Speakers From Colombian Peace Village Complete Tour Of Ireland

international | rights, freedoms and repression | feature

Saturday August 27, 2005 04:33

by Colombia Solidarity Network & Friends Of San Jose

The New Community Peace Movements in Colombia.

A visit to Ireland by two leaders of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community from Western Colombia ended on Tuesday night August 9th. As Jesus Emillio Tuberquia and Maria Brigida Gonzalez left from Dublin Airport they were satisfied that their six days in Ireland had been productive.

According to one of the speakers, Jesus Emillio:
"The Colombian Government is going around the world talking about peace, while it is supporting the intimidation and massacre of our community leaders. It is vital that the Irish Government is aware that the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's much-acclaimed demobilisation of right-wing Paramilitary Groups is a SHAM. It amounts to nothing more than the legalisation such groups and the legitimisation of the terror, which they have inflicted on the Colombian civilian population over the years. A terror which they continue to inflict, in clear collaboration and co-operation with the Colombian Army, despite their supposed demobilisation. A collaboration, which is no great, surprise given President Uribe himself actually started up the right-wing paramilitaries."

Elsewhere on the newswire:

Colombia Solidarity Network describe how "One month has elapsed since the murder of the leader of the Committee for Social Integration of Catatumbo (CISCA), JOSÉ TRINIDAD TORRES MUÑOZ carried out by members of the FARC [allegedly - IMC Editor]. Up till now the FARC haven't given any explanation to the communities of the region..." ...continues here.

“San Jose” is one of many new Peace Communities that are a new event in the 60-year-old Colombian civil war. The conflict until recently also involved the civilian population – but these new Peace Communities have collectively decided to have nothing more to do with ANY of the armed groups. They absolutely insist on a no arms policy in their communities and concentrate on working together to build healthy, self-sufficient communities.
In order for their work to continue, these communities need international support as they are being deliberately targeted by the Colombian government and its allies in the paramilitaries, who don't want to see strong communities or other model of social or economic development proposed: this would endanger their plans to use Colombia's people and resources to serve large multinational developments, such as the African Palm Project is Western Colombia. This would be similar to what has happened to Ireland over the last 15 years, except that Colombian's are being forced into it at gunpoint, whereas in Ireland television and cultural re-colonisation made us embrace the consumerist model with open arms.

The purpose of the Peace Community’s Tour of Ireland was;
1) To raise international awareness of and support for the “San Jose” Peace Community,
2) To build links with Irish environmental groups, communities, church groups, NGOs and other community based groups.

Summary of the tour
· Friday afternoon talk at the Augustinian Church in Limerick City.
· Friday evening talk at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon. Jesus Emillio vividly shared his community’s experiences of ongoing massacres. After questioning on how the community could survive in the face of such adversity – Maria Brigida gave an inspirational reply on reconciliation and the need to sow seeds of hope for the children of our future.
· Overnight stay at the Coolorta Community in the Burren, Co. Clare.

· Saturday morning boat trip on the river Shannon to Clonmacnoise monastery, where Christy Cunniffe gave a talk on the founders and spirituality of the monastery.
· Afternoon meeting with Rev. Trevor Sullivan at Clonfert Cathedral. Trevor was deeply involved in the peace process in the north of Ireland for over thirty year and he and the Colombians exchanged views on similarities and differences between the conflicts. The meeting produced linkages with the Grubb Institute, which is interested in aiding the community through supporting the peace and reconciliation process in Colombia. (www.grubb.org.uk)
· Evening public talk in The Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway. A documentary about the origins of the Peace community movement and its recent history was shown. The documentaries primary focus was an account of massacres suffered by the “San Jose” community and the following open forum focused on how Irish support can protect the community from further attacks. (www.nuigalway.ie/human_rights)
· Overnight with Flor and Marion of An Crannóg Ecological Centre, in Gort, Co. Galway (crann_og@eircom.net)

