by Janna Bowman
(QUIBDÓ, Chocó, Colombia) In a makeshift shelter for the recently displaced people in this small city, women and their children sit on the floor with nothing to do but hold on to each other. One mother softly weeps into her startled baby as she clenches it to her chest. The muggy air is thick with the smell of unbathed bodies.
The families at this shelter in the capital of Chocó, a northwestern state, are among thousands fleeing escalating violence. I met some of them during a recent trip to Quibdó along with Ricardo Esquivia, director of the Colombian Mennonite peace and justice organization Justapaz, and two representatives from Witness for Peace. We came at the invitation of a local pastor following a May 2 church bombing in nearby Bojayá in which 119 civilians were killed, 94 wounded and 40 "disappeared."
This tragedy -- which shocked even Colombians, for whom news of massacres is routine -- is part of increasing violence on all sides of Colombia's war, which involves several guerrillas armies and far-right paramilitary groups as well as government forces. Across the country, more than 2 million people have been displaced.
As the U.S. Congress prepares to vote on the Bush administration's request for more funding to the Colombian government and more leeway in using past U.S. funds to fight the insurgents, we U.S. citizens must look carefully at the situation in Bojayá. This newest wave of violence clearly shows that those who suffer most from this senseless, bloody and unwinnable war are innocent civilians.
(Janna Bowman is an MCC worker in Bogotá, Colombia's capital. The following was written as a joint report with Witness for Peace, a U.S.-based organization that monitors situations in Latin America affected by U.S. policy.)
One of the places the delegation might visit is Choco. Please hold them in your prayers as they experience this volatile region.
The following are the members of the CT. Conference delegation:
