CREATING CULTURE OF PEACE, JUSTICE IS CHALLENGE

It matters to the people of Colombia who are living in an environment
dominated by poverty and extreme acts of violence to know that people are
interested enough to learn about the conditions under which they live and
are willing to help them deal with their situation. This is what we were
told by the people there many times during our visit this summer.

It was my second trip to Colombia. I went as a member of the Witness for
Peace/Justapaz delegation and on the behalf of the Connecticut Conference
of the United Church of Christ.

There are at least 2 million people - men, women, children, and the elderly
- - who have been separated from their families and displaced from land and
homes they own by various heavily armed, organized, violent actors
throughout the country. They live in government shelters, refugee camps, on
urban streets and in city dumps surrounded by high rise garbage piles.

There were 20 people in one man's family. He is the only one in the family
who has survived and is now living as a "displaced person." His is not an
uncommon story in Colombia. But it is not Colombia's only story.

Colombia is a land of beauty with a rich history and an abundance of
natural resources - control over which is a dimension of the long civil war
there. The decency, beauty and extraordinary gifts of the Colombian people
are overshadowed by the struggle for who will control Colombia's resources
and the negotiations of its geo-political relationship with the United
States and other foreign governments whose agendas are not in the best
interests of Colombia.

We were told many times by people throughout the country that Plan Colombia
is only flooding the country with more weapons, and the fumigation of
farmlands and forests is destroying Colombia's natural resources while
causing people to become ill and babies to be born with various kinds of
defects and illnesses.

Half of our delegation visited the Choice region of Colombia, which is
north of Bogota near the Panama border. The majority of the people there
are Afro-Colombians, many of whom are farmers who have been displaced from
their mineral- and oil-rich land.

In addition to this struggle, they have been fighting the affects of racism
and sexism since Colombia gained independence from the domination of Spain
in 1849.

Colombia's history and current problems make it clear that unemployment
(half of Colombia's population of 40 million people is unemployed),
poverty, and the power struggle for control of the country combine to
create a formidable culture of violence that affects everyone. In this
context, the Mennonite Church of Colombia, the United Church of Christ, the
evangelical Protestant and Catholic churches of Colombia, along with other
organizations like Witness for Peace face violence and the threat of death
everyday.

We encourage each other through our partnership to resist the seductiveness
of power and the temptation to view evil and injustice as normal, so that
the will to be unjust is preferred over justice. This produces an industry
based on violence. Trying to create cultures of peace and justice is one of
the major challenges facing religious people around the world.

In a conversation with Ricardo Esquivia of Justapaz in Colombia, I was
reminded of something very important. Social justice and peacemaking are
bridges by which those involved develop basic trust in one another - even
with their enemies. Ricardo has often risked his life talking with various
armed actors. He said: "I will talk with the devil if doing so has the
potential of saving a life."

No trust, no justice. No justice, no peace. We have an opportunity, as
people of God wherever we are, to be ambassadors for contributing to the
building of cultures of trust, justice and peace.