05373
July 13, 2005   

Accompaniers meet Senate staffers

Washington group gets first-hand look
at Presbyterian work in Colombia

by Philip Gates and Cat Garlit Bucher
with Jerry L. Van Marter

Editor’s note: Phil Gates of Arizona and Cat Garlit Bucher of Texas are serving as “accompaniers” in Colombia for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). — Jerry L. Van Marter

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia — A delegation of U.S. Senate staffers got a first-hand look at the work of volunteer Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) accompaniers in Colombia last week.

     “I want to know more about what the Presbyterian Church is doing in Colombia,” Janice V. Kaguyutan, counsel to U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), said during a visit sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “I want to know more about the Presbyterian Accompaniment Program.”

     Kaguyutan, a Presbyterian from National Capital Presbytery, was told that the Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia (IPC) and the PC(USA) have embarked on a creative new way to “be church, by sharing realities and living shoulder-to-shoulder.”

     Two-person teams of PC(USA) volunteers have been rotating into Colombia to accompany church workers who have been threatened because they refuse to support any of the “political actors” and see “defending life” as an essential part of discipleship.

     Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl (also a Presbyterian) and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, both Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were represented in the delegation.

     An IPC representative told the group that the work of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF) was essential to the fast start-up of the program, adding that a large percentage of accompaniers have been members of PPF, which has made Colombia a priority for years.

     “It is part of how we are to grow the unity of the universal church,” said a Colombian church leader who asked not to be identified. “It is also an important part of creating a safer space in which the church can behave as church.”

     A letter to the IPC had invited local Presbyterians and the PC(USA) accompaniers to the July 7 meeting. The Senate delegation, organized by UNHCR Washington Director John Fredrickson, also included senior staff of Judiciary Committee members.

     Accompanying the group to Barranquilla was U.S. Embassy First Secretary and Political Officer/Regional Refugee Coordinator Colleen A. Hoey. Barranquilla UNHCR director Elizabeth Zellas, of Spain, invited church members and humanitarian workers to meet with the delegation. The participants included  several Colombians whose work with the displaced had been particularly effective, thus placing their lives at risk.

     Three million people in Colombia are registered as displaced. Many other Colombians have been routed from their homes but are afraid to register. Thousands more are being displaced each week by continuing conflict involving government forces, government-supported paramilitaries and anti-government guerillas.

     Providing assistance to the displaced often puts humanitarian and church workers at risk for their lives, particularly when they refuse to be “co-opted” by any of the combatants competing for turf.

     The IPC works directly with residents of two displacement camps, and cooperates ecumenically with several more. “This work could not be done without ecumenical involvement,” said Rev. Milton Mejia, the IPC’s executive secretary. Mejia, whose life has been threatened repeatedly, is a key “animator” of the Red Ecumenica (Ecumenical network).

     Among the visiting Senate staff were Ajit V. Pai, chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (http://judiciary.senate.gov/members.cfm); Juria Jones, representing the office of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Kaguyutan; and Nate Jones, counsel to Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI). Also represented was the office of Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS).

     The UNHCR visit came as Colombia’s president sent a letter to international embassies redefining the words to be used to define political reality in the country.

     Much of the now-disallowed vocabulary came straight from U.N. mandates. For example, the paramilitaries can no longer be called “armed actors,” but are to be called “political actors.” There is no longer “armed conflict” in Colombia; it now is to be called “terrorism.” And the term “communities of peace” can no longer be used.

     The letter was sent as demobilization negotiations were being finalized with “Auto-Defense Forces of Colombia,” a blanket paramilitary organization.

     NGOs that have depended on the “umbrella of protection” provided by the UNHCR (including the IPC) have been worried that the organization’s days in Colombia may be numbered.

     The delegation also visited projects and communities in and around Barranquilla. While visiting a UN- and NGO-supported experimental project where a displaced community has established a self-sustainable farm, an agricultural specialist told the Presbyterian accompaniment team: “The Presbyterian Accompaniment Program creates shade, too. You provide an umbrella of safety which expands far beyond the Presbyterian Church, far beyond the Red Ecumenica.