CPTnet
13 June 2007
COLOMBIA: "We are like an old rag"
by Julián Gutiérrez Castaño translated by Suzanna Collerd
A couple of years ago I was working on a historic memory document with a
group of peasants from the Middle Magdalena Region. When we were talking
about the historic relation between the community and the armed actors, a
peasant said, "We are like an old rag in the war. The soldiers and the
paramilitaries pull the rag from one side, the guerrillas pull from the
other, the rag stretches, it's full of holes, finally it rips, -- that is
what we are in the infamous armed conflict--an old rag--"
Some will question the truth of this metaphor--especially those who reject
the concept of a civilian population, clearly distinct from the combatants
in war. On this point, the extreme right and the extreme left agree.
The extreme right says that because the army and the paramilitaries defend
the interest of the government, elected 'democratically' by the population,
they deserve the unconditional support of the people. States and their armed
forces do not produce violence, rather, they use force.
The extreme left says that the subversive groups represent the interest of
people in transforming the establishment, so they deserve the support of
people.
But what are the consequences of these positions in reality? Between 25
April and 1 May, five Awá indigenous people died violently. Three women
were killed in a minefield, the youngest just nine-years old. Whether the
Colombian military or the guerrillas laid the mines is unclear. The other
two were killed by the FARC-EP (EP means the People's Army.)
On 11 July 2006, during a military operation in the indigenous reservations
in the Department (province) of Nariño, the Colombian military engaged the
FARC in combat. The population found refuge in the school, and the army
used the people as human shields while they continued attacking the
guerrillas. The consequence of this combat was a massive displacement;
those displaced are still living in the county capital of Ricuarte.
It could have been worse. The Awas' situation is similar to what happened
in Bojayá, Choco, where the paramilitaries in combat with the FARC
sheltered themselves behind a church, using, as human shields civilians
taking refuge there. The guerrillas launched a bomb that hit the church,
killing 120 civilians.
I do not intend to deny the causes of the social and armed conflict in
Colombia, but to show the terrible consequences that the violent conflict
has on civilians. The State wants to maintain an unjust social order. It
has used any means necessary to do so, including the extermination of the
Patriotic Union, a political movement that resulted from negotiations
between the FARC and the government.
The guerrillas, who are struggling for a more just distribution of land,
have played the role of useful idiots. Their existence has justified an
agrarian counter-reform that has actually concentrated land ownership in
fewer hands, and through paramilitary strategies, and through United States
military and economic interventions manifested in Plan Colombia.
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