CPTnet
February 7, 2002
COLOMBIA: Burnt

By Lisa Martens

At the invitation of the civilian population, CPT has maintained an
international violence-reduction presence in the Cienaga del Opon township
since May 2001. Tired of the war, the people there have made it clear that
they do not want any armed presence in their communities.

On Thursday, January 24th, CPTers, Lena Siegers, Pierre Shantz, Scott Kerr
and Chris Schweitzer saw smoke coming from the town from which the AUC
(acronym for the paramilitaries operating in Colombia) had displaced the
local community. On the riverbank, they met eight heavily armed members
of the AUC, who said they had lit the fire to clear the road. CPT members
then walked up to the empty school, encountering fifteen more armed AUC
members. The fire destroyed at least five nearby houses.

After witnessing the damage, CPTer Lisa Martens wrote the following
reflection:

The sun burns.

They say this is the hottest place in Colombia, and the metal seat on our
motorized canoe burns me you know where.

We're on that boat a great deal because it is our job is to accompany
non-violent farmers who are threatened by armed groups and who live where
the "highway" is the river

We swim to cool off.Water's not very polluted because we work (and swim)
upstream of the oil refineries.

Those oil refinery towers burn continuously.

The wealth they represent captures the attentions of local armed groups as
well as armed nations like the United States.

A few days ago, my teammates discovered men with guns burning up houses
near the lake. The houses belonged to families who had fled their homes to
escape men with guns. The families are living in town and planning their
return.

Why were those men burning up houses? We don't know. Because they want to
maintain their control over the oil rich area ahead of another armed
group? Because they want to build new houses for the people so that the
people will be indebted to them?

Five houses made by the hands of their own families.

Forty foot flames.

"Burnt" also has a special meaning here.
For local, un-armed friends of ours to be "burnt" means that they are under
threat from an armed group. It may mean that their names are on lists of
those to be tortured, killed and dismembered.

Why? Perhaps they were forced at gunpoint to feed a member of an opposing
armed group, and are thus seen as collaborators. There are countless
possibilities.

I have accompanied these normal, beautiful, burnt people or the relatives
of such people who wanted to visit their parents for Christmas, or who
wanted to go to a meeting about economic development. We also accompany an
entire zone where many burnt people live.

They call this area "Tierra caliente" or the "hot lands."

The wind is whipping up all these ashes.

Who is going to taste the ashes?