8 OCT 2009

Dear President Obama:

I was overwhelmed by the long term burdens of the people affected by the civil war. I learned from hurting people, who want the war to end and such money from the U.S. to Colombia to end now. U.S. military money only prolongs the long war under the direction of President Uribe who, they feel, is continuing war in order to continue receiving international money for it. He won elections on the promise to improve military fighting during his terms in office. Recently he was in Washington asking for more money for war, and advertising for tourist to come to beautiful and safe Colombia. Note the contradiction between the two purposes of his visit.

The following is what I recorded into writing as I visited Presbyterian churches for four weeks in Urabá region in Colombia in May, 2009:

An elderly man talked about the political fighting in Urabá during the 1950's, the cultural fighting in the 1960's, the leftist fighting groups in the 1970's and 1980's, the guerrillas verses the paramilitaries fights in the 1990's and the quiet army control in the 2000's. The political fighting of 1960 to 1970 had some cease-fire periods between the Antioquian people, the Afro-Colombian people and the Cordovan provincial people. Each had different cultures disliking the other cultures. A Liberal father remembers meeting Liberals who took his mother captive. The Afro-Colombians left Urabá to go to a mountainous area of Chocó province, and the indigenous ones went farther away from Urabá. Disputes about how to build roads among the towns, resulted in fighting deaths when a band of gunners arrived in town. Even recently, discussions on bus routes and their frequencies were serious because jeeps from other towns come through Bajirá full, so that the new passengers then are then unable to travel in the jeep to the city.

The early fights mostly used machetes from drunken youthful arguments. After 1973, troops of military groups used guns in their fighting. Also, there were political and economic reasons. Guerrillas started as political enemies during this time of political corruption.

Whenever a military group was in town, it would be watching and asking about guerillas. This group may have been a disguised guerilla looking for people, stating negatives about guerillas. Such negative citizens would be viewed as guerilla enemies, and later shot by these military questioners. So, never inform about guerillas who may be a guerilla questioning group. The people never trusted any questioning group to have it's a true identity. Informers may say the wrong things to unknown questioners. Four informers who were 3 leaders and the mayor of the town were assassinated in this way.

A humble hunter went to the mountains for wild game. He met 30 soldiers and was captured. He was constrained and prayed on the ground, and then released to go home. He, his family and 3 other families then came together into an out-of-the-way house to hide, while all of them saw the 30 soldiers and 17 policemen fight 1000 guerrillas. Of the 30 soldiers, 11 died, 5 escaped and 14 captured. Of the 17 policemen, 1 died and 16 captured. The guerrillas left with the captured. The hunter still fears that a new incident may happen again. He was glad to share this burden with us to bear, and later to share this burden in the U.S.A.

A pastor encountered the self-defense militia blocking his passage into the woods where he lived. Finally after much discussion, one of them went with him and found church members waiting for him. The militia man was could believe his story. As we walked, he pointed out the location of this unpleasant encounter.

A major suffering of the people is with the problem of mistrust about any new military in town. A person told his story of being question about funds he had. Another explained that the treasurer could prove the incomes. The unsure guerrilla checked with her, and was satisfied. But, if that person would have left the questioner before this helper spoke, he would have left town and been killed as an enemy supporter. The assassins by the armies choose targets by mistaken answers to misleading questions that will associate citizens with their enemies. These are called "false positives" that lead to target citizens for killing. A Presbyterian accompaniers' report tells of a recent protest in Barranquilla against "false positives" by the army.

A youth left a guerrilla group and later entered into the self-defense (paramilitary) group. The guerrillas killed him. Some were forcefully drafted into the army as pick-ups off the street with the same results of death. The greatest fear is to be questioned by an unknown group about people on a long list because the mystery group could turn out to be a guerrilla or a self-defense group that would label the answers to be from an enemy supporter. A man was questioned by a self-declared paramilitary soldier who was secretly a guerrilla. This soldier wanted him to say something negative about guerrillas in order to assassinate him as a guerrilla enemy. Mistrust caused most people to tell me their experience with humor to make it easier for them to speak. Some would pray doing military questioning of another family member. Some had courage to defend the innocence of a family youth. Some believed that military groups had to get a certain number of ex-judiciary executions, and that they were looking for a way to make their military leader's goal for assassinations.

