And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: LISN NEWS, INFORMATION & UPDATES excerpted from Volume 2, #81 (5-21-99) League/LISN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ISSUE CONTENTS: xxxxxx Subject: PLEASE CIRCULATE AND ACT Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 10:34:33 -0500 From: Dennis Grammenos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear Colleagues: On May 4, 1999, Colombian anthropologist and University of Antioquia professor, Hernan Henao, was attacked at gunpoint by three unknown intruders who broke into a faculty meeting. Professor Henao, the director of the Instituto de Estudios Regionales (INER), a university research center coordinating studies of conflict, community development, environmental policy, and cultural diversity in the region surrounding Antioquia, died shortly afterwards. A proponent of broadranging dialogue, Professor Henao was committed to the application of anthropological knowledge to the solution of complex social problems. At the time of his death, Professor Henao was preparing to conduct research on the living conditions of the displaced populations of nearby Uraba. There are currently 1.3 million peasants who have been forced off their lands by paramilitary organizations, originally set up under the patronage of the Colombian military as a vanguard in their war against the guerrillas. Paramilitary organizations, who receive support from local landlords and who, as recent news accounts have documented, are active in the drug trade, are involved in a concerted effort to empty the countryside, thus opening new lands to large cattle ranching interests and development plans. Recent massacres of whole village populations have occurred under the watch of a military that has turned a blind eye to such abuses. As a result, there are more than twice as many internal refugees today in Colombia as there are in Kosovo, with little outcry from the United States and other governments. Colombian scholars who study this phenomenon have increasingly come under paramilitary threat and attack. In this climate of unrestrained and constant human rights abuse, there is no room for scholarly analysis of social realities, nor for the exercise of academic freedom. We do not know whether Professor Henao's research played a role in his murder, nor do we know who was responsible for this brutal act. What is clear, however, is the fact that researchers working on any one of a broad array of topics are in danger now in Colombia simply by virtue of the fact that they are investigating social issues. Hernán Henao is not the only Colombian academic who has been the target of recent repression. In fact, he is the seventh professor at the University of Antioquia to be murdered in the past ten years. The university has received violent threats from numerous armed groups, both on the right and the left, unhappy with its research agenda. Dario Betancourt, a historian and director of the Social Sciences Program at the National Pedgogical University, and a well-known specialist on violence, disappeared in Bogota on April 30, 1999. Mario and Elsa Calderón, researchers in the Jesuit Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP), were brutally murdered in their home two years ago. These attacks demonstrate that it has now become dangerous to be a researcher in Colombia. The American Anthropological Association and the Society for Latin American Anthropology, in coordination with the Colombia Support Network, strongly urge you to write letters, faxes, or email messages demanding (1) that Professor Henao's brutal murder and Professor Betancourt's disappearance be thoroughly and swiftly investigated and that the guilty parties be tried by the Colombian judiciary, (2) that the Colombian government demonstrate its willingness to protect researchers, both national and international, (3) that the United States Congress immediately suspend military assistance to Colombia until such a time as Colombia undertakes to sever the links between paramilitary organizations and the armed forces, and that it investigate thoroughly the ways in which our military support may be being channelled to these outlaw organization, and (4) that the Colombian government make a concerted effort to purge the military of those elements sympathetic with paramilitary groups. Your messages can be sent to: Doctor Andres Pastrana Arango; Presidente de la Republica; Palacio de Narino; Carrera 8 # 7-26; Santafe de Bogota, DC; Colombia. Fax: (571) 283-7324, 286-7434, 287-7937, 281-8262. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Doctor Alfonso Gomez Mendez; Fiscal General de la Nacion; Fiscalia General de la Nacion; Diagonal 22B #52-01; Aptdo. Aereo 29855; Santafe de Bogota, DC; Colombia. Fax: (571) 570-2022. Doctor Rodrigo Lloreda; Ministro de Defensa, Avenida El Dorado con Carrera 52; Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia. Fax: (571)221-5363. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Secretary of Defense William Cohen; 1000 Defense, The Pentagon; Washington D.C. 20301-1000. fax (703) 697-5737. Email: <www.dtic.dla.mil/defenselink> Mrs. Madeleine Albright; Secretary of State; Department of State; 2201 C Street, NW; Room 7226; Washington DC 20520. Fax (202) 647-1533. You can also contact some of the following subcommittee chairs from the House and Senate. House members can be contacted by email through the web site <http://www.house.gov> and senators can be contacted through their web site <http://www.senate.gov>. You can also contact your own representatives this way. Senator Paul Coverdell, Chair, Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; US Senate; Washington DC 20510. Senator Mitch McConnell, Chair, Foreign Operations Subcommittee, Senate Appropriations Committee; US Senate; Washington DC 20510. Fax: (202) 228-1323. Senator Ted Stevens, Chair; Department of Defense Subcommittee, Senate Appropriations Committee; US Senate; Washington DC 20510. Fax: (202) 244-4402. Representative Sonny Callahan, Chair, Foreign Operations Subcommittee, House Appropriations Committee; US House of Representatives; Washington DC 20515. Fax: (202) 226-7922 Representative Elton Gallegly, Chair, Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, House International Relations Committee; US House of Representatives; Washington DC 20515. Fax: (202) (202) 225-4977 Representative Jerry Lewis, Chair, Defense Subcommittee, House Appropriations Committee; US House of Representatives; Washington DC 20515. Fax: (202) 225-2822 Representative Christopher Smith, Chair, International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee, House International Relations Committee; US House of Representatives; Washington