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Date: August 19th 2009

Witnesses for Peace Speak Against Impunity
by Bob Leslie

We were invited to accompany various people from the Coast here to the town of Sincelejo, Sucre about 3 hours away toward the southwest. The purpose of the trip was to join with others—nationals, internationals, indigenas, and local people from around Sincelejo—to hear the testimony of persons and family members from the department of Sucre who have been victimized by the armed and violent actors of this region over the past decade.
The singular event this day being commemorated was the assassination of a man who was a well known leader from a town called Betulia, outside Sincelejo near Corozal. His mother, sisters, and brothers survive and are still searching for those responsible, even though it happened twelve years ago. One sister in particular, a lawyer, has enlisted the support of the community and many others throughout Colombia to expose the impunity of crimes committed in Sucre over the last decade. One expression of our unity was in the call: "La Impunidad Nunca Mas" (Impunity Never Again).
As representatives of the PC(USA) and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, we joined other internationals, including members of a Friends Community in South Florida, representatives of the United Nations, and Peace Brigades International. The Colombian groups included the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, Infancia Feliz (Happy Childhood), MOVICE – Dept. Sucre (local chapter of the Movement of Victims of State Crimes), CPDH (Permanent Committee in Defense of Human Rights), Non-Governmental Program of Protection to Defenders of Human Rights, Kan Kuamos (Indigenas from the Sierra Nevada), Redjuvensor (a youth network), Mushaisha (of Indigenas Wayuú), and CEDERHNOS (Center for the Study of Human Rights) from Barranquilla, all of whom make up Agenda Caribe, working together for peace and an end to the violence here.
Following the testimony many of us left for Betulia where we were welcomed, fed and housed overnight. That night we participated in a event around a "fogata," a bonfire at the edge of a lake in Betulia. In this event, led by some of the indigenas who were there, we shared our experiences in relation to the plight of the victims. The ceremony with the smoke of the fire reminded us that the mother earth and all its creatures belong to God and we are here to respect and protect it, including its peoples. Many people spoke and we ended finally about midnight, walking back slowly to our beds feeling tired on the one hand but exhilarated on the other.
Betulia is a beautiful little town of maybe 15,000 out in the country surrounded by farms. The rains have come and this time of year everything is a pastoral green. This makes it all the more difficult to imagine how something as horrid as happened could actually have occurred. The contrast was striking and made us contemplate how the peace of God can be so disturbed. Indeed it sometimes seems beyond our contemplation. All the more reason to be here and act as witnesses to the violence on behalf of the victims.




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