A 2008 new church member now 30 years old was only 13 years old in a 10 children family when people quickly left their homes after all the military groups in Colombia (the paramilitary, the guerillas and the army) asked them for support. None made threats, but if you help one group, you are accused of being a supporter of the enemies in another group. This 13 year old boy had an Old Testament verse about God to help him during the needy times ofescape. Today he digs ditches in banana fields.

A displaced 12 year old who escaped from his Chocó home, knows that it is still used by the militants. Today it takes 5 hours by car to go back there. In 2005, land given in Uraba to him by the Colombian President always floods so that no harvesting of crops is possible.

A 6 year old saw his father killed by a guerrilla in 1995 in Chocó. His mother and family went to a displaced camp where the government gave monthly supplies of food for 6 months. They lived in a hut there. Now this youth works without any formal education.

In 1997, a thousand displaced people from distant Chocó providence escaped at night from 1000 guerillas. Many people crossed a river and were shuttled by a motor boat. An 18 years old girl, her aunt and cousins took 30 days, and crossed rivers to arrive in an Urabá town where she lived in a displaced camp for 6 months. Camping on the trail of escape, she was helped by a peace group. Some of the running escapees were killed by guerillas, and others died from hunger with illnesses. The pastor In Urabá had been the pastor in that church in Chocó for 5 years. He and a church member seeking for known church people from Chocó, found her in camp after 2 months. Later her father and family nearby were told of their nearby daughter, and she was reunited. Great was the churches involvements over the years with the displaced and in the camps.

One hour away by car, a family left in 1990 a large Presbyterian church. Ninety percent of that church escaped harm, which weakened that church. One lady of that church lived in Urabá and is married for 11years with 3 children, and she has a subsidized pre-school daycare of 13 children for lunch in her home from 8 am to 4 pm.

One church town had violence in 1995 and up to 2 years ago by the paramilitary killing targeted people. A member's younger brother was killed by them because he was with friends of guerrillas in 2006. Some of the displaced people returned to their abandoned lands with titles to them, but new owners had titles to those lands from their payments. The old titles of the displaced people were no good now, but the old owners are waiting for a court solution. Some new titles are bank owners. These lands are near Currulao in Urabá.

A report to me tells about a mayor in Chocó receiving bags of wheat from the U.S.A. On TV news, it showed him selling them instead of giving wheat to the hungry displaced people in town.

A family moved from Chocó in 1997 that took 8 hours including 3 hours on a river along with 2000 people escaping. They are sad over the loss of properties, animals, crops and home. Sadness includes fear that there may be the army policing the area where they lived, they may be accused of being with another military when they were in Urabá before they returned to Chocó. Thus, they will not return to Chocó.

A woman of a distant church during the violence came to her present church on March 31, 1996 after living at night in the mountains under trees. She left with all of the families in that village. The trip took 4 days with her 5 children. She lost her home, clothing, farm land, furniture, and everything. The violence was from the guerrillas and the paramilitaries. They had killed entire families and the workers going to their fields or entering the town.

A church elder faced violence in 1994 and left the area to pastor another church for 5 years, and now he is an Urabá church. He knows that people are still suffering in Colombia. In the south and the southeast there is still a lot of violence. A church member living some 45 minutes away was killed in 2009. Yet, he notices how much churches have been helping their own to escape violence and finding a new place to live. In peaceful times without violence, people are afraid of new outbreaks of assassinations on targeted individuals by the militaries. In Urab'a, the army for over the last 10 years has been in control; yet they do not control the mountains near its boundaries.

