TORONTO/COLOMBIA REFLECTION AND PRAYER: The Anti-FARC march
February 18th, 2008
in:
CPTnet
16 February 2008
TORONTO/COLOMBIA REFLECTION AND PRAYER: The Anti-FARC march
by William Payne
On Monday, 4 February 2008, several hundred people marched in Toronto as part of an international event billed as "A Million Voices Against the FARC." After discussions with the CPT Colombia team, I decided that I could not in conscience participate in this event. Let me be clear – I deplore the violence perpetrated by the FARC—Colombia's largest guerrilla group. However, the event minimized or completely ignored the broader suffering that has occurred over the fifty-year old conflict in Colombia, and offered a simplified analysis reminiscent of "red scare" propaganda against communism that led only to more violence.
I did want to understand the marchers, so I went to Dundas Square where the march began. White balloons filled the park while people lined up for the procession. I heard much Spanish spoken with a Colombian accent.
The organizer, Luis, explained to me that they were marching to tell the FARC they should stop kidnapping, and to tell Europeans that they should not treat the FARC as anything but a terrorist group.
An elderly man stood at the edge of the crowd. I asked what he thought would be the best way to deal with the FARC. "Kill them all!" he said. A chill went down my spine. Then he laughed, and added that perhaps they should become a political party.
A young woman explained that everyone in the march was affected by the violence of the FARC. Her husband said he had refused to teach English to guerrillas and had to flee for his life. They conceded that right-wing paramilitaries are responsible for even more violence than the FARC, yet believed eliminating the FARC would somehow provide the magic wand that would turn their homeland into the country of their dreams.
"No more lies," was one of the slogans of the march. I wish I could believe it.
A Prayer Following the March
by Charletta Erb
God, recently some of your people marched against the FARC.
"Just get rid of them, and there will be no problem," they said.
But talk of a humanitarian accord was missing, talk of the many forms of
violence was scarce.
Make your people wise so they will not be fooled by overly simplistic
explanations of conflict in Colombia.
Make us wise so we will not be fooled by distractions from systemic problems
in our own nation.
We heard some voices complexifying things.
Rejecting not just guerrillas, but all violent groups, all forms of violence.
Sensitize us to violence of poverty, displacement, impunity, and lack of
social services.
Sensitize our hearts to violence all around us.
Christ, you took the sins of the world upon yourself,
So that we would not heap all the rubbish on others.
So together with the people of Colombia, we take ashes for repentance.
Forgive us
Heal us
Change us
Help us bring about the new order of things we have broken.
To read a statement of organizations that spoke against participating in the march see (http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/02/04/colombia-false-dilemma-march-or-not...)
16 February 2008
TORONTO/COLOMBIA REFLECTION AND PRAYER: The Anti-FARC march
by William Payne
On Monday, 4 February 2008, several hundred people marched in Toronto as part of an international event billed as "A Million Voices Against the FARC." After discussions with the CPT Colombia team, I decided that I could not in conscience participate in this event. Let me be clear – I deplore the violence perpetrated by the FARC—Colombia's largest guerrilla group. However, the event minimized or completely ignored the broader suffering that has occurred over the fifty-year old conflict in Colombia, and offered a simplified analysis reminiscent of "red scare" propaganda against communism that led only to more violence.
I did want to understand the marchers, so I went to Dundas Square where the march began. White balloons filled the park while people lined up for the procession. I heard much Spanish spoken with a Colombian accent.
The organizer, Luis, explained to me that they were marching to tell the FARC they should stop kidnapping, and to tell Europeans that they should not treat the FARC as anything but a terrorist group.
An elderly man stood at the edge of the crowd. I asked what he thought would be the best way to deal with the FARC. "Kill them all!" he said. A chill went down my spine. Then he laughed, and added that perhaps they should become a political party.
A young woman explained that everyone in the march was affected by the violence of the FARC. Her husband said he had refused to teach English to guerrillas and had to flee for his life. They conceded that right-wing paramilitaries are responsible for even more violence than the FARC, yet believed eliminating the FARC would somehow provide the magic wand that would turn their homeland into the country of their dreams.
"No more lies," was one of the slogans of the march. I wish I could believe it.
A Prayer Following the March
by Charletta Erb
God, recently some of your people marched against the FARC.
"Just get rid of them, and there will be no problem," they said.
But talk of a humanitarian accord was missing, talk of the many forms of
violence was scarce.
Make your people wise so they will not be fooled by overly simplistic
explanations of conflict in Colombia.
Make us wise so we will not be fooled by distractions from systemic problems
in our own nation.
We heard some voices complexifying things.
Rejecting not just guerrillas, but all violent groups, all forms of violence.
Sensitize us to violence of poverty, displacement, impunity, and lack of
social services.
Sensitize our hearts to violence all around us.
Christ, you took the sins of the world upon yourself,
So that we would not heap all the rubbish on others.
So together with the people of Colombia, we take ashes for repentance.
Forgive us
Heal us
Change us
Help us bring about the new order of things we have broken.
To read a statement of organizations that spoke against participating in the march see (http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/02/04/colombia-false-dilemma-march-or-not...)
