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PBI-Guatemala observes National Day of Forced Disappearance ceremony

By
Brent Patterson
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On Friday June 21, the PBI – Guatemala Project observed a ceremony in which Indigenous Achi Mayan women commemorated the National Day of Forced Disappearance.

An estimated 45,000 men, women and children were disappeared during the 36-year-long internal armed conflict in Guatemala that began not long after a US-backed coup and ended in 1996.

The Commission for Historical Clarification found that the Guatemalan government was responsible for more than 90 per cent of the deaths, disappearances and other human rights violations during the war and that 83 per cent of the victims were Indigenous Maya.

The commemoration ceremony took place on the steps of the Supreme Court of Justice of Guatemala in Guatemala City prior to a court hearing on wartime sexual violence against 36 Maya Achi women in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz between 1981 and 1985.

The International Justice Monitor has reported, “In the late 1970s, the Guatemalan army created civil defense patrols (PACs) as a mechanism of social control and to combat the guerrillas.”

It adds, “The army appointed local military commissioners to organize and control the PACs, which became a central element of the Guatemala’s counterinsurgency strategy.”

That article highlights, “The Recovery of Historical Memory Project at the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala found that military commissioners and PAC members were identified as perpetrators in one out of every four massacres.”

At the court hearing on Friday (June 21), the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to send six former PAC paramilitary patrol members to trial for crimes against humanity in the form of sexual violence against the 36 Maya Achi women.

Al Jazeera reports, “Three of the six [former PAC members] were acquitted. The other three will also be released, but judge Claudette Dominguez gave prosecutors a month to present further evidence and will hold a hearing on August 5 to determine whether they will be acquitted or the case will proceed to trial.”

The article also notes, “Many of the women speak little or no Spanish, and no interpretation had been provided by the court. One of the women’s lawyers explained the outcome, as a mixture of grief, frustration and resignation settled in.”

And the Al Jazeera article highlights, “Plans are already in the works to appeal the judge’s rulings.”

In April 2019, the International Justice Monitor also reported, “The Attorney General’s Office has not yet filed any charges against mid-ranking or senior military officials in this case [of sexual violence against the 36 Maya Achi women]. However, it is known that the military base of Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, was under the jurisdiction of Military Zone No. 21, where the remains of 565 people were exhumed in 2012.”

On June 20, PBI – Guatemala Project accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (Bufete de Derechos Humano – BDH) and survivors in the Military Zone 21 case to the Femicide Court to demand that a writ of amparo (protection order) be issued by the court.

In January 2016, the Guatemalan Public Ministry charged a number of former military officials for crimes that took place at Military Zone 21 (now CREOMPAZ, a United Nations peacekeeping training base).

Later that year, Judge Claudette Domínguez (the same judge who ruled against the Achi Mayan women last week) ruled that eight high-ranking former military officials would go to trial but accepted only 29 of the 154 witnesses proposed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

All of the survivors of sexual violence at Military Zone 21 were excluded as witnesses.

To read Sandra Cuffe’s article ‘Guatemala survivors of wartime sexual violence fight for justice’, please go to https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/guatemala-survivors-wartime-sexual-violence-fight-justice-190621194734839.html

#JusticiaMujeresAchi

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Marcelino Xol Cucul and Jorge Coc from the CCDA at a court hearing

By
Brent Patterson
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On Friday June 14, the PBI – Guatemala Project accompanied Marcelino Xol Cucul and Jorge Coc from the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) at a court hearing in the city of Cobán.

PBI-Guatemala has explained, “The CCDA is a peasant organization that accompanies and advises communities, mostly indigenous, that fight for access to land and ownership to create dignified living conditions in the face of eviction and dispossession of their lands where these communities have lived for many generations.”

Cafe Justicia further explains that the CCDA “was founded in 1982 as an organization that works to defend the rights of workers on large coffee, sugar and cotton plantations, to recover lands taken from the Mayan communities over the past centuries, and to promote and recover Mayan culture and spirituality.”

Last year, Front Line Defenders noted that several members of CCDA, including Marcelino and Jorge, “have been detained and are facing criminalization processes, including long criminal procedures plagued with irregularities.”

