Colombia

Andreas and Hannah from the Right to Refuse to Kill programme spent 15 days in Colombia in November. Our visit coincided with developments on the law proposal that regulates the right to conscientious objection, and creates compulsory substitute service. It will also create a National Committee of Conscientious Objection to Military Service (Comité Nacional de Objeción de Conciencia al Servicio Militar), which will have the authority to judge applications for conscientious objection.

Following the discussion of a first draft law submitted by Senator Maritza Martinez of the "Partido de la U" - the party of ex-president Uribe - in the Colombian Senate earlier this year, with the result that all articles specific to conscientious objection to military service were lost in the processs, the same Senator is now proposing a reworked draft.

The most recent manifestations of the conflict in Colombia date back to 1948, when the presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitán was assassinated, cutting off the possibility that socialist-leaning ideas might have a place of decision and power in the Colombian state.

Please DON'T book your tickets for the conference/council in Medellín this September - the conference has now been cancelled.

In a new judgement the Constitutional Court of Colombia limits the widespread practice of 'batidas'. The judgement related to a complaint in relations to article 14 of the law on recruitment (Ley 48 de 1993), which deals with the obligation to register for military service, and article 41 para g), which defines the process in relation to the classification of a person as "remiso" (draft evader).

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Alejandra Londoño Bustamante, Red Juvenil de Medellín

I am a conscientious objector, but not because I believe that objection is a refusal which has legal backing. On the contrary, it is a legitimate social and collective organisation which initially aims at change within individuals for the good of society.

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Most Brigades of the Colombian Army receive military aid from the USA.

In addition units of Military Intelligence in Medellín, Bogota and Villavicencio received US funding. Various military radars are operated by US personnel, in addition to those operated by the Colombian Armed Forces. Seven military bases are operated in cooperation. This military cooperation should be seen in the context of US Direct Foreign Investment for “economic development” - in short, maintaining the status quo for the elites.

War Resisters' International received reports from several of its partners in Colombia that batidas - the recruitment of young men in raids on the streets - are continueing. Some of those recruited during recent batidas declared their conscientious objection, and two are listed on WRI's Prisoners for Peace Honour Roll 2010.

from World War 4 Report

Private security firm Blackwater violated US arms trafficking regulations when training Colombian military personnel in 2005, a State Department report indicates. The controversial firm, renamed Xe Services LLC in 2009, is to pay $42 million for violating US law, including the unauthorized military training of Colombian soldiers—evidently for private service in Iraq and Afghanistan—in April and May 2005.

Sentence of the Constitutional Court from 14 October 2009 finally published

2 October 2010, 19.00pm

Housmans Bookshop

5 Caledonian Road

London N1 9DX