Congress votes soon on $1.7 billion for Colombia - Money will escalate war

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 18 March 2000

WASHINGTON -- The Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives passed a $1.7 billion aid package for Colombia. The recommendation, which will go before Congress on March 16, added an additional $400 million to the president's January 11 request. Most of the aid would go to the Colombian military.

The package contained no aid for Colombia's 1.8 million people displaced by the country's 40-year-old civil war.

"This is like adding oil to a flame and expecting the fire to go out," says Elizabeth Soto of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Latin America desk. "It's really discouraging that Congress and the Clinton administration are supporting conflict and violence in Colombia, instead of addressing the victims of this war and the root causes of the conflict."

President Clinton had proposed a $1.3 billion "Push into southern Colombia" on January 11, targeting the coca growing regions of southern Colombia. The money, believe MCC Colombia partners, would seriously undercut the already delicate peace process.

Most of the aid would go to the Colombian security forces, which have links to the brutal paramilitary groups responsible for assassinations, massacres and an estimated 70 percent of Colombia's human rights abuses. A March Human Rights Watch report alleges links between half of Colombia's army units and paramilitary activity. Talks between the Colombian government and the two largest guerilla groups have resumed and are reportedly making progress.

But not for long insists a letter to Congress from the National Council of Churches and Church World Service. The letter, co-signed by MCC, asks lawmakers to carefully consider the ramifications of approving the aid. "We ask you to honestly assess the possible negative effects of U.S. military aid on those peace efforts. It is our judgement that such aid will undermine them," says the letter.

"We still have time to speak for peace," notes Soto. "If the House and Senate vote for this bill, they are not voting for peace but for war. This is the message we hear from our partners in Colombia. Supporting this aid is against everything peacemakers are doing there."

MCC suggests calling on Congress to oppose military aid to Colombia and to support positive amendments to include social investment in Colombia, human rights provisions and monitoring, and the shifting of funds for military assistance to reduced demand for drugs, and promote drug education and treatment programs in the United States.

To contact your member of Congress, call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 or contact your member of Congress through the web.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org