CO Declaration of Diego Yesid Bosa Rico

Through this letter I would like to make my public declaration of conscientious objection based on the rights given to me by the Constitution especially the paragraph in the article 18 that establishes my fundamental right to freedom of conscience. This, and other rights, my mother mentioned in the beginning of the petitions to the authorities in charge of the process of recruitment.

I declare myself conscientious objector, ratifying the reasons of conscience that have been and are product of a life based on principles of love, non-violence and deep respect for my own life, life of other and of the entire environment.

Violence only breeds evil, and therefore I don’t want to be involved in violence of any kind, not as a recruit of any army, legal or illegal, as they all say they want to achieve peace and justice, but under the crossfire of their weapons the life of many human beings is taken away and with them there is no hope for a better future.

I don’t find it just too, just as I finished the high school, to be forced to take arms and not to be allowed to use my own head anymore, and if I’m sure of something, then I’m sure that just causes can’t be defended with arms and all war and violence in any of its forms just creates more inequality, more poverty and finally more injustice. Arms can’t produce anything good, can’t be used for a common good, and finish creating chaos, pain, frustration and death. Please tell me, what justice there is if my family teaches me in values and principles of non-violence and love for all human beings and at the same time I’m being recruited by an institution that forces me to forget all what I have learned in order to interject through endless repetitions of prayers of hatred as a principle and to a gun as a means to commit this violence?

“Thou shall not kill” is the supreme commandment of non-violence that shows me that life is a sacred right, and no human being has a power over the life of another human being. From which principles can we understand the need to create killing machines and not to dedicate all the efforts to cultivate values and reason? Here I was told that we should be prepared to resolve the problems of the country, but I believe it’s not needed to have a gun in the hand to do it, and especially not in a fighting zone. Yes, I want to be prepared, but through medicine studies or legal studies to serve the community through them, saving lives or defending the rights of the persons who need it. In fact, I have always been refusing to play violent games, those who invite to develop any kind of elimination strategies and I went for games in which reason, logic and coexistence is needed.

I was also told that inside this institution one is not obliged to leave his principles aside, but on the other hand, all of them keep on telling me that we “need to maintain our hatred to convert it into a cold, violent and efficient killing machine”. I feel insulted and attacked, I should not be here, I should be assisting my family and studying to be able to do a service that is really necessary to the community, and to give it to those who for the effects of violence and the huge war budget are getting more and more poor and loose all opportunities.

I object to pressures that the recruiting authorities have put in a verbal form on me in order to renounce my rights signing the acceptance of the recruitment in a regular form, being a student. I make public my principles of conscience, and although I believe our country needs to be helped with service, it should be far away from a compulsory service of military character; a service should be used to reduce the huge social differences that exist actually in our country, and from a non-violent standpoint.

The youth like me need guaranties to be able to enjoy our rights, our values, our principles of reaffirming life and the construction of the future. I declare myself publicly conscientious objector in front of all of you, bearing in mind I have always been a CO, but now I see the need to do it from within the battalion, as they have denied me the possibility to do it within a process of defining my military situation and this was the only possibility I have to explain and expose my case.

I expose my motives publicly, my principles before you as witnesses of my motives, as I have refused to do many things during my life and I have refused to do many things inside this battalion, and I will continue to keep refusing and won’t take arms. It’s highly probable that if my rights are not respected you will also be witnesses of a death in a state of total lack of possibilities to defend myself, only for the mere fact of one being coherent with what my conscience is ordering me to do. Whatever happens, I will not allow them to take away from me my principles of conscience, my rights, as all of it is a part of my life trajectory and life is a gift from God, and I’m ready to defend lives in all its forms, but only without using violence.