DC 20515. Fax: (202) 225-7485 Please send email copies of your letters to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Thank you for your solidarity with our Colombian colleagues. Yours truly, Jane Hill, President American Anthropological Association Department of Anthropology University of Arizona PO Box 210030 Tucson, AZ 85721-0030 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AAA web page: http://www.aaanet.org Joanne Rappaport, President Society for Latin American Anthropology Department of Spanish and Portuguese Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SLAA web page: http://www.ucr.edu/anthro/slaa/Slaa1.htm Tom Greaves, Chair AAA Committee for Human Rights Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA 17837 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: http://www.ameranthassn.org/chrhome.htm John I. Laun, President Colombia Support Network PO Box 1505 Madison, WI 53701 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CSN web page: http://www.igc.apc.org/csn Colombia Support Network P.O. Box 1505 Madison, WI 53701 (608) 257-8753 fax (608) 255-6621 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.igc.apc.org/csn/ _______________________________________________________________________ *********************************************************************** * COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK: To subscribe to CSN-L send request to * * [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUB CSN-L Firstname Lastname * * (Direct questions or comments about CSN-L to [EMAIL PROTECTED]) * * Visit the website of CSN's Champaign-Urbana (Illinois) chapter at * * http://www.prairienet.org/csncu Subscribe to the COLOMBIA BULLETIN * * For free copy and info contact CSN, P.O. Box 1505, Madison WI 53701 * * or call (608) 257-8753 fax: (608) 255-6621 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Visit the COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK at http://www.igc.org/csn * * Visit the COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR at http://www.prairienet.org/clm * *********************************************************************** Subject: WP: House GOP Subpoenas State Dept. on Colombia Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 10:25:39 -0500 From: Dennis Grammenos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] ============== "I think the U.S. . . . has no business negotiating, talking to, or meeting with terrorist organizations of any kind," Burton said in a May 13 letter to congressional colleagues. ____________ ==================================================== WASHINGTON POST FRIDAY, 21 MAY 1999 House GOP Subpoenas State Dept. on Colombia ------------------------------------------- By Douglas Farah House Republicans have subpoenaed all State Department records on contacts between the Clinton administration and Colombia's Marxist guerrillas, alleging U.S. diplomats have carried on unauthorized negotiations with a terrorist organization. The unusual move reflects growing hostility between the State Department and a group of House Republicans led by Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana over the administration's policy toward Colombia and its fragile peace process. Burton is chairman of the Committee on Government Reform, which issued the subpoena. While subpoenas are often threatened when Congress wants information it feels is being withheld, they are seldom served. However, according to State Department officials and congressional aides, the distrust is so deep and the dislike so strong that the subpoena was served with little warning May 14. The government of President Andres Pastrana has been negotiating with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the hemisphere's oldest and largest Marxist insurgency, since last year. In December, at Pastrana's request, two State Department officials met with FARC representatives in San Jose, Costa Rica, for two days of talks. Burton and other Republicans charge the administration was negotiating with a terrorist group that has kidnapped and executed Americans, is on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations and gets hundreds of millions of dollars a year from protecting cocaine and heroin traffickers. They also charge there have been continuing, unreported contacts with FARC commanders. "I think the U.S. . . . has no business negotiating, talking to, or meeting with terrorist organizations of any kind," Burton said in a May 13 letter to congressional colleagues. "Ironically, it has been the bedrock principle of the United States not to negotiate with terrorist organizations, and this administration has casually dismissed this policy by sitting down at the table with a group that actively seeks to wantonly kidnap and murder American citizens." A State Department official said the subpoena will be honored by May 28, the deadline given. The official said the documents would "support in general terms and in detail what we have said, that we have talked but not negotiated with the FARC and only at the request of the Colombian government." The official said U.S. officials listened to the FARC, demanded an investigation into the fate of three U.S. missionaries taken hostage in 1995 who have not been heard from since, and made it clear that any U.S. aid for developing alternative crops in areas of heavy drug trafficking would not start until the 35-year-old civil war ends. Phil Chicola, who is director of the department's Office of Andean Affairs and attended the meeting in Costa Rica, later exchanged three e-mail messages and had three telephone conversations with a FARC commander known as Olga, he added. But the official said the exchange of messages and calls were to demand an explanation for the FARC's kidnapping and execution of three American humanitarian workers in March. The official said Chicola told the FARC there would be no more talks until the killers of the Americans were arrested and turned over for trial. Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company __________________________________________________________________ ****************************************************************** * COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR: To subscribe to CSN-L send request to * * [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUB CSN-L Firstname Lastname * * http://www.prairienet.org/clm [EMAIL PROTECTED] * ****************************************************************** League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations of the Western Hemisphere E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] LISN Web Site | http://www.lisn.net Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