Before the start of the hearing last week, Marcelino and Jorge were allegedly threatened by members of the Cooperativa Chilté.

Prensa Comunitaria has reported that the Chilté Cooperative was “formed by a group of businessmen from the region through paramilitaries.”

PBI-Guatemala explains, “There is a conflict of more than 10 years between the two communities.”

In June 2017, the Mesoamerican Women Human Rights Defenders Initiative (IM-Defensoras) noted that members of the Chilté Cooperative had intimidated members of the CCDA over disputed land in the community of Choctún in Nuevo Centro.

PBI-Guatemala notes, “We express our concern for the safety of the two companions and their families.”

In the very short period of time between May 9 and June 8, 2018, five members of the CCDA and two members of CODECA (the Campesino Development Committee) were killed.

After those deaths, the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) reported, “CCDA and CODECA, represent the two campesino-Indigenous organizations that have most actively supported community struggles and most consistently challenged successive governments.”

It also noted, “Both groups have worked tirelessly … presenting legal injunctions against extractive projects, organizing regular highway blockades, supporting land occupations, and demanding the resignation of presidents in the wake of corruption scandals…”

PBI-Guatemala began accompanying the CCDA in July 2018.

PBI-Colombia accompanies ceremony on new report on violence against women

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 18, the Peace Brigades International – Colombia Project accompanied the delivery ceremony of a new report on the impact of the violence of the armed conflict on women.

On June 17, El Espectador reported, “The Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the Truth Commission will receive on Tuesday, June 18, five reports on violence against indigenous women, Afro-descendants, exiles and human rights defenders that collects more than 900 testimonies.”

That article adds, “The Constitutional Court will receive another document on the current situation of the social leaders.”

The news report also notes, “The reports give an account of sexual violence, forced displacement of indigenous and Afro-descendant women, exiled and refugee women, the gender-based violence that was experienced in the Montes de María during the armed conflict and the situation of women leaders and defenders of human rights in the country.”

At the ceremony, Roseli Finscue, who presented the report on the displacement of Indigenous women, stated, “Since the invasion of the territories, our bodies have also been invaded. Our ancestors were the first victims of sexual violence.”

The full El Espectador article titled ‘The truth of women in war, in the hands of transitional justice’ can be read in Spanish at https://www.elespectador.com/colombia2020/justicia/jep/la-verdad-de-las-mujeres-en-la-guerra-en-manos-de-justicia-transicional-articulo-866250

The PBI-Colombia tweet about the accompaniment of the release of this report can be read at https://twitter.com/PBIColombia/status/1141068717960388608

PBI-Mexico visits with the Casa Del Migrante de Saltillo shelter

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 12, the Casa Del Migrante de Saltillo posted on their Facebook page, “Today we had a visit from the Peace Brigades International – Mexico Project to continue with the accompaniment they always give us.”

They add, “Thanks and welcome!”

The Saltillo Migrant Shelter is situated in the state of Coahuila which shares a 512-kilometre border with Texas.

PBI-Mexico notes, “The Saltillo Migrant Shelter offers daily humanitarian assistance — including clothes, medicines, food, rest, and medical and psychological care — to hundreds of migrants crossing Mexico to reach the United States.”

It adds, “[The shelter] also defends migrants’ rights through the documentation of cases of kidnapping, extortion, abuses and violations that they suffer during their journey through Mexico.”

“The organization lodges complaints about violations after gathering migrants’ testimonies.”

Overall, the Saltillo Migrant Shelter provides support to more than 8,000 migrants each year.

Because of this migrant justice work, the staff and volunteers at the shelter have suffered harassment, surveillance and threats.

The Peace Brigades International – Mexico Project has provided accompaniment to the Casa Del Migrante de Saltillo since February 2014.

PBI-Colombia visits Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) Humanitarian Zone

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 13, the Peace Brigades International – Colombia Project posted on their Facebook page that, “After several months suffering a situation of insecurity, confinement and humanitarian crisis, we celebrate the visit of different embassies and international organizations to the Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) Humanitarian Zone.”

Nueva Esperanza was established in the department (state) of Chocó in north-west Colombia in 2003 by 47 families.

It now has about 75 families.

Humanitarian zones are clearly demarcated areas where armed forces of any kind (the army, right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing rebel armies) are not supposed to enter.

