Frightening Signs of an Escalating Conflict in Colombia
Witness for Peace and Justapaz
May 15, 2002

In a make-shift shelter for the recently displaced people in the small city of Quibdó, women and their children - the primary victims of the displacement that has devastated the states of Chocó and Antioquia - sit on the floor with nothing to do but hold onto each other. One mother softly weeps into her startled baby whom she clenches to her chest. The muggy air is thick with the smell of uncertainty and un-bathed bodies.
This mother and child are just two of the thousands of children, women and men who continue to flee the violence wreaking havoc on the area called Bojayá in Chocó-a northwestern state bordering Colombia's Pacific and Caribbean coasts. The violence of Bojayá illustrates all too vividly the increasing violence on all sides of this war and how the civilian population is caught in the crossfire. As the United States Congress prepares to vote on the Bush Administration's request for more funding to the Colombian government and more leeway in using past U.S. funds directly to fight the insurgents, we as U.S. citizens must look carefully at the situation in Bojayá. This newest wave of violence clearly shows that those who suffer most from this senseless, bloody and unwinnable war in part funded by our tax dollars are innocent civilians.

Fear turned to Horror
On the morning of May 2, three hundred civilians crowded together in a small church, whispering prayers as they plastered themselves to the cement floor, hoping the sanctuary would afford protection from the bullets whizzing outside the walls.
"We went into the church because we thought God would protect us there," one community member whispered to a journalist from the Colombian weekly, Semana. Fear turned to horror as a home-made mortar exploded on the church roof, covering the huddling mass in debris and killing 119 people and injuring dozens of others. In a country where violence is so commonplace that massacres are often not reported, the immense scale of the killing in Bojayá has rocked Colombia.
Control of this rural, predominately Afro-Colombian region, has changed hands twice in the last decade between the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the paramilitary group known as the United Self Defense forces. Since March of 2000, this poverty-stricken area largely abandoned by the state has been controlled by the FARC. About two weeks before the massacre, the AUC arrived, challenging the guerrillas for control.
Thousands of troops of the two illegal armed groups converged, and one of the biggest battles in the history of Colombia's civil war ensued. Although most national and international media sources blame the massacre entirely on the FARC for launching the home made mortar at the church, local survivors whom we talked to also blamed the AUC troops for using the people in the church as a human shield and the Colombian government for its long absence leading up to the massacre.

Colombian Government Implicated
We question the inaction of the Colombian government in the face of serious warnings of the imminent violence. Although the Catholic Church, community leaders, the Colombian government's human rights office and the United Nations Human Rights Office sent urgent warnings to the State at least a week in advance, indicating the convergence of thousands of troops of two warring factions, the Colombian government did not take any measures to protect the civilian population.
In fact, the Catholic Diocese of Quibdó denounced that hundreds of paramilitary troops were able to enter the Bojayá region from the Atlantic coastal region on a river with numerous Police and Army checkpoints, suggesting a complicity of the Colombian armed forces with the paramilitary. It was not until May 5, three days after the church attack, that any government presence appeared in Bojayá. A Catholic missionary from the area was quoted as saying "When the army arrived there was nothing left to do, everyone was dead." Nevertheless, the army subsequently carried out bombings in an effort to fight off the groups responsible for the Bojayá tragedy, only adding to the suffering of the local communities. One women's group in Quibdó claims that these indiscriminate bombings in surrounding rural areas killed another 10 civilians.

Civilians and Combatants Both Are Victims
We grieve the death of civilians in the church and in the area and condemn their senseless murder by the armed groups, but the tragic loss of life does not end there. According to our contacts, at least half the paramilitary soldiers involved in the battle and nearly as many guerrillas died in combat. The number of dead combatants is rumored to be at least 300. We remember that soldiers too are people, with parents and children, and that many of them were either forcibly recruited or joined the armed groups simply because it was the only way to earn a living in such an impoverished region.

Local inhabitants of Bojayá have continued to suffer the physical consequences of the massacre even after the combat has ended. Bojayá's town personero, or human rights ombudsman, expressed concern for the dangerous sanitary conditions created by the decaying cadavers. After the church attack, the fighting continued and the surviving townspeople were unable to bury their deceased neighbors and loved ones for a number of days. In the hot, humid climate, the bodies began to decompose and contaminate the water supply. The ongoing attacks by armed actors and consequent displacement that Bojayá and surrounding towns continue to face have left Bojayá a ghost town. One community leader from Bojayá said to the same Semana reporter, "Out of fear we fled in the boats. We will never return to that town we left behind."