A church member discovered her brother and brother-in-law, killed by paramilitaries. Three days before theses deaths, her husband on a bicycle was hit by a bus and died on the main road. She continued to care for her 5 very young children. Her husband's employer had a pension for her, and she worked cleaning mostly 4 private houses. All of this time she was a church member with the caring support of its many members.

From my visit in Medellin, I recorded into writing the following:

President Uribe of Colombia was a Governor of the Antioquia providence which includes Medellin and the flat Urabá Gulf coast on the Caribbean Sea. He controlled the policemen in this region, and he may have asked them to close their eyes to the drug exporting businesses to its Caribbean Sea coast. During this time he passed by law and formed the first private army that is known as the paramilitary or a self-defense army which is a private militia and which could be a group making use of legal arms. This law later became the law in all the provinces of Colombia by President Ernesto Samper during this same time period.In Urabá, they were known as the " Agilas Negras", the Black Ones. Near Urabá, the paramilitary chased the people from a small town in order to put a hydroelectric plant there. Today this town has 12 known displaced families who returned to it.

Before being Antioquia's governor, President Uribe was the Director of Licenses for 110 new airports and airstrips in this providence. People believe that made it easy for small planes to fly out cocaine exports in the drug businesses. During this time period there was the greatest amount of cocaine exported from Urabá and Chocó providences. People in Antioquia know also about a corrupt mayor of a town who was asking citizen farmers to plant coca plants during this time period.

Viewing Medellin from a tourist hill top, the lower river area had mostly very poor houses. But the higher river area off to the east had many huge rental buildings of a few rich owners where most of the drug-transport killings are still occurring. Off to the west are many huge condominium buildings by companies that are for sale to families. Today most coca leaves comes from southern Colombia to this city or through an equally large city of Cali and onto a Pacific Ocean port of Buenventura. A pastor's friend pointed out that the new international airport of Rio Negro is on the side near east and the rich drug-death area, due probably to a plan for exporting cocaine. In this east area, there is also spotted a white mansion where Pablo Escobar lived for years. He has been killed as the leader of the Medellin drug cartel. A pastor pointed out a mid-city Medellin park where secret information for years has been passed around to do the drug businesses.

On May 12th, 2009, paramilitaries of more than 100 in a distant province of Chocó gave up to the Army in Apartadó because this private army was not paid for 3 months. They were fighting guerillas there. Helicopters from an Urabá army base brought then to jail at the center for a short time before releasing them. War activity ends when there is no money for it. "War ends when there are no funds for them". "No money causes war to end".

Will the war end? One person hopes all military groups will weaken economically and end the fighting. It is occasionally believed that one of the riches persons in Colombia, President Uribe, will not end the conflicts as long as he receives hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States. When the U.S.A. ends all military aid to Colombia. Uribe will begin a new strategy for cease fire, exchanges and negotiations for peace by understanding the economics of war. His police then will capture the manufacturers of cocaine and its transporters. This will dry up the money going to the guerrillas and the paramilitary. Again, these groups will seek peace due to their own poor economics that they all will be facing. Wars do end by economic pressures. Above I noted that over 100 paramilitary gave upon the 12th of May because they did not receive their pay for 3 months. The U.S. must have a new policy on Colombia. No funding of the army there. People told me that the army now are in flat areas in control of those areas, but it does not go into the mountains where the other militaries have the control. Colombian government does not want to end the war, but it does want international moneys coming to it for the war.

I also should add that the U.S. government can't afford sending military money to Colombia due to its growing debt amounts in its U.S. budget. Indeed, our woeful economy should cause us to end the war spending in Colombia, and help Colombia end its own war by economic reasons of little money from international support. Nearly 50 years ago in the 20th century there were national security concerns, but now in the 21st century such concern is gone from this Colombian civil war.