The embassies that visited Nueva Esperanza represented the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark.

The organizations that visited were the Organization of American States Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP/OAS), the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, the Colombia Human Rights Committee and Christian Aid.

They met with the different leaders of the Jiguamiandó river basin to hear their testimonies first hand.

In April it was reported that the Gaitanista Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AGC), one of the largest paramilitary groups in Colombia, have been patrolling the area surrounding the village for several months.

In April, the research and advocacy group Washington Office on Latin American (WOLA) also reported, “Leaders of the New Hope Humanitarian Space, a peace community protected by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, reported that nearly 100 members of the AGC passed through the town on their way to Las Menas.”

In February, Contagio Radio reported that paramilitary forces had tried to assassinate Luis Cogollo, the leader of the humanitarian zone.

There have also reportedly been clashes in the area between National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels and either the Colombian Armed Forces or the AGC paramilitary.

As noted above, Nueva Esperanza is located in the state of Chocó.

It has been noted that Chocó has strategic importance because it passes through several smuggling routes for drugs and weapons.

In addition, gold deposits are suspected there, and the precious woods, which are found in the higher rainforest regions, arouse the interest of national and international corporations.

PBI-Colombia has also noted on their website that the AGC and the ELN are fighting to control the region and that on December 6, 2018 the Colombian Armed Forces carried out an aerial bombing against an illegal group near Nueva Esperanza.

PBI-Mexico accompanies Cristina Auerbach of the Organización Familia Pasta de Conchos at meetings with political officials

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International – Mexico Project accompanied Cristina Auerbach of the Organización Familia Pasta de Conchos at meetings with political officials and a visit to the memorial site near the town of Nueva Rosita in the state of Coahuila.

The explosion at the Grupo Mexico’s Pasta de Conchos coal mine on February 19, 2006 killed 65 people. To date only two bodies have been recovered from the mine.

Reuters has reported, “A special prosecutor for the case blamed Grupo Mexico for allowing a deadly mix of methane, heat and oxygen to build up in the mine, failing to build proper ventilation shafts or to neutralize explosive coal dust. Government inspectors who failed to enforce the necessary safety precautions were also implicated.”

That article adds, “In the moments following the blast, the workers were likely buried by thousands of tons of rock. Investigators also said it was possible that many of the men were incinerated.”

On May 1, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged to recover the bodies still trapped in the mine and stated that the recovery effort would begin soon.

Today, PBI-Mexico posted on their Facebook page that, “PBI salutes the commitment of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador with the dignified rescue of the miners and will pay special attention to compliance of the agreements reached with the families and the Pasta de Conchos Family Organization.”

PBI has previously identified Coahuila as a high-risk zone for the defence of human rights.

Members of the Pasta de Conchos Family Organization have been threatened and harassed on numerous occasions in connection with their work. Cristina has been harassed, beaten, threatened and subjected to defamatory accusations.

The Pasta de Conchos Family Organization has received protective accompaniment from PBI-Mexico since 2014.

#MakingSpaceForPeace

Hans Sinn’s lifelong journey for a peaceful world

By
Brent Patterson
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At 90 years of age, Hans Sinn continues to live a life dedicated to peace.

This commitment can be traced back to his childhood experiences in wartime Germany.

As a teenager, Sinn witnessed the death and destruction that came with the bombing of his home city of Hamburg during the Second World War.

In July 1943, when Sinn was 14 years old, a one week-long Allied campaign dropped 9,000 tons of bombs on that city killing 42,600 civilians, wounding 37,000 more and destroying more than 250,000 homes.

Hamburg was targetted by air raids another 69 times before the end of the war. Sinn’s home was hit by bombs three times during the war.

His worldview was also shaped by his experience as a child soldier.

In 1945, at the age of 16, Sinn was conscripted into the Volkssturm (people’s storm). That was a last-ditch effort by Nazi Germany that saw boys under 18-years of age drafted as child soldiers in the final months of the war.

Sinn found himself at an SS training camp in Denmark.

He escaped from that camp in May 1945 and started walking back to his home in Hamburg. Given the level of wartime destruction he witnessed, Sinn did not even know if his home would still be there.

