{news} Fw: USGP-INT Australian Green report on Nov. Bogotá meeting to support Ingrid Betancourt

[Justine McCabe]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Feinstein" <mfeinstein at feinstein.org>
To: <usgp-int at gp-us.org>
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 5:14 AM
Subject: USGP-INT Australian Green report on Nov. Bogotá meeting to support 
Ingrid Betancourt


> Here is the Australian Greens report on the November int'l Green meeting 
> in Bogota to support Ingrid Betancourt by Bob Muntz and Miriam Solomon
> Joint International Secretaries, Australian Greens
>
> Global Greens conference for the liberation of the hostages, a 
> humanitarian accord and human rights in Colombia
> Bogota, 31 October – 6 November 2005
>
>
> On 23 February 2002, Ingrid Betancourt, Greens presidential candidate, and 
> her campaign manager Clara Rojas were kidnapped by FARC  guerillas in 
> Colombia.  They have been held, along with an estimated 5600 other 
> hostages, ever since.  Their last communication (a video cassette) was in 
> August 2003;  since then the guerillas have refused all requests for 
> contact.  We believe that Ingrid and Clara are still alive and we will 
> continue to campaign for their liberation as the first step in a peace 
> agreement for Colombia.
>
> Colombia is in the grip of a civil war.  The contending forces include 
> guerilla groups with standing armies in the tens of thousands (FARC, ELN 
> primarily), paramilitaries also with significant armed forces originally 
> supported by the government to counter the guerillas, and the state’s 
> armed forces, police and military.  All are implicated in human rights 
> abuses.  The main victims are the poor, especially peasant farmers, 
> Indigenous pople and Afro-Colombians.  Colombia is second only to Sudan in 
> the number of refugees – three million people, half under 18 years old, 
> have been forcibly internally displaced in the last three years.
>
> The situation is complicated by US intervention through Plan Colombia, 
> which provides aid and training to the military and is attempting to 
> control drug trafficking by aerial spraying of coca crops with herbicides 
> (fumigation), destroying legal crops, causing environmental destruction 
> and displacing farmers in the process.
>
>
> Global Greens
>
> In November 2005, 14 Greens from 10 countries gathered in Bogota, 
> Colombia, for the first ever coordinated Global Greens action. Previously 
> Greens have visited Colombia individually, including Senator Bob Brown in 
> May 2002, and French Greens representatives in 2003, 2004 and 2005.  The 
> purpose of the Global Greens’ visit was to demonstrate to the Colombian 
> authorities, the FARC guerillas and the public the solidarity of the 
> Global Greens with Ingrid, Clara and all the hostages and reinforce 
> international pressure for their liberation.  It was timed in the lead up 
> to Congressional (March 2006) and Presidential elections (May 2006).
>
> During six days, we met many individuals and groups including presidential 
> candidates, the Mayor of Bogota (who effectively auspiced our visit), the 
> UN Human Rights Commissioner, families of the hostages, peace and human 
> rights organisations, Indigenous groups, unions and environments groups. 
> Oxigeno-Verde, the Colombian Greens, are a small group facing not only the 
> constant threat of kidnapping and murder, which afflicts all Colombian 
> activists, but also political barriers, including impossible party 
> registration requirements.
>
>
>
> International intervention seems the only way to break the cycle of 
> violence in Colombia.  As Greens, especially in the English-speaking 
> world, we can play an important role in focusing the attention of our 
> governments on the issue, especially on the systematic abuse of human 
> rights.  We should be urging President Uribe and the FARC to reach a 
> humanitarian agreement, including a hostage exchange, as a first step 
> towards a peace agreement.
>
> The greatest risk to Ingrid and Clara is military intervention by the 
> government to ‘release’ the hostages, which would almost certainly result 
> in the their murder.  Ingrid will not accept a negotiated solution that 
> does not release all the hostages.  Our priority should be to increase 
> awareness and pressure on our governments for international action.
>
> We developed a plan of action to raise awareness and have begun to 
> implement it by sending Dario Ghilarducci to Bogota as a Green Ambassador 
> in the run up to the elections.  He will be keeping us informed of 
> developments locally.  The full plan is attached.
>
> We thank the European Greens, especially the French Greens, for initiating 
> the conference, and Marelby Agatton (Oxigeno-Verde) for organising an 
> excellent event.