Human Rights have not improved. You received from me the recent report of suffering pastors in Sincelejo and the Department of Cordova. More labor leaders of Colombia have been targeted and killed than in any other country in the world. Social workers, pastors, teachers and human rights workers are targeted and killed. Colombians want the national secrets of causes for such evil told truthfully by their government.

I talked with many displaced people in the churches of Urabá. All of these and family members were targeted and some killed. They want the government to seek a cease fire, exchanges and negotiations with the militant groups. There are nearly 5 million displaced now in this country of 44 million.

Forever past, money there has also been money from illegal drug businesses getting into hands of the Colombia military. All four military groups are using drug moneys. And, there is U.S. Aid money implicitly subsidizing drug traffickers and also cultivating stolen land for international businesses.

Sherwood Ross, reporter, wrote in the June 15th issue of The Nation magazine,"Brig. Gen. Pauxelino Latorre has been charged "with laundering millions of dollars for a paramilitary drug ring, and prosecutors say they are looking into his activities as head of the Seventeenth Brigade," investigative journalist Teo Ballve reports. He notes that criminal probes repeatedly linked his unit "to illegal paramilitary groups that had brutally killed thousands" of Colombian farmers in an effort to seize their land for palm oil production.

"Another general, Rito Alejo Del Rio, former 17th Brigade leader, is in jail on charges of collaborating with paramilitaries, gangs that have been responsible for widespread atrocities.

"Various firms currently engaged in palm oil development since 2002 apparently have received $75 million in US Agency for International Development money under "Plan Colombia," Ballve writes. And some of the firms appear to be tied to narco-traffickers, "in possible violation of federal law." The writer notes Colombia's paramilitaries are on the State Department's list of foreign "terrorist" organizations.

'Plan Colombia' is fighting against drugs militarily at the same time it gives money to support palm, which is used by paramilitary mafias to launder money," The Nation quotes Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro, as saying. "The United States is implicitly subsidizing drug traffickers."

"Oil palm, or African palm, is one of the few aid-funded crops whose profits can match coca profits," Ballve notes. But human rights groups have long accused palm companies, notably Urapalma, of cultivating stolen lands, he adds.

"Senator Patrick Leahy has attached an amendment to this year's Plan Colombia funding (for 2010) to ban palm projects that "cause the forced displacement of local people" but in the bill's current draft, Ballve says, Leahy's amendment is marked for deletion.

"Urapalma submitted a grant application to the Bogota, Colombia, offices of ARD Inc., a rural development contractor based in Burlington, Vt., which The Nation reports does business in 43 countries and has received $330 million in revenue from USAID. In January, 2003, ARD began administering $41.5 million for USAID's Colombia Agribusiness Partnership Program and Urapalma was one of its beneficiaries. Urapalma has been accused of taking land illegally from Colombian peasants.

In July, 2003, just before Urapalma's USAID application, Colombia's national daily El Tiempo reported that "the African palm projects in the southern banana region of Uraba are dripping with blood, misery, and corruption." The region is where Urapalma is active.

The Nation article goes on to report that in 2003, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights singled out Urapalma for collusion with paramilitaries in these words: "Since 2001, the company Urapalma SA has initiated cultivation of the oil palm on approximately 1,500 hectares of the collective land of these communities, with the help of 'the perimetric and concentric armed protection of the Army's Seventeenth Brigade and armed civilians'", i.e., paras. The people in Colombia repeated their concerns about the military involvement with illegal drug money business.

Furthermore, they told about their opposition to the U.S. fumigation program. A joint fumigation verification mission in Colombia's Putumayo and Guaviare provinces took first-hand testimony and video documentation of the effects of fumigation on the ground. It was reported to the U.S. Congress. And in April, three courageous Colombian leaders from these provinces spoke to Administration officials and Congressional leaders. They were Nancy Sanchez, a human rights defender from Putumayo, Pedro Arenas, the mayor of the capital city of Guaviare and a former member of Congress, and Manuel Riofrio, a peppercorn farmer whose legal crops have been fumigated multiple times. They argued that U.S. taxpayer money should no longer be wasted by funding fumigations. All of them called for an end to U.S. support for this ineffective and inhumane policy.