When Sinn did arrive home, after about a week of walking, he saw the contrasting images of an unexploded bomb lodged in his front yard and his mother waiting for him holding a cake in her hands.

After the war, Sinn migrated to Canada to gain perspective on his early-life experiences.

Sinn returned to Germany in 1959 to speak about his vision for a Ziviler Friedensdienst, a civil peace service. That work planted a seed that would come to fruition forty years later as a global programme funded by the German government.

By the early 1960s, Sinn was journeying across countries again.

On August 22, 1962, the Prince George Citizen reported on its front-page, “Two B.C. men plan to walk from Vancouver to Berlin — in the cause of peace. Hans Sinn, 33, of White Rock, intends to start the jaunt October 1.”

That “jaunt” would take two years to complete.

It was on that walk that Sinn met Marian Bedoukian in January 1963 in Montreal. They married in England and would eventually have two sons, Anthony and Nicholas. They later joined a land cooperative outside of Perth, a small community near Ottawa, in 1970.

Over the years, Sinn has formed a number of significant friendships, including with Petra Kelly, who co-founded Die Grünen, the German Green Party, in 1979. They shared the dream of a reunified and disarmed East and West Germany.

Another friend Sinn met in his lifelong journey of making space for peace was Quaker peace activist Murray Thomson.

In August-September 1981, both Sinn and Thomson were participants at the meeting on Grindstone Island, which is situated about 100 kilometres southwest of Ottawa, that founded the human rights group Peace Brigades International.

The inaugural statement of the new organization envisioned by Sinn and Thomson declared: “We are forming an organization with the capacity to mobilize and provide trained volunteers in areas of high tension, to avert violent outbreaks.”

Almost 40 years later, Peace Brigades International is a global organization with an international office based in Brussels, seven field projects — in Colombia, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Kenya, Nepal and Indonesia — that work directly with at-risk human rights defenders, and 13 country groups, including PBI-Canada, based in Ottawa.

In its 2018 annual review, PBI’s International Council president Fathi Zabaar highlights, “Physical accompaniment provided by PBI to over 1,000 human rights defenders ensured they could continue and expand their work.”

And that vision of a Civil Peace Service that Sinn began championing in 1959?

Since the formation of the CPS in 1999, more than 1,200 experts have supported peacebuilding efforts in 60 countries around the world. It is also a significant funder of the human rights work done by Peace Brigades International.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development highlights, “CPS is an initiative of German peace and development organizations. …CPS experts provide support worldwide in crisis regions, helping local partner organizations to build a basis for lasting peace.”

Now, Sinn is focused on the issue of child solders.

It has been estimated that there are about a quarter of a million child soldiers used by state and non-state military organizations in at least 18 armed conflicts worldwide. Child soldiers have been used in two countries where PBI has field projects, Colombia and Mexico.

Sinn wants to convince the German government to fund global child-care at the same level at which it maintains its military.

That would mean an allocation of more than USD $46 billion in public funds annually toward much needed child-care and result in a profound improvement in the lives of women, children and families around the world.

While the realization of that dream may be years away, there is something about the passion, dedication and intellect that Sinn brings to it that would make even the most skeptical observer a firm believer that one day this vision will also become a reality.

Brent Patterson is a political activist, writer, and the Executive Director of Peace Brigades International-Canada. 

Image: Brent Patterson

Volunteers Needed

By
admin
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The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project is asking past field project volunteers to volunteer again ideally between June and October of this year! The deadline to apply for this is May 28. All the details are here.

Source: https://twitter.com/PBIcanada/status/1126961455637643265

CCALCP rejects Soto Norte gold mine that threatens Colombia’s drinking water

By
admin
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On Sunday May 26, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project accompanied lawyers from the Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective (Corporación Colectivo de Abogados Luis Carlos Pérez) at a public consultation in the city of Bucaramanga.

That lawyers’ collective, made up entirely of women, speaks out on critical environmental issues including the protection of the Santurbán páramo.

The collective requires protective accompaniment because it works in a context where more than 400 Colombian lawyers were murdered between 1991 and 2009.

The public consultation focused on the delimitation of the páramo, a sensitive ecosystem that supplies drinking water to more than two million people in eastern Colombia.

