September 18, 2003

Dear Friends,

Last week Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe spoke out against many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that defend human rights here in Colombia, accusing them of covering up terrorist activities. He has since reaffirmed these accusations. The Presbyterian Church of Colombia has issued a statement regarding this situation, and I have translated it to share with you.

As it happens, I am leaving today with Milton Mejía en route to Bogotá to participate in an international human rights forum this weekend. The forum was planned long before President Uribe's declarations, and I will share its conclusions with you when I return on Sunday. However, we want you to have the declaration now.

We are well into the second semester at the university, and we have an outstanding group of students. Three of them have had to face economic and personal crises this semester, and I want to pass on special thanks to all those who have contributed to our scholarship fund for students of theology—you have enabled us to stand behind these students in their time of need.

Blessings on you!

Alice Winters

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page 262

Presbyterian Church of Colombia
Synod Council

To Churches, Ecumenical Organizations, and Concerned Friends:

This past Monday morning, September 8, 2003, as part of a speech during the installation of General Edgar Alfonso Lesmez as the new commander of the Colombian Air Force, the president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, made the following comments concerning a number of human rights NGOs:

"They are politicians in the service of terrorism, cowards who wave the banner of human rights in order to hand back to terrorism in Colombia the space that our public forces and our citizens have taken away from it.

"They are traffickers in human rights, and they ought to take of their masks once and for all, show themselves with their true political ideas, and quit the cowardly hiding of their ideas behind human rights.

"General Lesmez, you are taking command of the Air Force to defeat terrorism. Do not let traffickers in human rights hold you back. Let them make no mistake: the entire Colombian Air Force is serving this great nation by helping us free ourselves from this nightmare."

This same discourse was repeated on national television that evening and on September 11 in the town of Chita, Boyacá, the president spoke again: "We will not listen to the defenders of terrorism, we will not listen to those who sponsor the defenders of terrorism, and we will not listen to those who have been deceived because their knowledge of Colombia comes from information warped by terrorism."

The Presbyterian Church of Colombia expresses its deep concern that these words spoken by the president will increase the risk for defenders of human rights and confirm the willingness of the current government to intensify its strategy of indicting and arresting human rights defenders as it has already begun to do. According to confidential information, this is to be done to the following members of the Intereclesial Commission of Justice and Peace, which is part of a network in which we participate: Danilo Rueda, Avlio Peña, Padre Daniel, Vásquez, Enríquez Chimonja and "Ana María.” These persons, by means of lies and finger-pointing, are in the process of being indicted as associates of the FARC.

The Presbyterian Church of Colombia considers that the promotion and defense of human rights is an international judicial and ethical tool that belongs to humanity and permits us to work to fulfill the words of Jesus in John 10:10, "I have come that ye might have life, and that more abundantly." We are aware that as we commit ourselves to following the gospel faithfully we run the risk of suffering persecution, slander, unjust condemnation, and the very death that Jesus suffered. For this reason we request your prayers for those who defend human rights in Colombia, and we ask you to send messages to Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe urging him

• to support and seek protection for NGOs and other organizations active in human rights so that they may do their work with full guarantees as they seek to promote a peace that includes the full participation of all Colombian men and women.
• Guarantee and protect the lives and the work of those who defend human rights in Colombia.
• Take all steps necessary to guarantee the lives, physical safety, and liberty of the members of the Commission of Justice and Peace and the communities that they are accompanying.

Rev. Milton Mejía
Executive Secretary