Colombia

At the WRI Council meeting in Seoul, Korea, the WRI Council was delighted to admit four new associated organisation as members of War Resisters' International:

The Antimilitarist Kollective of Medellín, Colombia: an affinity group that promotes antimilitarism and conscientious objection to war as a way of life and as a way to fight for political and social advocacy. We fight for the transformation towards a more just, inclusive, equitable and humane society which promotes autonomy, self-determination and the freedom of people.

The Centre for Peace Studies, Zagreb, Croatia, is a non-profit citizens’ association whose mission is promoting non-violence, human rights and social change through education, research, public policies and activism. CPS grew out of various direct forms of peace-building activities in the region of western Slavonia during the 1990s war in Croatia (community projects such as The Volunteer Project Pakrac and The Croatian Anti-War Campaign - ARK). It was established in 1997, formally in 1999.

The Community Self Reliance Center, Nepal whose vision is to see a Nepali society where everyone enjoys a secure, free and dignified life. Their mission is to empower land-poor women and men enabling them to claim and exercise their basic rights, including right to land resources, contributing to eradicating poverty and injustice.

The National Land Rights Forum (NLRF), Nepal whose vision is to see a self-reliant farmer community in Nepal, and whose mission is to empower the land-poor people by organizing and conscientizing them to enable to launch struggle against discriminations and claim their farmers’ rights.

We welcome all of them and look forward to working together.

The National Assembly of Conscientious Objectors in Colombia have released a statement criticising the ongoing use of 'batida' raids, despite the practise being declared illegal by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Arrest (Opinion 8/08) and the Constitutional Court in Sentences. The statement insists that the practise is stopped, along with any other form of forced recruitment into the Colombian military, and calls for solutions to conflict “different to the fratricidal war that has written Colombian history”.

Read the full statement here: /node/24866

August 2015

In a country that has gone through many stages of armed conflict throughout its history, where the military has been permeating the fine threads of social relations, various women and men have decided to move forward in the belief that war is not an engine of history and development, neither a condemnation, nor a destiny which we cannot escape; it is the expression of a way of solving social conflicts, used to deflect the factors that create it, maintaining their conditions and creating better conditions in order to perpetuate itself as a naturalized social dynamic.

The WRI bi-annual appeal was sent out this month.  It was written by Colombian CO activist Diego Carreño Neira and talked about the significant progress which WRI and Acción Colectiva de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia (ACOOC: Colombian Collective Action of Conscientious Objectors) have made together, most recently in making it possi

Campaigners in Colombia have been boosted by a new ruling from the Constitutional Court. In a case brought by two conscientious objectors (COs) who had been forcibly recruited into the military, in January the Court ordered the National Recruitment Office to: resolve applications for CO within 15 days; to publish a booklet that notifies youth of their grounds for exemption, deferral, and their right to CO; and to end the practices of arbitrary detention, including batidas (recruitment raids, usually in public spaces).

By Yesenia Barragan

Campaigners in Colombia have been boosted by a new ruling from the Constitutional Court. Yesterday, in a case brought by two conscientious objectors (COs) who had been forcibly recruited into the military, the Court ordered the National Recruitment Office to: resolve applications for CO within 15 days; to publish a booklet that notifies youth of their grounds for exemption, deferral, and their right to CO; and to end the practices of arbitrary detention, including batidas (recruitment raids, usually in public spaces). This right to claim conscientious objection includes once they have already entered the barracks. They have also asked the Army to report, within six months, on the implementation of these orders. If fully adopted, the changes would mark a huge change for young people in Colombia, and especially COs.

In Finland, WRI's affiliate AKL (Union of Conscientious Objectors) are petitioning the government to end conscription and the imprisonment of COs. Please add your name to it here.

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The libreta militar (military card), will no longer be required to graduate from university in Colombia, meaning that those who have not completed military service will now be able to receive their degrees. However, a libreta militar is still required for the enjoyment of many other rights. For example, you still require a libreta militar to work in many jobs. When batidas (forced recruitment raids) occur, it is those without a libreta militar i.e. those who cannot prove that they have completed compulsory military service, including conscientious objectors, who are most at risk. Antimilitarists in Colombia will continue to campaign for the abolition of the libreta, and indeed military service. The campaign: Libre de Libreta (freedom from military cards) that we highlighted in the last War Resisters' Stories continues!

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Conscientious Objection

The question of conscientious objection has been brought to attention of the Colombian courts once more, via the case of one Julián Enrique Rojas Rincón who is arguing that his Christian pacifism makes military service unconscionable to him and that his right to conscientious objection is safeguarded in article 18 of the Colombian constitution which also protects medics from performing abortions where they feel this runs contrary to their interpretation of Christianity. Magistrate Jorge Pretelt has called on the military to form an 'interdisciplinary group' to asses Rojas' case. Source: Semana

Jhonatan David Vargas Becerra was forcibly recruited by the Colombian military last year. He left the army as soon as he could, and later the police issued an arrest warrant for him on grounds of desertion. He was arrested by the police on 4 September in Barrancabermeja, and is still being detained.

Señor Juan Carlos Mejía Gutiérrez

Director de Reclutamiento y Control de Reservas

Bogotá

Warm greetings.

We write you to express our worries for Jhonatan David Vargas Becerra, a student and youth leader of the Central Foursquare Church of Barrancabermeja, Santander, who was detained the evening of Sept 4, 2014.

Jhonatan was recruited by the National Army against his will on March 16, 2013, and was transferred to the 28th Battalion ASCP Bochica in Puerto Carreño, Vichada. Jhonatan has always expressed that that his religious convictions do not allow him to engage in violence or belong to armed groups, and therefore he has refused to perform obligatory military service.

Origen: ACOOC