CPTnet
February 15, 2001
Colombia:Church congregation flees paramilitary violence.
Threats aimed especially at Christians, they say

By Duane Ediger

Sincelejo, Colombia--Just two weeks after a major massacre in this region of
northwest Colombia, a church congregation has fled paramilitary
violence and accepted refuge in an open-walled church near this provincial
capital. Nearly all sixty members of the Iglesia del Buen Pastor (Church of
the Good Shepherd) in Corosol, Sucre province, had left by the last week in
January.

"We have been living under conditions of constant violence, threats and
danger," said Maricela Rocha (not her real name), one of the church members
gathered under the shade of the thatched roof that is the group's main
shelter. "It is impossible to describe the acts we have witnessed.
Teachers
were threatened on their way to school. I was close to people who were
killed by bombs on the day I left."

Church members reported that late in the last week of January, just as they
began to leave Corosol in large numbers, the paramilitary group in control
of the town imposed a rule refusing to allow townspeople to leave with their
belongings. "They distributed pamphlets saying they would burn the cars of
those who would try to leave, and posted signs on walls saying, 'Moving is
prohibited, especially for Christians,," related the displaced
congregation's pastor, adding, "if anyone leaves, it's with the clothes on
their back only."

"I left for the same reason we all left," said Cesar Perez,
adding "My brother sold his cattle and land for far less than they were
worth, all because of the violence."

"It was not right for us to stay there to await our death," said Rocha, "but
neither was it right that we had to leave. Our coming here has been at
great spiritual, economic, and social cost. There are kids here whose
parents are still there [in Corosol.]"

"Two of my uncles were killed," said a teenage church member. "I came,
but
my mother is still there."

Sucre's daily El Meridiano on January 31 quoted a resident of Corosol as
saying, "Everyone keeps their lights on until 6:00 a.m. No one sleeps at
night, but only in the day."

The pastor of the church providing refuge to the group pointed to a room
with the scant items available for the group's needs. "We have only two or
three cots. Everyone else sleeps on the ground," she said.

The host church operates a school that was unable to open as scheduled on
February 5, because of the presence of the displaced. Nearly all of them
know only agricultural work and cannot find employment in the city.

Guerrilla and paramilitary efforts to control this strategic and
agriculturally rich region have caused massive displacements of civilians
from the countryside toward the cities. Over the last three years, 42,000
have settled in Sincelejo, the capital of Sucre province, according to
Maggie Urueta, local director of Justapaz, a faith-based agency serving the
displaced population. The figure represents 14% of the city's current
population.

Paramilitary assassinations and massacres, including one taking 37 lives in
nearby Chengue in mid-January, are responsible for the greatest share of
politically motivated killings. Approximately sixty survivors of the
Chengue massacre live in a squatter community on the outskirts of this town.
Over 2 million people have been displaced in Colombia's forty-year-old civil
war.

Among agreements reached between President Andres Pastrana and leaders of
the FARC guerrillas February 9 was the creation of a commission to "end
paramilitarism." Human rights organizations have long accused the
government of not taking serious action against paramilitary groups. A
Colombian Bar Association report in 1999 blamed 78% of human rights abuses
on paramilitary forces. The U.S. State Department puts the figure at 70%.