>
>
> Margaret Blakers
> Australian Greens
> January 2006
>
>
> Participants in the Global Greens Bogata conference
>
> 1) Grazia Francescato (Italy, spokesperson of the European Green Party)
> 2) Alain Lipietz (France, Green member of the European Parliament)
> 3) Constantin Fedorovsky (France, International Assistant, Les Verts)
> 4) Jacqueline Bot (Netherlands, Member of the National Board of the Groen 
> Links)
> 5) Dario Ghilarducci (Italy, Federazione dei Verdi)
> 6) Sergio Coronado (France, spokesperson of Les Verts)
> 7) Patrick Farbiaz (France, international secretary of Les Verts)
> 8) Milan Bastinac (Green Party of Bosnia Herzégovine)
> 9) Carl Romanelli (Green Party of the United States)
> 10) Margaret Blakers (Australian Greens, member of the Global Greens 
> Coordination)
> 11) Rikiya Adachi (Japan, The Green Table)
> 12) Candido Jovino (Green Member of the Brazilian Parliament)
> 13) Md. Mujibul Alan Khan (Mayeesha) (Green Party of Taiwan)
> 14) Marie Nagy (Belgium, Member of Parliament Ecolo)
>
>
>  Platform of the Global Greens conference for the liberation of the 
> hostages, a humanitarian accord and human rights in Colombia
> Bogota, 31 October – 6 November 2005
>
> Platform adopted by representatives of the European Greens, and the Greens 
> of Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bosnia, Colombia, USA, Netherlands, France, 
> Italy, Japan and Taiwan
>
> The Greens underline the importance of liberating the hostages as one of 
> the key elements in the Colombian political situation.  The humanitarian 
> accord is the first step in the construction of a peace process in 
> Colombia.  The demand for the unconditional liberation of Ingrid and Clara 
> and all the economic and political hostages is another and is independent 
> of the exchange of prisoners of war.  The Greens reaffirm their total 
> support for the families of the hostages, the victims of war crimes, the 
> Indigenous people of Colombia, unionists and activists suffering 
> persecution, and for the defence of human rights.
>
> The Greens agree
>
> Concerning the peace process
>
> 1. To proclaim 23 February 2006, the fourth anniversary of the kidnapping 
> of Ingrid Betancourt and Clara Rojas, an international day of solidarity 
> with hostages throughout the world.  We agree to support the initiative to 
> organise a concert in Bogota, capital of Colombia, the country where 80% 
> of the world’s hostages are held.  We ask each city which has conferred 
> honorary citizenship on Ingrid to send a representative to Bogota.
>
> 2. To propose the creation of an International Observer Mission for the 
> Colombian elections in 2006 to ensure the electoral process is 
> transparent, and to defend human rights and supporters of the humanitarian 
> accord against threats of any kind.  We will ask our parliamentary 
> representatives to do whatever they can to pressure the combatants, so 
> that a humanitarian accord can be agreed before the end of the electoral 
> process.
>
> 3. To press for the implementation of the recommendations in the Report of 
> the UN High Commission on Human Rights.  The Greens will organise a 
> meeting in Geneva in March 2006, when the Human Rights Commission will be 
> considering the situation of Colombia and the implementation of the Report’s 
> recommendations.
>
> 4. To promote the initiative of the European Parliament to organise a 
> seminar on amnesty and impunity drawing upon international experience.
>
> 5. To follow up the meeting with Francisco Galan (ELN), in consultation 
> with the Peace Commission, working to consolidate the five point peace 
> process between the ELN and the government.
>
> Concerning human rights and the social and environmental agenda
>
> 6. Jointly with Indigenous and environmental organisations, to push for 
> the creation of an International Commission to inquire into fumigation and 
> its consequences.
>
> 7. To liaise with the Greens of the Americas to organise a parliamentary 
> delegation for the protection of the Amazonian forests, recognising the 
> threats from conflicts with landowners, conflicts between the state and 
> armed groups, and the consequences of climate change.  It should expose 
> the serious impacts of expanding African palm plantations.  A workshop on 
> the role of the palm in the expansion of biodiesel is being organised in 
> Stockholm as part of the European Greens climate campaign.
>
> 8. To support the intiative for a permanent People’s Tribunal against 
> Multinationals in Colombia, organised by unions and social organisations, 
> especially looking at oil, gold, food and public services.
>
> 9. To support the Uwa and other Indigenous people in the caravan of 
> dignity, an initiative of the Italian Greens.
>
> 10. To invite representatives of the families of kidnap victims and human 
> rights groups to give an account of the situation in Colombia to the 
> European Parliament.
>
> Concerning the Greens campaign in support of Ingrid, Clara and the 
> hostages
>
> 11. To ask Green parties to campaign in support of Ingrid’s nomination for 
> the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize in order to make her a symbol of the fight 
> against the crime of hostage-taking, and increase her capacity to act as a 
> mediator for peace in the Colombian conflict.
>
> 12. To establish a Green Ambassador in Bogota to maintain contact with the 
> authorities, NGO groups, social movements and political parties and keep 
> the Global Greens informed.
>
> 13. To organise a Green presence at the World Social Forum in Caracas in 
> January 2006, to support the humanitarian accord, the liberation of 
> Ingrid, Clara and the hostages, to isolate the FARC amongst the global 
> left and to inform activists of the push by the European Greens to expel 
> FARC from the Sao Paulo Forum.
>
> 14. To maintain solidarity with Oxigeno-Verde and propose at the next 
> Global Greens conference the creation of a solidarity fund for Green 
> parties threatened by repression or armed force, or in the process of 
> becoming constituted.
>
> 15. To create an international network against the repression of 
> environmentalists and Greens (the Green Shield).