Civil Society, Development & Aid, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

COLOMBIA: Voting for Peace

Helda Martínez

BOGOTA, Sep 14 2007 (IPS) - More than 100 social groups in Colombia are calling for the inclusion of a ballot in favour of peace and an exchange of imprisoned guerrillas for rebel-held hostages, in the country’s Oct. 28 local and regional elections.

In the coming elections, Colombian voters will choose 32 provincial governors, 1,102 mayors and around 5,000 lawmakers and town councillors. And the civil society groups involved in the National Movement for Peace also want voters to express their rejection of violence in this civil war-torn country.

“I vote for freedom, peace and a humanitarian accord (for a prisoner-hostage swap). I say no to kidnapping and forced disappearance and displacement, and no to violence against children and all other civilians. I say yes to life, truth, justice, reparations and guarantees that abuses will not be repeated again in the future. Peace requires a political commitment, a ceasefire, dialogue and negotiated solutions,” states the proposed peace ballot.

The ballot campaign, launched on Thursday, was inspired by article 22 of the Colombian constitution, which establishes that “peace is a right and a binding duty.”

Taking part in the initiative are the Catholic Church, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), trade union federations, political parties, associations of campesinos (peasants) and blacks, and other civil society groups working for an end to the country’s more than four-decade conflict.

“It is not sufficient to just say that we are in crisis,” Monsignor Héctor Fabio Henao, known as the “peace-maker” in the Colombian Catholic Church, told IPS. “We have to speak out in favour of justice and against the war, sending messages to those who have assumed political responsibilities as well as those who exercise violence. That is what this vote is all about.”


For nearly half a century, Colombia has been in the grip of a civil war fuelled by the drug trade, in which the army and their (now partially demobilised) far-right paramilitary allies face off with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN).

“We cannot just sit back with our arms crossed waiting to see what the government and the guerrillas decide. The peaceful citizen uprising and pressure must continue; the people must be heard. The common citizens must take a stand,” Camilo González, director of the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace, told IPS.

Referring to “the 35,000 people who have been killed in the last 10 years, the 22,600 who have been kidnapped, the 15,000 ‘disappeared’, the four million displaced from their homes, and the 200,000 children orphaned by the armed conflict,” González stressed “that is why we have to continue.”

He pointed out that “in the last two decades, citizens and social movements in Colombia have really made their voices heard on several occasions.”

For example, in the 1990 presidential elections, five million voters cast a ballot in favour of an initiative to call a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. (The new constitution was adopted in 1991.)

That number doubled in 1997, when 10 million voters came out in support of the Citizens’ Mandate for Peace, Life and Freedom.

The Mandate not only had the support “of the immense majority of citizens, but of irregular armed groups as well, and helped give rise to several humanitarian gestures and attempts at negotiations,” says a statement by the promoters of the peace ballot campaign.

The civil society groups involved in the campaign also pointed to other instances of successful mass mobilisation, such as the creation, by law, of a National Peace Council in 1998, and the pressure that led to the start of the peace talks between the FARC and the administration of Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) in January 1999.

In addition, a “peace week” has been held every September for the last 19 years. This year’s, which began on Sunday, has included peaceful protests, concerts and other activities, as well as the launch of the peace ballot campaign.

In September 2004, 10,000 members of indigenous communities and 250 social organisations took part in a march called the Popular Minga for the Dignity of Indigenous Peoples. (A minga is an ancient indigenous custom: a meeting or assembly to achieve a collective purpose.)

And in 2006, the Permanent Assembly of Civil Society for Peace held its fifth plenary meeting, with 2,000 delegates from 500 organisations, including associations representing victims of the conflict.

If the campaign secures approval from the national electoral authorities, voters in the Oct. 28 elections will be offered an extra ballot to cast alongside their votes for regional and local candidates.

But if the authorities fail to approve the peace ballot, the campaign plans to go ahead anyway, setting up unofficial ballot boxes around the country to allow voters to call for a hostage-prisoner swap, a political commitment to peace and a negotiated solution to the conflict.

“Broad participation, the tallying of the votes, and continued initiatives like this one will enable us to forge a path that in the end will lead us to a stable peace, even if that remains a distant possibility today,” Bishop Henao remarked to IPS.

 
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