UPDATES - LETTER: Januarly 24, 2000

Dear Activists,

Below is a sign-on letter to President Clinton concerning US military aid to Colombia, the use of the "drug war" to fuel US military aid, and the need for a mediated end to the violence. Peace Action has signed on to this letter, in keeping with the organization's commitment to halting weapons trafficking & promoting human rights. To sign on, contact oakleyruth@igc.org

Thanks,

Here is our final letter to the President opposing military aid. This letter is the product of a of collaborative effort between Colombia Vive in Boston, the Boston Colombia Support Network, the Seattle Colombia Committee and the national offices of the CHRN and CSN. We also incorporated some of the suggestions of Carlos Salinas of Amnesty International into the letter.

First off, we hope that all the networks, chapters and committees that are receiving this letter will endorse the letter. For those that endorse the letter, we encourage you to forward it to the organizations and individuals with whom your acquainted that might be interested in endorsing the letter. We encourage you to attach your own personal message encouraging others to respond with an endorsement. We intend to gather as many endorsements as possible for this letter, and we hope to advertise the letter with thousands of endorsements from individuals and organizations alike. If you are willing to invite responses from those to whom you send the letter and to compile lists of those endorsing the letter, that would be a great help to me. After compiling lists of endorsements, you could send these lists with all the names of endorsing individuals and organizations to me, Justin Delacour, atoakleyruth@igc.org. If you are not willing to invite responses from those to whom you send the letter, please tell them to respond to me at the above-mentioned e-mail address. Thanks for your time. We're in for some interesting weeks ahead. Here's the letter. Take care.

Justin Delacour, Seattle Colombia Committee

January 24, 2000

William J. Clinton
President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

Our concern for the tragic situation facing the people of Colombia causes us to write to you. As citizens of many countries with a variety of political opinions, we are united in urging you to change your Colombian policy from a predominantly military strategy to an approach that supports the needs and hopes of the Colombian people.

While it is impossible to summarize in one letter all the dramatic circumstances affecting Colombia, we want to highlight the points that seem most alarming to us:

1. Reports from a number of sources, including the U.S. State Department, have documented the continuing collaboration between members and units of the Colombian armed forces and paramilitary groups. This collaboration has included several cases of open alliances. The paramilitaries, according to these reports, are responsible for 75% to 80% of the cases of assassination, kidnapping, torture, and massacre of civilian non-combatants, while the guerrilla groups and the armed forces commit the rest of these abuses. Only a few implicated officials and soldiers have been investigated and punished, while collaboration between the armed forces and the paramilitaries continues to this day. The U.S. contributes to the deterioration of this disturbing human rights situation by continuing to provide military aid, training, and sales, despite these well-documented reports of collaboration.

2. The armed conflict has forced as many as 1.6 million internal refugees to seek protection for their lives and well-being, according to the United Nations. The number of families who have fled their homes in Colombia exceeds the forced expulsions that the world witnessed with horror in both Kosovo and East Timor. The U.S. is doing little to help care for the refugees that U.S. military aid is helping to create.

3. Further military aid will undermine the fragile peace process that has been initiated by President Pastrana. Civilians in Colombia have overwhelmingly voted for peace and marched in favor of peace. Massive infusions of military aid will not only increase the number of deaths and massacres carried out by all the armed groups, but will also strengthen hard-liners in Colombia who oppose the peace process. Recent murders of academics, human rights defenders, trade unionists and even entertainers who worked to support the peace process illustrate the difficulty of working for peace in Colombia.

4. The U.S. Drug War strategy has been an expensive failure and more of this same strategy will not combat drugs. This strategy has not reduced coca cultivation in Colombia, the flow of cocaine or heroin to the U.S from Colombia, or the profits of the drug traffickers. Instead it has caused untold environmental and human destruction. It has also strengthened the guerrillas as more landless peasants join their ranks. Military aid will not address the reasons why Colombians choose to cultivate drugs in the first place. The problems that have led to increased drug cultivation include state neglect of rural areas, a nonexistent rule of law, and the lack of economic infrastructure and opportunity. These problems can only be resolved through support for efforts to strengthen the peace process and to enhance the lives of the poor.

We respectfully make the following requests of your administration:

Colombia already receives the greatest amount of U.S. military aid in the Americas and the third most in the world. Please do not make the problem worse by giving any more money to the partners of the paramilitaries.

Respectfully,

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