WASHINGTON, DC —-
When she talks policy with foreign policy staff on Capitol Hill,
Lisa Haugaard hones her message down to four points, plus a few
do’s and don’ts.
She’s sitting at a table in a ground-floor dining room
of the Doubletree Hotel in Crystal City, just across the Potomac
from the District, briefing more than 60 church-goers who have
scheduled appointments with their elected representatives.
For two days, they’ve been cramming down data in briefings
conducted as part of the Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace
with Justice, a four-day conference that started on March 5. The
two-a-day sessions had tracks on Africa, Asia, the Middle East,
debt relief, nuclear disarmament, and Haugaard’s specialty,
Colombia.
Her listeners are a diverse mix. Mennonites. Methodists. Presbyterians.
UCC’ers. Catholics. Peaceniks. Politicos. Missionaries.
Ex-missionaries. Bureaucrats. All of them wanting to change U.S.
foreign policy on Colombia, the fourth-largest recipient of U.S.
aid and one of the most dangerous spots on the earth for church
leaders, union organizers, journalists and human rights defenders.
In the briefings here, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Catholic and
Quaker church leaders all told the same story to their U.S. counterparts:
Paramilitaries, guerrilla groups and corrupt factions in the Colombian
military kill about 6,000 non-combatants a year. Last year’s
tally included 45 Protestant pastors who worked in Colombia’s
conflict zones.
To make matters worse, Colombian Christians said the government
of President Alvaro Uribe, who was elected in 2002 on a platform
that emphasized security, has instituted policies that undermine
democracy by creating a network of civilian informers, allowing
arbitrary detentions of thousands of people, permitting break-ins
and harassment of civil organizations and trying to discredit
those who disagree even by peaceful means.
So in her send-off comments, Haugaard had good news and bad
news for the church lobbyists.
“I’d love to say that when you go tomorrow, Congress
will change its mind and send 100 percent social aid to Colombia.
I would love that. But it is not going to happen,” she says,
referring to the $3 billion the U.S. government has spent in Colombia
since 2000, with a continuing emphasis on military aid.
But that’s not the end of the story, Haugaard says.
“The Bush administration doesn’t care deeply about
human rights in Colombia,” she says, “but there are
members of Congress, like Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), who do care
about human rights. Or there are those who may not particularly
care, but can be persuaded by you. We aren’t going to convince
the administration. We can influence Congress.”
Cindy Buhl, McGovern’s legislative director and a Washington
policy analyst since the 1970s, says debate in the U.S. Congress
about human-rights abuses in Colombia, misuse of military aid
and infringement of basic civil liberties has a powerful impact
in Colombia. “It will make the pages of Colombian newspapers
for days,” she says. “Our message will still be all
over the press for days.”
The message is simple, really. Four points:
Cut military spending. “That is message number one,”
Haugaard says. Funnel the money instead into development programs
to help poor farmers change from illicit to legal crops and increase
support for the more than three million Colombians who have been
forced off their land by violence, and are refugees in their own
country. Stop the controversial aerial spraying to kill coca plants,
which reportedly is destroying legal food crops and livestock
and poisoning the water supply.
Sign letters and initiatives. Demand respect for human
rights and bolster human-rights provisions in U.S. law. Haugaard
tells her listeners that “Dear Colleague” letters
keep the Colombian government reminded of U.S. concerns.
Protect threatened leaders. The government’s expanded
security-related measures have been used to justify arbitrary
detentions and searches of church and other non-governmental organizations
involved in legitimate civic activity. “It is important
to mention union leaders here,” Haugaard says.
Increase funding for drug-treatment programs at home.
“If we do not face our own problem of drug abuse, we will
be chasing production back and forth across the region for decades
to come,” Haugaard says.
Buhl says short-term results are not the point. “Don’t
judge the quality of your work on whether you win or lose a particular
vote,” she says. “Look at other things: How well are
you deepening your relationship with members of Congress? How
well are groups on the local community level engaged?
“Don’t judge the quality of your work by what Congress
is doing.”
Haugaard offered a few pointers for people dealing with Congress:
“Add details from people you’ve heard this weekend.
Or from your own personal story. Make it real.”
The Rev. Parrish Jones, a Presbyterian minister and veteran lobbyist
who lives in the District of Columbia, was on hand for three days
of meetings.
He says the conference is the first effort to begin creating
a Colombian network within the PC(USA), and he feels hopeful about
the coming week of meetings between the 500 people at the conference
and their elected representatives. “As Catherine Gordon
(of the PCUSA Washington Office) is fond of saying, ‘Alone
we do not have much impact, but together we have a great deal,’”
Jones says.
“I do think (representatives and senators) listen to their
constituents,” he adds. “They think, if it’s
important enough for you to come to Washington to talk with them,
they’d better listen. And the more who come, the better
ear you have.” |