The people know that there is still as much coca leaf available in Colombia as when this fumigation program began years ago. It is not working in stemming the tide of cocaine to the U.S.A. Many asked me to stop demand by the U.S. consumers. Many told me to spend government money to lower the demand of users in the states.

I hope the Obama administration will work hard to stop the USA consumption of illegal drugs by reducing the consumers in our country. It needs to work to prevent and cure illegal drug user in the USA. The eradication of the Colombian coca leaf (a U.S. military idea of the Southern Command, not by any Colombian) is immoral. Coca leaf in South America is for tea and chewing during some centuries, and it is not narcotic. Coca leaf is chewed now legally in Bolivia and is still made into a tea in Peruvian highlands. Cocaine must be manufactured. Now in USA cocaine is cheaper than when eradication began in Colombia. Supply is the same and USA users are into more narcotic prescription drugs, etc., that may be slowing cocaine demand. Even if there is little cocaine supply, the drugs of choice will change and keep the USA drug problem unsolved. Also, stop Colombian fumigation and its harming of communities and their citizens with sickness and damaged land and water. No money from U.S. for drug eradication, that never will make a change in the U.S. addiction problem; but such money should be used in U.S. for prevention and rehabilitation of addicts

This week Republican Representative Joseph Pitts in my Pennsylvania 16th District discussed with me the content of this letter, and he asked me to write to you so that you will have a new Colombian policy that can end war, make peace and do wise spending. This writing has also been sent to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. I expect your reply, concerns and questions in my mail. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Rev. Kenneth Trauger

2 MAY 2009 (VIA FAX)

Dear President Obama,

We write with appreciation for the way you, with the assistance of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, have engaged the international community diplomatically during your first 100 days in the White House. We applaud the new diplomatic tone in US foreign policy.

In these 100 days the citizens of Gaza have been waiting in the rubble for opening of the borders and reconstruction aid.

John Ging, Head of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, says none of the USD 4.5 billion package of reconstruction aid pledged in March has reached the impoverished region because of border restrictions. Gaza still awaits an international aid package for reconstruction nearly three months after Israel's 23-day attack on the besieged coastal sliver.

Ging reports that there is no prospect of recovery or reconstruction until we can get access to construction materials. Billions of dollars were pledged for recovery and reconstruction and yet none of that can actually connect with those whose lives were destroyed, he added.

Israel continues to enforce its 21-month blockade of the Palestinian territory despite international outcries. Egypt has also restricted crossings at its border with Gaza.

Over 4,000 homes were completely destroyed and over 11,500 badly damaged during the conflict, especially in the border areas of northern Gaza. Many families are now staying with relatives, or living in tents erected by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main UN agency working inside Gaza.

UNRWA supplies humanitarian assistance to one million refugees across the Gaza Strip. But many adults and children also need ongoing psychological support in the aftermath of the conflict. The Gaza Community Mental Health Program, which provides mental health services to adults and children across the Gaza Strip, estimates that up to half of children in Gaza, around 350,000, will suffer some form of post traumatic stress as a result of their experiences during the offensive. A number of local Palestinian NGOs are focusing their efforts on supporting children who have been distressed by their recent experiences.

The $300 million that the US committed for Gaza, but did not deliver, certainly reflects the good intentions of our government, but the continuing blockade of Gaza by the primary American ally in the region, cannot be tolerated. Reconstruction aid can be directed to the people of Gaza, knowing full well that there is no escape from the Hamas reality in Gaza, now or later. Palestinians and Israelis are forever waiting for one more condition to change before getting on with a settlement. Occasional relaxation of one food commodity or other by Israel is palliative only. The standoff between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority can and should be negotiated on a track separate from Gaza Reconstruction. An international authority can be designated to supervise use of outside aid, which would get around the present impasse over Hamas.