Church Responds to Suffering
Justapaz/CEDECOL contacted a pastor from Quibdó, the capital of Chocó, upon learning of the horrifying turn of events. The call was received with tears of desperation and relief, "We feel entirely alone, overwhelmed and at a loss for how to respond. Your call is a direct answer to our prayer for help." Justapaz/CEDECOL and Witness for Peace* organized a trip for the following day to see the situation firsthand, to help them organize, and to provide the solidarity of the international community.
Upon arrival, we learned that Quibdó is the refuge for most of the traumatized victims, some who suffer from physical injuries and others who fled out of fear. At least 3,000 people have arrived to Quibdó at the time of this writing, while hundreds of others seek safety in different cities. However, the capital city lacks capacity - in terms of infrastructure, trained personnel and material resources - to receive the continual waves of displaced people arriving by the boatload from the north. Over half of the displaced are taken in by family members in Quibdó. The others are being temporarily housed in makeshift shelters at the city stadium, a farmers' community center, and the Miners' Center, the biggest vacant places in town. Social organizers believe that the movement of people seeking safety from the armed conflict is just beginning; they expect at least 5,000 more displaced people to arrive to Quibdó in the coming weeks.

Violence On All Sides Must Stop
We strongly condemn the actions of the guerrilla and the paramilitary in Bojayá, two groups who utterly disregard International Humanitarian Law: one that launches mortars at a church, killing over 100 people and the other that uses civilians as a human shield. Similarly, the behavior and actions of the Colombian government and its security forces puts into question the true priorities or even interests of the Colombian State to protect the well-being of its citizens.
As Justapaz/CEDECOL and Witness for Peace staff returned to Bogotá on May 8th, our plane stood waiting on the tarmac while 6 Blackhawk helicopters full of soldiers took off ahead of us towards the combat zone. The airport was filled with frightened soldiers in fatigues waiting their turn to load into the helicopters bound for Bojayá. As the fighting continued, the only certain outcome would be the loss of more lives. Our group was saddened by the ever-increasing militarization of a conflict that is crying out for dialogue and peace.
The violence of Bojayá illustrates all too vividly the increasing violence on all sides of this war. We must stand with the people of Chocó - those who have lost family members, those whose minds will forever be haunted by the memory of those horrifying hours, and those in Quibdó who are opening their homes and hearts to strangers in the wake of tragedy.

U.S. Government Adds to the Suffering
The United States government, rather than encourage constructive processes of negotiation to end the war in Colombia, which claims as many as twenty innocent victims a day, instead has been fanning the flames of war with more weapons, more helicopters, and more support for one side in this conflict.
Adding insult to injury, the US State Department certified just one week before the Bojayá massacre that the Colombian military had passed all human rights conditions, despite clear evidence that their connections with paramilitaries and other forms of state-sponsored violence have continued unabated. Human Rights Watch, the Washington Office on Latin America, and Amnesty International published their own report, documenting clearly where Colombia has failed all conditions.
Nevertheless, the State Department's report clears the way for US military aid to continue. Moreover, Congress is currently debating a Bush administration proposal to free up previous aid limited to counter-narcotics operations to be used to fight the guerrillas and paramilitary groups.
In the wake of the Bojayá tragedy our Colombian brothers and sisters are not calling for more military aid. Human rights defenders, church leaders and humanitarian groups are adamant that more aid to the Colombian military will only escalate the levels of violence, displacement and death. "Most people had never even heard of Bojayá before May 2nd, but their small community -- even in the most isolated place in Colombia -- is impacted by the escalating military aid to Colombia," commented Ricardo Esquivia as our plane dipped over the Atrató River's lush jungle landscape of Chocó. "And this is just the beginning."

*Justapaz: Christian Center of Justice, Peace and Nonviolent Action is a Mennonite Peace and Justice organization based in Bogotá. The Protestant Council of Churches of Colombia (CEDECOL), of which the Colombian Mennonite Church is a member, is also a national level organization representing over 70% of all protestant churches in Colombia.

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