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Contributed by Liza Smith
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Thursday, 01 January 2004 |
 The image made me feel like retching: a young woman had been raped by the paramilitaries. They had cut her legs, breasts and lips and written the letters A-U-C, the initials of Colombia's right-wing paramilitary army, on her body with a knife.
Colombia's fifty-year-old armed conflict has taken the lives of many men, but few have known that violence against women in warfare is also common. This brutal use of a woman's body as a blackboard, a surface to display graffiti was a horrific violation. There could be no washing it clean, no erasing, no forgetting.
I heard this story while surrounded by 300 women who had come from all over Colombia to participate in the Constituyente Emanciapatoria de Las Mujeres: the Women's Emancipatory Assembly. Women - Afro-Colombian, indigenous, trade-unionist, campesina, young and old had all traveled to Bogotá, Colombia's capital, to propose their vision of peace. As they, too, listened to this horrific tale, the women responded with hushed voices, gasps and whispers, but took little time for grieving, as it was an all too familiar process. After a moment to feel the pain of the violation, they began to work together writing a denunciation of the violence, which they later signed.
Those women arrived in Bogotá on November 25, 2002, the International Day to End Violence Against Women. They placed themselves in the center of the debate as political actors, armed with proposals to facilitate the resolution process to solve Colombia's conflicts. They participated because, as women, they knew Colombia's violence intimately. As the mothers, widows, sisters, and lovers, of the dead, they have waited for news about the disappeared, and buried the bodies of those that are found. These are women who have lived through the fear, picked up the pieces, and sewn and re-sewn their own lives, and the lives of those around them, back together again.
An anti-war rally the previous July brought 20,000 women to Bogotá. Now many of these women gathered again in a pact for peace, to work as a force within Colombia's peace process. They had three objectives: to develop an agenda, to define strategies, and to implement those strategies to influence the peace negotiations.
The women's peace pact comes at a time of severe crisis for Colombia, recipient of the third largest sum of U.S. aid, after Israel and Egypt. Annually the country has 3,500 politically-motivated murders and 30,000 homicides. 2.5 million people have been forcibly displaced from their land or homes. As well, Colombia has the highest kidnapping rate in the world and is the most dangerous country for both trade unionists and journalists. Five out of every six casualties are civilians: trade unionists, Afro-Colombian and indigenous leaders, human rights and peace workers, church leaders, mayors, and university professors.
Violence is not Colombia's only problem. Two-thirds of the population lives on less than $2 a day. With the unemployment rate at 20% in the cities, and over 40% in rural areas, many youth turn to the guerrillas, paramilitaries and army as their only opportunity for employment.
The Colombian women's movement has shifted from seeing women as victims of the conflict, to being proactive leaders providing real alternatives to the government's militaristic policies.
Colombia's new administration is not interested in providing civilian protection nor in developing economic opportunities for a desperate population. Instead, its militaristic strategy includes a network of civilian informants. These cash-strapped citizens can receive payment for denouncing their neighbors as terrorists, even without evidence. Of course, the Colombian government deems these repressive policies an acceptable price in Colombia's American-backed war on terrorism.
“Multinational corporations in Colombia include British Petroleum (BP), Occidental Oil, Drummond Coal, and Coca-Cola. Over the years, US companies in Colombia have respected their rights to profit over workers' rights to organize. In so doing, several companies have maintained open relations with murderous death squads as part of a program to intimidate trade union leaders. In several cases workers were subjected to torture, kidnapping, and/or unlawful detention in order to encourage them to cease their trade union activities. Coca Cola is currently being sued in federal court for its role in such violent attacks on labor and other large corporations are being investigated.”
The opening ceremony of the women's assembly, held in Bogotá's capitol building, is an example of how the work to build peace is carried out as a celebration of life. Three-hundred women occupied the chambers where Colombia's Congress meets to determine government laws and policies. They transformed a space that has traditionally been a male sphere of governance into a stage with songs, dances, and declarations. At one point, the audience drowned out the speeches with the chant "Peace has the face of a woman!"
Later, as part of a theater presentation, young women dressed in turquoise gowns with crowns of leaves and flowers told the story of violence against women: "They've raped us, they've burned us, they've tortured us, they've beaten us." Elderly women with long gray hair and dressed in drab, brown gowns chanted "They've called us silly, they've called us fragile." Their declaration of women's truth in the halls of congress was powerful and touching: it left many crying. Despite the tears the ceremony ended with celebratory music and dancing.
After a week of intensive work sessions, the delegates' final peace pact was an impressive and comprehensive document, which addressed every aspect of Colombia's conflict, as well as analyzed the nation's problems in a global context. They proposed that the government renogotiate the external debt and reject trade deals like the FTAA, which favor corporations over the social needs of Colombia's citizens. At the same time, the document also demanded that women be included in the process of peace negotiations, and that all Colombian women be guaranteed economic, cultural and political rights.
The women's movement had clearly shifted from seeing women as victims of the conflict, to being proactive leaders providing workable alternatives to the government's militaristic policies. As the week-long gathering came to a close, an old verse had taken on new meaning. "Who said all has been lost, I have come to offer my heart." These words, which had been included in the opening ceremony, were a testament to the spirit of the gathered women. While each one had lost something - loved ones, homes, comfort, and so much more, their response was an offering of their own hearts and minds, sweat and blood, and days of tireless work, determination and commitment. In their fierceness, in their fire, in their heartfelt cries for justice, they are Colombia's hope. v
Liza Smith has been involved in Colombia human rights work for the past 5 years. She currently works with the Colombia Program at Global Exchange, an international human rights organization. |
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