> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andy Higginbottom [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 22 February 2002 12:08
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: STOP THE US - PASTRANA WAR DRIVE!
> 
> 
> STOP THE US - PASTRANA WAR DRIVE!
> STOP THE BOMBING OF THE ZONE FOR DIALOGUE!
> STOP PLAN COLOMBIA!
> 
> The Colombia Solidarity Campaign condemns the Pastrana government for
> its unilateral decision to break negotiations with the FARC and its
> bombing of the zone for dialogue. We call for mobilisations to protest
> against this dangerous escalation of the civil war in Colombia.
> 
> Colombian Government Unilaterally Breaks Talks 
> ----------------------------------------------
> The official peace process in Colombia ended at 12.00 midnight on 20th
> February. By 5 minutes past twelve on 21st February the 
> Colombian Armed
> Forces began bombarding the 'zone for dialogue', a 16,000 square mile
> area in the south of the country.  According to RCN (national Radio)
> over 200 bombing  missions were carried out that night. So far three
> civilians have been reported dead, many more deaths can be 
> expected as a
> result of the bombing.
> 
> The Colombian army is using Blackhawk helicopters provided by the USA
> under Plan Colombia, along with other military aircraft to attack 85
> strategic targets in the zone. These attack forces have been built up
> over the last two years with the aid of $2 billion from 
> Washington. They
> have been equipped, trained and inspired by US governments to conduct
> counterinsurgency warfare. All that planning is now being put into
> practice.
> 
> The FARC, the largest guerrilla organisation in Colombia, have had
> control of the demilitarised zone for the last three years since
> negotiations began.  The talks have threatened to break down 
> many times,
> but were always pulled back from the brink at the last moment.  This
> time however, there was no reprieve and at 9.00pm on Wednesday night
> President Pastrana announced on national television that he had passed
> four decrees to end the peace process.  Firstly, he ended negotiations
> and announced removal of the FARC's political status. 
> Secondly, that the
> demilitarised zone was terminated. Thirdly, that arrest warrants had
> been reactivated for FARC negotiators, and finally that the permission
> to set up a civilian police force in the demilitarised region had been
> revoked. 
> 
> Pastrana gave the FARC and the civilian population in the 
> zone less than
> three hours to leave, thereby flagrantly breaking the 
> agreement he made
> on 21st January to give a clear 48 hours notice. Pastrana has
> unilaterally broken the process of dialogue.
> 
> Pastrana's move came after the FARC had allegedly hijacked a 
> commercial
> airliner on an internal flight and kidnapped the senator Jorge Eduardo
> Gechem Turbay on 20th February.  Raul Reyes, chief spokesman for the
> FARC denied any knowledge of the kidnapping.  The FARC responded  in a
> communiqué published hours after Pastrana's speech, rejecting the
> government's belligerent attitude: 
> 
> "Pastrana, in his speech to the nation broke-off negotiations with the
> FARC - People's Army... the intolerance of the oligarchy has been a
> constant for almost two centuries of bi-partisan domination, and with
> the rupture of the talks the government once again has shown its
> commitment to war and against the interests of the popular classes.
> Tonight the bi-partisan liberal conservative rulers in a show of
> arrogance unprecedented in the history of Colombia called for 
> more blood
> from the Armed Forces, one of the main perpetrators of state terrorism
> in this Latin American Country.." (Translated from EL Pais 21st Feb
> 2002) 
> 
> Colombia's second guerrilla movement the ELN issued a 
> statement on 21st
> February that "we greatly regret this outcome because we 
> believe that in
> Colombia the correct way can only be a political solution to the armed
> social conflict which our country and society are living through." 
> 
> No Peace Without Social Justice
> -------------------------------
> Although there have been talks it was not a real process of peace or
> reconciliation. The Colombian state has all the while continued its
> dirty war through the paramilitary death squads. And so the FARC has
> refused to agree a ceasefire so long as the paramilitaries are allowed
> to operate with impunity. 
> 
> But at least while the talks were in process there was some hope of a
> peaceful solution. Pastrana has done his best to extinguish that hope.
> The army's generals egged on by the USA have been pushing for all out
> war. And now they have their way. We condemn the Pastrana government's
> solution to the conflict, relying on US gunships to silence opposition
> movements.  
> 
> The Colombian government claims that the FARC are 'terrorists' and is
> engaged in its own war against terror, backed by the USA in its global
> mission to rid the world of terrorism.  The reality is different. The
> Colombian state is itself the principal source of terrorism and human
> rights violations against the people. The Colombian armed forces, the
> USA and the paramilitaries will now begin an all out assault on all
> those forces that oppose the neoliberal economic programme that has
> wreaked havoc on the population over the last 10 years.  
> 
> Officially 20.3 % of the urban population is unemployed, but 
> this figure
> is an enormous underestimate as up to 60% of adults are 
> 'underemployed',
> that is with no regular job. The neoliberal project has driven 68% of
> the population into poverty, while the small elite has grown
> increasingly wealthy on the backs of privatisation programmes 
> that have
> forced up prices for public services and sacked thousands of workers.
> 
> The same president who has been conducting economic warfare 
> against the
> majority of Colombians has turned to an all out military assault on
> resistance. The consequences of Pastrana's latest decision spell
> disaster for the people of Colombia, with conflict likely to spread
> across the country.
> 
> For the Colombian trade union movement the collapse of the talks is
> likely to lead to further assassinations of their leaders, 
> 3,500 of whom
> have been murdered by state and parastate forces since 1986. For the
> peasants, black communities and indigenous peoples the end of 
> the talks
> is likely to lead to more massacres in rural areas as the military and
> the paramilitaries clear the land for the multinationals.  
> 
> The Colombian state backed by US imperialism is now at war, 
> not against
> drugs, nor against terror but against working people whose 
> only crime is
> to struggle for peace with social justice.
> 
> NO TO US INTERVENTION! STOP PLAN COLOMBIA!
> PLAN COLOMBIA - PLAN FOR WAR!
> 
> London, 22nd February 2002
> 
> Colombia Solidarity Campaign
> PO Box 8446, London N17 6NZ
> e-mail: [log in to unmask] 
> -- 
> Andy Higginbottom
> Co-ordinator Colombia Solidarity Campaign
>