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  Human Rights Disaster
Posted by FoM on March 10, 2002 at 08:09:17 PT
By Justin Quinn, Intelligencer Journal Staff 
Source: Intelligencer Journal 

justice Akron teen-ager Ally Styan wants to tell local residents how a key battle in the war on drugs is being lost in Colombia. While the U.S. State Department disagrees with her, two Lancaster County Congressmen have opposed federal aid packages to Colombia and agree that money earmarked for the eradication of cocaine there has probably been misused.

Styan, 18, went to Colombia in January with a local chapter of the national human rights organization Witness For Peace.

The group went to see how the U.S. government's financial and military support was being used by the Colombian government.

They were appalled by what they saw.

"There is no decrease in the production of cocaine," Styan said. "Instead, most of the money has gone to the Colombian military and has created a human rights disaster."

Styan is not new to protesting the U.S. government's foreign policies.

Most recently, she was acquitted of multiple charges for her role in a protest outside the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. The demonstration was against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, a U.S.-funded school formerly known as the School of the Americas.

Styan remains active in the protest movement, but also wants to use the court of public opinion to help raise awareness to the plight of the Colombian people. Over the next two months, she is set to hold several talks throughout Lancaster County. The first is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 19 at Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster, 328 W. Orange St.

"What many people don't realize is that people in Colombia do not want to be growing cocaine," Styan said. "They grow it because it's the only way they can make money."

During the Clinton administration, Congress passed a $1.3 billion aid package for Colombia to bolster the country's military. The money was to be used mostly for counternarcotics programs like the fumigation of cocoa fields and the enforcement of the country's drug laws.

To a lesser degree, the money was used for counterinsurgency action against a number of rebelling factions with a stake in the drug trade, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

Originally called Plan Colombia, the spending measure was changed and given additional money by the Bush administration and is now called the Andean Regional Initiative.

"The big thing for the U.S. government has been the fumigation effort," Styan said. "The problem is that the chemical being sprayed has never been tested to be used the way it's being used in Colombia."

Planes discharge the chemical so high that it falls not only on the coca fields, but also people, their homes and their water supplies, she said.

"Children and elderly people have died," Styan said. "Livestock has been killed, and the number of birth defects is on the rise."

To make matters worse, the fumigation isn't even working, she said.

"The coca plants are very sturdy," Styan said. "After the fumigation, farmers simply cut off the tops of the plants. The coca plants stay alive, but the corn, banana and food crops are destroyed."

U.S. Rep. Joseph R. Pitts, a Kennett Square Republican representing most of Lancaster County, opposed portions of the federal spending measure, his aide says.

"Rep. Pitts was very concerned when President Clinton removed all of the human rights requirements from the aid package," Pitts' spokesman Gabe Neville said. "There is strong evidence the aid to Colombia may be used for purposes for which it was not intended."

Pitts is a member of the U.S. International Relations Committee, though his subcommittee assignment focuses on Middle East and South Asia activities.

"Congressman Pitts remains very concerned about human rights abuses in Colombia," Neville said. "The whole issue of human rights has been one of his top legislative priorities."

U.S. Rep. George W. Gekas, a Harrisburg Republican representing the northwestern third of Lancaster County, was strong in his opposition to the Colombian aid package. His spokesman, Kent Wissinger, said Gekas staged a "protest vote" last year against the budget plan for two reasons.

"Mr. Gekas believes there isn't any accountability for the anti-drug program," Wissinger said. "His worry is that the money is instead being directed to fight a Colombian civil war."

Gekas also thinks the situation could wind up becoming another Vietnam, Wissinger said.

"First you send money, then you send troops," Wissinger said.

On March 1, the State Department released the International Narcotics Control Status Report. It details all major U.S. counternarcotics efforts from all over the globe.

According to the report, "Colombia is the world's leading producer and distributor of cocaine and a significant supplier of heroin to the United States." U.S efforts are helping Colombia to remove drugs, according to the report.

Colombian National Police reported seizing more than 57 metric tons of cocaine, nearly 27 metric tons of cocaine base, 796 kilograms of heroin and more than 80 metric tons of marijuana, according to the report.

The report also defends its use of the herbicide used to eradicate illicit drug crops.

"It has been tested widely in the United States, Colombia and elsewhere in the world," the report says. "It is approved by the (Environmental Protection Agency) for use on crop land on which numerous crops are grown, forests, residential areas and around aquatic areas."