It is currently at risk from the proposed Soto Norte gold mine backed by Minesa, a transnational corporation based in the United Arab Emirates.

One concern is that the boundary of the páramo will be redrawn by the Colombian government in a way that allows mining within the ecosystem, but on paper appear to still be outside of it.

Another concern is that the mining will be so close to the boundary of the páramo that it will still impact the water within the ecosystem.

The public consultation was significant because Colombian environment minister Ricardo Lozano was in attendance and because the new boundary of the ecosystem will be announced by the government by July 16.

The Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective, also known by the acronym CCALCP, spoke clearly against the mine at this consultation.

CCALCP member Andrea Nocove told the consultation, “We want the conservation and preservation of the water authority and future generations.”

And CCALCP lawyer Julia Figueroa expressed her concerns to the Minister of the Environment about the failures of the process of citizen participation for the delimitation of the páramo.

A leading group opposed to the Minesa mine, as well as other proposed mines backed by transnational corporations, is the Committee for the Defense of Water and the Santurbán Páramo.

On the day of the public consultation, the Comité Santurbán tweeted, “We will not fall into the deception of delimiting Santurbán to open the way to the Megaminería in our high mountain Santander.”

BLU Radio has reported (in Spanish), “Since the morning of this Sunday [May 26], citizens and social organizations have presented their proposals, the majority, aimed at the protection of the ecosystem and the non-intervention by multinationals that intend to exploit gold in that area of Santander and Norte de Santander.”

This is part of an ongoing popular campaign.

On May 10, the Comité Santurbán was instrumental in organizing a massive march of more than 100,000 people in Bucaramanga against the mine and in the defence of drinking water.

From that march, CCALCP tweeted, “We demand respect for our rights to water; to life in dignified conditions for communities and end consumers; and that environmental authorities take real, effective measures for the protection and conservation of the moors.”

On Monday June 17, Comité Santurbán members Luis Jesús Gamboa and Hernán Morantes will be in Ottawa to share more about this situation and to help launch the report Extraction Casino by Jennifer Moore and Manuel Perez Rocha.

They will also be highlighting that the Vancouver-based mining company Eco Oro Minerals Corp. is suing Colombia over that country’s rejection of the transnational’s proposed Angostura gold and silver mine project that would have been located in the Santurbán Páramo.

To find out more about that public forum, please click here.

In addition, this coming November a speaker from CCALCP will also be in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver to provide a further update on the situation and to speak broadly about human rights violations in Colombia.

Please follow Peace Brigades International-Canada on Twitter for more on this and other pressing human rights concerns.

Brent Patterson is a political activist, a writer, and the Executive Director of Peace Brigades International-Canada. 

Photo: Peace Brigades International

Nuevo Dia Hearing

By
admin
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Today, Prensa Comunitaria reported (in Spanish) that, “Erasmo Ramos, a young Maya Ch’orti ‘ member of Nuevo Dia, attended a conciliatory hearing on Tuesday, May 28 for accusations against him by security personnel of a mining company.”

Nuevo Dia (also known by the acronym CCCND) was accompanied at the hearing by the PBI – Guatemala Project.

The CCCND is opposed to the Industria de Canteras y Minas (Incamin) SA-owned Cantera Los Manantiales antimony mine on their territory. Maya Ch’orti’ land and water defenders are maintaining a “permanent assembly” at the entrances to the mine.

At the hearing, Ramos stated, “This accusation made against me is because they want to criminalize me for defending my right to see my community without mining, we have been resisting for more than 3 months, we have been attacked, we have been shot, threatened and defamed by the mining company, and today they are accusing me.”

The Prensa Comunitaria article concludes, “In the end, the hearing was suspended because no agreement was reached between the parties. Erasmo Ramos asked the judge to take witnesses to the false accusations against him. The hearing was scheduled for June 4 of this year.”

For further context on this, please see Brent Patterson‘s rabble.ca blog ‘Land and water defenders resist mining in eastern Guatemala’ at http://www.rabble.ca/…/land-and-water-defenders-resist-mini…

The PBI – Guatemala Project has accompanied Nuevo Dia since 2009.

The full Prensa Comunitaria article can be read at https://www.prensacomunitaria.org/defensor-chorti-de-derec…/

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