· Sunday morning an interview with Jesus Emillio and Maria Brigida was filmed. (It is hoped to edit this footage into a documentary about the peace community movement in Colombia.)
· Sunday afternoon visit to The Irish Seed Savers open day in Scarriff Co. Clare. The “san Jose” community is 80% self-sufficient in food, which is grown without fertilisers or chemicals and are totally opposed to the use of genetically modified seeds. Seed Savers and the community have a similar vision and both were enthused at the prospects of building permanent links. (www.irishseedsavers.org)
· Sunday evening talk in Charleville at the Schoolyard Theatre. The documentary was shown and this time discussion focused on how we in Ireland can support Fair Trade initiatives so that communities can be economically independent and self-supporting.
· Monday morning we took some down-time with carol’s family. Jesus Emillio spent the morning with Carol’s dad and the horses and Brigida seed-saved in the garden with Carol’s mother.
· Monday afternoon: the group travelled to Dublin: stopping off at St. Brigid's Well - near Kildare town. Here, we told Bridida about her namesake; the Goddess Brige. In Christian times, Brige became Saint Brigid and our Colombian Brigida, who is very much in contact with the earth Goddess was delighted to hear here name is derived from the very same Goddess.
· On arriving in Dublin we met with Fr. Brendan Macmanus of the Jesuit Volunteer Group Slí Eile. Here the possibility of sending Jesuit Volunteers to San Jose was discussed.
· That night, accommodation was offered by Andrea Florez, a Colombian Girl living in Ireland, who we'd met at the Galway talk.

· Tuesday morning we had discussions with the human rights organisation Frontline Defenders at their head office in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. If the San Jose Community can get solar electricity up and running, Frontline said they would install an Internet communication system for them. Frontline can also arrange and pay for safe passage for people whose lives are under threat. (http://www.frontlinedefenders.org)
· Tuesday midday, Ger our speedy chauffeur sped us back into town for a lunchtime meeting with Trevor Sargent, leader of the Green Party, who we'd met at The Seed Saver's open day in Co. Clare. Only days previous, Trevor had met with the husband of the kidnapped leader of the Colombian Green Party, Ingrid Betancourt. Over soup and sandwiches, Jesus Emillio and Brigida explained why they were and what they were looking for. Trevor offered to explore building links between the community and the Colombia Green Party.
· Tuesday afternoon’s meeting was a crucial head to head with the Department of Foreign Affairs and DCI (Development Co-operation Ireland - formerly Ireland Overseas Aid). For over 2 hours, Jesus Emillio and Maria Brigida, two Colombian peasant farmers, formally presented their case to the Irish Government. With Carol as translator, they spoke plainly about their own community, about other similar communities, and about the civilian population generally in Colombia. They spoke about their efforts to become food self-sufficient, about the Farmer's University, about their links to other communities throughout the country and about their attempts to establish fair trade links with Europe. At the end of the meeting, the Irish Government officials were clearly impressed with the strength and conviction of these heroic farmers. The Government will now be more willing to fund project relating to this community and to speak out in their interests. Also, the information provided by Jesus Emillio and Brigida will hopefully inform Irish Government policy in relation to the Colombian Government, whose record on human rights and social justice is abysmal.
· The last meeting of the tour was an informal gathering in the offices of LASC (Latin American Solidarity Centre). LASC volunteers and members of different volunteer, community and development groups were present.

By the end of the tour, all those involved had been affected by the spirit of Jesus Emillio and Brigida. It is clear that these people are attempting something new in their communities in Colombia, where they are trying to build communities of peace, with co-operation not arms; something new also in Ireland, where in the last 15 years, many of us have forgotten even the meaning of real community, so subtly and incidiously have the values of individualism, consumerism and superficiality taken hold of us.
It is now hoped to build upon the links established during this tour. What started out as the visit of 2 Colombian friends of a local woman to Ireland - ended up as a successful public awareness tour; and what were originally a motley crew of friends and helpers; now looks much more like the basis of a support group:
FRIENDS OF SAN JOSE IRELAND.

For more information;
Write to sanjose_ireland@hotmail.com
Or phone Carol at 086-0554665

Funding for the tour was raised along the way in bright red buckets and we thank all those who supported. However, special mention goes to Liam Ryan from the Augustinians in Limerick, LASC, the Franciscans in Dublin, Liam Jordan, Ballinasloe and Kevin O'Shea, Tom, Mary Fennessy, Martin Condon and Gerard Cott in Charleville.
Because of the generosity of these all these people, we were able to pay all our expenses and present Jesus Emillio and Brigida with $1000 to take back to San Jose.

The tour was organised by Carol Fennessy, from Effin, Co. Limerick with help of friends and associates. Carol spent a year in 2003/2004 working as a human rights defender with “San Jose de Apartado” and similar communities in Western Colombia. Her Job was, by being present in the communities, to help safeguard the lives of civilians caught up in the war between the Colombian state, the right wing paramilitaries and the leftist FARC guerrillas.