colombia the situation remains red hot. The person who can tell you what is
really happening in this South American country, which has been tortured with
forty years of internal conflict, is Cristiano Morsolin, Italian aid worker and
journalist, who has been forced to flee to Bogotá because of death threats.
Denouncing. “Acts of terror by the state still continue against the Peace Community of San José de Apartadò and not only this,” he says, “The Jesuit Javier Giraldo, for a long time has
had death threats made against him for his work as co-ordinator of the ecclesiastic
NGO Justice and Peace, he also makes denouncements, he wrote a harsh letter to
President Uribe to ask him to stop the chain of inhumane crimes against humanity
perpetrated by agents of the Colombian state. This is the right attitude to have.
We must continue like this. We must find a way of increasing international mobilisation
like that which happened straight after I had threats made against me. People
like Father Javier Giraldo and Gloria Cuartas, the mayor of San José, are still
there and are still being targeted by the arrogant powers of this fictitious democracy
that criminalizes those that defend human rights, popular movements, and the Trade
Unions. Now the threats are also directed against the collective of lawyers “Restrepo”
and their president Soraya Gutierrez Arguiello.”
Without Fear. “I remember the strong words of Soraya Gutierrez. In the publication Democracy or Impunity of April 2005 she declared that the paramilitaries are a military, social, economical
and political phenomena that has grown disproportionately in recent years, with
additional thanks to the collaboration of the State and the army.” Paramilitary
groups fight against the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and against
National Liberation Army (ELN) as they have for the last forty years. But recently
they have succeeded in capturing guerrillas in important areas of the country,
thanks to the help of the army. In lots of these areas where they now rule the
roost, they have revolutionised their relationship with the population. In fact,
they have annulled every form of democratic opposition that is allowed in any
civilised society, they don’t respect the choice of many villages to turn into
“peace communities” that are neutral to the conflict and who don’t support either
the guerrillas or the paramilitaries. Following the principal “with us or against
us” the paramilitaries have however, caused the tragic phenomenon of displacement,
forcing thousands of people to leave their land. This has meant that it has given
these powers control of immense stretches of land, rich and fertile, which gives
them the opportunity to use the land for their own pleasure with the support of
the State. This has meant that they have contributed in freeing the way for the
developmental projects of the huge agro-industrial companies. In this, the paramilitaries
are supported by huge sectors of the business world, and not only this; they can
rely on business traders, State security forces: the military and the police,
representatives of the powers of justice, local and regional government and they
enjoy a significant representation in the Colombian Parliament, and, have a profound
affinity with the current state administration.”
stampainvia
From Bogotá Cristiano Morsolin, a threatened journalist, talks about Colombia today
In Colombia the situation remains red hot. The person who can tell you what is
really happening in this South American country, which has been tortured with
forty years of internal conflict, is Cristiano Morsolin, Italian aid worker and
journalist, who has been forced to flee to Bogotá because of death threats.
Prior events. Some months ago whilst Morsolin was working as an aid worker for various NGO’s
projects he exposed the massacre carried out by the military in the Peace community
of San José De Apartadò, which contributed to the mobilisation of international
opinion about the case.
A denouncement that attracted the attention of those that were responsible for
this brutal massacre and that didn’t lose any time in making it known: they sent
menacing letters and followed Morsolin, which meant that he was forced to leave
the city and, the country.
Not surrendering to silence. Silence is the first thing that is manipulated, the first accomplice of massacres
that have been happening for decades in this Andean country, the blood of thousands
and thousands of victims lost as a result of the clashes between guerrillas and
paramilitaries that are supported by the army. Morsolin is against silence, and
he continues to talk about how much Colombians are in danger.
“For the President of Colombia there are no problems of a social order level,
he considers the enemy as those who are against his re-election, they are enemies
of the country and of national development and he considers that these people
are the cause of the war. For President Uribe, the massacres, the assassins, the
displaced, the massive violation of human rights are all things that are luckily
isolated cases, that have no political significance,” explains the journalist,
citing what Luis Evelis Andrade Casama, President of the National Organisation
of Indigenous Colombians has expressed, and who doesn’t grow tired of talking
about the resistance and the politics of peace that the indigenous community use
to face up to this conflict, and, that Uribe doesn’t want to know about.
Denouncing. “Acts of terror by the state still continue against the Peace Community of San José de Apartadò and not only this,” he says, “The Jesuit Javier Giraldo, for a long time has
had death threats made against him for his work as co-ordinator of the ecclesiastic
NGO Justice and Peace, he also makes denouncements, he wrote a harsh letter to
President Uribe to ask him to stop the chain of inhumane crimes against humanity
perpetrated by agents of the Colombian state. This is the right attitude to have.
We must continue like this. We must find a way of increasing international mobilisation
like that which happened straight after I had threats made against me. People
like Father Javier Giraldo and Gloria Cuartas, the mayor of San José, are still
there and are still being targeted by the arrogant powers of this fictitious democracy
that criminalizes those that defend human rights, popular movements, and the Trade
Unions. Now the threats are also directed against the collective of lawyers “Restrepo”
and their president Soraya Gutierrez Arguiello.”Without Fear. “I remember the strong words of Soraya Gutierrez. In the publication Democracy or Impunity of April 2005 she declared that the paramilitaries are a military, social, economical
and political phenomena that has grown disproportionately in recent years, with
additional thanks to the collaboration of the State and the army.” Paramilitary
groups fight against the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and against
National Liberation Army (ELN) as they have for the last forty years. But recently
they have succeeded in capturing guerrillas in important areas of the country,
thanks to the help of the army. In lots of these areas where they now rule the
roost, they have revolutionised their relationship with the population. In fact,
they have annulled every form of democratic opposition that is allowed in any
civilised society, they don’t respect the choice of many villages to turn into
“peace communities” that are neutral to the conflict and who don’t support either
the guerrillas or the paramilitaries. Following the principal “with us or against
us” the paramilitaries have however, caused the tragic phenomenon of displacement,
forcing thousands of people to leave their land. This has meant that it has given
these powers control of immense stretches of land, rich and fertile, which gives
them the opportunity to use the land for their own pleasure with the support of
the State. This has meant that they have contributed in freeing the way for the
developmental projects of the huge agro-industrial companies. In this, the paramilitaries
are supported by huge sectors of the business world, and not only this; they can
rely on business traders, State security forces: the military and the police,
representatives of the powers of justice, local and regional government and they
enjoy a significant representation in the Colombian Parliament, and, have a profound
affinity with the current state administration.”The other voice of the USA. This complicity that unites the State and the paramilitaries has been analysed
and denounced by US NGO’s, such as WOLA, LAWGEF and CIP who presented an interesting
report on the five year Colombian Plan when Condoleza Rice visited Colombia at
the end of April. Adam Isacson from the Center for International Policy in Washington (among one of the best experts in the world on Narco-trafficking
and Colombia) wrote to me sending his solidarity, and sent me a hot report on
Colombia, and to confirm that they are involved with, and indignant about, the
massacre in San José de Apartadò on February the 20th. A massacre that has disturbed a number of Democratic senators, who have pushed
for discussions on the Plan Colombia that in six years (2000-2005) has cost $4,000
million dollars. These are his words: “even if the crisis in Colombia is an urgent
one, the USA has to change their priorities. Instead of helping the Colombian
armed forces to occupy territory we must encourage Colombia’s elected leaders
to strengthen the rule of law and promote development that is more equal and which
is for the good of all.”
Stella Spinelli
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