[Peace] FW: [ColombiaDelegationMarch] EMERGENCY CALL-IN DAYS ON COLOMBIA 3/19-3/21 (Distribute Widely) (fwd)

[zarate martha]

Dear Friends:
Please read the e-mail below and if you have a chance, make an effort to
contact Sen Durbin's office at:

=09=09=091-202-224-2152
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
+
From: Meridith Kruse <bmmk at soltec.net>
To: Zarate <zarate at uiuc.edu>

FRIENDS -- WE NEED TO DO THOSE CALLS. I'LL DO ONE ON BEHALF OF WILPF. BUT W=
E
NEED INDIVIDUALS CALLING. IF CONGRESS DOES BUSH'S BIDDING HERE, AMERICA IS
IN BIG TROUBLE. AMERICA FROM ALASKA TO TIERRA DEL FUEGO. LIVES, LOVES,
HOPES, DREAMS -- THE BEST OF US. HAVE FAITH AND COURAGE. EVERY CALL COUNTS.
Peace, Peg
----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Miller
To: colombiadelegationmarch02 at yahoogroups.com ;
colombiadelegationmay at yahoogroups.com ; colombiadelegation at yahoogroups.com =
;
colombiadelegationjan02 at yahoogroups.com ;
colombiadelegationmarch at yahoogroups.com ;
julycolombiadelegation at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 4:30 PM
Subject: [ColombiaDelegationMarch] EMERGENCY CALL-IN DAYS ON COLOMBIA
3/19-3/21 (Distribute Widely)


MAJOR SHIFT IN US POLICY TOWARD COLOMBIA PROPOSED!!!
COLOMBIA MOBILIZATION EMERGENCY NATIONAL CALL-IN DAYS: March 19-21st

What we have feared is now becoming reality. We must all participate in a
major, national response against the Bush administration=92s new proposal t=
o
lift restrictions on US aid to Colombia and allow for US-sponsored
counter-insurgency in Colombia (details and talking points below).

ACTION
Tuesday, March 19- Thursday, March 21 have been designated EMERGENCY
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAYS by Witness for Peace and the Colombia Mobilization.
Every single Senator and Representative must be flooded with calls and
faxes: saying NO to Bush=92s proposal to lift restrictions and YES to the
McGovern Dear Colleague letter (talking points below).
1. Send this alert to everyone you know.
2. Call your Senators and Representative on Tuesday (or as soon as you
receive this). Even if your Senators/Reps are strong on this issue, they
need your support right now!
3. Have all your friends and family call on Wednesday.
4. Make sure all their friends and family call on Thursday.
5. Anything else you can think of! e.g. take some cell phones to the local
grocery store or mall, set up a table, and ask people walking by to make
calls or sign letters that you then fax in. e.g. Can your church, civic
association, or town council pass an emergency resolution against this and
send it in?
Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121. Find out your Rep:
www.house.gov/writerep and Senators www.senate.gov.

BACKGROUND
The Bush administration plans to ask Congress sometime the week of March 18
to remove restrictions on US military aid to Colombia. This would mean: no
more constraints that military aid must only be used for counter-narcotics,
no more human rights conditions for the Colombian military, and no more
limits on the number of US military personnel allowed in the country. This
proposal would allow US money and intelligence to be used for
counter-insurgency. See today=92s Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29575-2002Mar14.html

This language will be included in a larger bill that the administration
expects to submit to Congress next week asking for additional funds for
global and domestic anti-terrorism efforts. This bill will go first to the
appropriations committees in the House and Senate and then to the full Hous=
e
and Senate.

TALKING POINTS
Many members of Congress have good intentions, and want to support an end t=
o
violence in Colombia. But adding more military aid is not the way to do it.
Tell your Senators and Representative that you and members of your communit=
y
are against US military involvement in Colombia and are particularly agains=
t
this expansion.

1. Representative Jim McGovern will be circulating a Dear Colleague against
the new Bush proposal to lift restrictions. Ask your Representative to sign
on to that Dear Colleague ASAP.

2. Sending more military aid to Colombia is not going to help protect
civilians. The Colombian military still maintains close ties with
paramilitary groups, who are on the US terrorist list and who commit upward=
s
of 70% of civilian killings in Colombia. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International, and the Washington Office on Latin America released a report
in February proving the human rights situation in Colombia is EVEN WORSE
than a year ago.

3. Sending military aid to Colombia brings the US into another Vietnam
quagmire. Colombia is the size of 53 El Salvadors, and the amount of money
necessary to defeat the FARC militarily will be tremendous, and perhaps
incalculable. This civil war has been going on for over 40-years and a
political solution is the only way out.

4. Real solutions. US support for a negotiated peace process with the FARC
and the ELN, and real pressure on the Colombian government to break ties
with the paramilitaries, will go much further at protecting civilians than
increased military aid will. Violent actions on the part of the FARC have a
tremendous human cost, but supporting a military that collaborates with the
paramilitaries has a huge human cost as well.

*** GET READY!!! The Colombia Mobilization starts in one month and is
obviously more important than ever! This is our best chance to really show
Washington that we oppose continued and increased military aid to Colombia.
Start getting ready by checking out www.colombiamobilization.org.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elizabeth A. Miller
Delegations Coordinator
Witness for Peace
1229 15th St., NW
Washington, DC  20005
202-588-1471
miller at witnessforpeace.org
www.witnessforpeace.org
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