We, the undersigned, write as the Middle East Interest Group representing a cross section of church folk in southeastern Pennsylvania, many with experience in the region.

Sincerely,

Urbane Peachey (Signed by 26 persons from MEIG)
428 Haymarket Lane
Lititz, PA 17543

c: The Honorable Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State

2 FEB 2008

Three letters were drafted and signed by 16 people present at the Middle East Peace Advocacy Breakfast. Read the letters here.

27 JAN 2008

A letter regarding the situation in Gaza was sent to Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. It was signed by 18 people at the LIPW Annual Meeting.

Dear Madam Secretary,

We, the undersigned, write to you today in support of the January 23, 2008, letter you received from Churches for Middle East Peace. We are concerned about the long standing isolation of Gaza in the peace process, as well as the recent escalation of violence in and around Gaza. We urge longer term diplomatic and economic initiatives as the way to address the violence and the pervasive humanitarian need.

Rocket attacks against Israel by Palestinian militant groups and retaliatory responses by Israel that include the cutoff or the threat of cutoff of vital food, fuel, electricity and adequate access to medical attention for the residents of Gaza are creating an untenable situation that threatens to derail the nascent but vitally important peace process. Neither the rocket attacks nor imposed suffering on the general population of Gaza can be justified. The recent breach of the Gaza-Egypt border only underscores the urgency of this current crisis that risks continued escalation.

We urge your concerted diplomatic effort now, together with Egypt, Israel and the international community, to help bring about a cease fire and avert a further humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

We join you in your quest for a viable Palestinian state living at peace alongside a secure Israel as called for by the President. We believe that only careful attention to long standing issues and aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis will lead to a durable peace.

Sincerely,
Urbane Peachey, Contact Person
428 Haymarket Lane
Lititz, PA 17543

7 NOV 2007

Dear Senator Specter and Senator Robert Casey, Jr.,

We are writing you today as members of the Lancaster (PA) Interchurch Peace Witness. We are a board of sixteen representing more than a dozen religious groupings. Last week, along with the Lancaster Literary Guild, we hosted Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine writer and peace advocate from Erie, PA, with an audience of 500 in Lancaster’s First Presbyterian Church. The audience was deeply moved by her passionate reminder that ninety percent of the victims of the modern war in Iraq are civilian, the majority of whom are women and children.

We are writing today because of our anguish over President Bush’s and Vice President Cheney’s repeated threats to enlarge the war to include Iran. We are writing to you because you are two significant voices in the U.S. Senate and hence in national discussion. We are pleased that you have spoken out urging diplomatic conversations rather than war-threatening actions.

In the militant and foreboding atmosphere emanating from the executive branch, we have dared to dream of Pennsylvania’s two Senators—a senior Republican and a junior Democrat – joining their voices in a vigorous public call for direct negotiations with Iran without pre-conditions as a means of preventing war.

As highly regarded Senators from a large state and representing different political parties, we believe a single strong statement from the two of you together would command unusual respect in the White House, the Senate, and in public opinion within and beyond Pennsylvania. We commend you, Senator Casey, for introducing with your colleagues Senate Bill S 2130.

The issue of war and peace is the primary issue facing the American body politic today. These perilous times with threats of extending the current conflict require strong and courageous actions. As Senators from Pennsylvania, a clear and passionate call could be as salutary as that voiced by our state’s founder, William Penn, more that three hundred years ago.

We are prepared to engage in further conversations with you and your staff. We are also prepared to join in the public advocacy of negotiations without preconditions with Iran. We are prepared to meet with you in Washington, Harrisburg, or Philadelphia to discuss this proposal.

As we pray for peace, we also pray with St. Francis of Assisi that you will be instruments of God’s peacemaking.

Sincerely,
Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness
John A. Lapp, Chair,
Robert Webber, Vice Chair
Robert Lowing, Secretary
Suzanne Schaudel, Treasurer