The EPA concluded there are no long-term risks to humans, but there are some reversible short-term risks of eye and skin irritation during episodes of direct contact with the chemical.

Last month, the peace process between rebels and the Colombian government fell apart, the report says. And although the U.S. government continues to support "the peace process by backing activities that promote a culture of nonviolence in Colombia," it still plans to broaden the efforts that Styan opposes.

"The aerial eradication program will expand in 2002, with the arrival of additional Plan Colombia-funded spray aircraft," the report says. "The Colombian military's counternarcotics role (also) will broaden in 2002, as plans to institute a second counterdrug brigade progress."

Styan, however, says the Colombian government has not met the human-rights provisions of its agreement with the United States.

"The Colombian Government is working with paramilitary groups (like FARC and AUC) which are responsible for 80 percent of the violence in the country," Styan said. "These groups do the Colombian military's dirty work. They massacre people who are speaking out against Plan Colombia or who are occupying land the government wants."

Witness: Says war on drugs in Colombia is dangerous, counterproductive.

Complete Title: Human Rights Disaster - War on Drugs Has Gone All Wrong, Local Witness Says

Source: Intelligencer Journal (PA)
Author: Justin Quinn, Intelligencer Journal Staff
Published: Saturday, March 9, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.
Contact: intellletters@lnpnews.com
Website: http://www.lancnews.com/

Related Articles & Web Sites:

Witness For Peace
http://www.witnessforpeace.org/

Colombia Drug War News
http://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htm

Activist Speaks Against U.S. Policy in Colombia
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12146.shtml

A Witness Against War on Drugs
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10321.shtml


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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on March 12, 2002 at 04:17:53 PT
Children belong to The TRUTH.
Psalm 127 (N.A.S.B.) / Prosperity Comes from the LORD. A Song of Ascents, of Solomon. 1 Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. 3 Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. 5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #3 posted by The GCW on March 10, 2002 at 16:28:56 PT
Notice youth...
Again, we see young people taking action. One of our greatest assets is the rising of youth to say, NO! Much of youth is involved in the education system in one way or another. When education supposedly represents truth, and they find out they have been duped, they will pick up arms against the sickoooos, and it is blooming right now. How many youth are involved in the education system? That is potentially how many young assets there are alone. ?Millions of dissatisfied, lied to kids, that are getting a foul taste in their mouth. They detest being lied to.

Joyce, This is where things get sick and it makes people dizzy, when Americas kids find out, people in positions of trust have lied their heads off, habitually, perpeutally, and when caught the prohibitionist play dumb, (as if they were not already playing dumb). The prohibitionist have been exposed. When they game has been played by the old rules, citizens would eat the roach or throw it out the window, so as not to be caught. I suggest, as the wall is coming down that you watch your self, because it is going to implicate a lot of unacceptable uncouth behaviour, in people that we are no longer going to respect, as a nation.

Joyce, it is time for you and all prohibitionist types, to consider jumping ship, early, to save face. It may be too late, but it will be very embarrasing to be caught with the blood of Christ Gods innocet children on your breath. Society, often respects it when, somone recants their previous jargon in place of newer and better... When the whip comes down, you'll benefit by declaring All the Truth of Christ God on this issue, AHEAD OF TIME. People come to tears when one of our little ones, breaks down and says, I have made a mistake, and move to fix the harms.

Some of our greatest assets are DARE grads. And this may be a banner year. Thank you, Joyce for your efforts set up these kids to enter into this war with enthusiasm. For they have been duped, they are being duped, they are tired of it and they don't want to be duped in the future. And they are not lax or sedate, they are on top of it, and NOW!

And youth, is just one of our assets to spread the truth.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by goneposthole on March 10, 2002 at 10:54:57 PT
How many heroin and cocaine 'addicts'?
10 million?

1.9 billion in aid to Colombia? More?

Give each addict 1000 dollars (10 billion dollars), cut the military budget by 20 billion dollars, and the government will be 10 billion dollars richer.

No matter how it gets sliced, if you cannot eliminate demand, it will all drag on and on

and on and on and on and on and on and on.

If the prohibitionist could ban water, it would.

Those 'water' addicts never stop.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by DdC on March 10, 2002 at 10:26:22 PT
Shut Down the School of the Assassins!
Why of course the people don't want war---
But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
--Hermann Goering -Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg trials.

Opposing the School of the Americas
http://www.wusb.org/archive/articles/SOA.html

School of the Americas Watch
http://www.soaw.org

School of the Americas
http://home.fia.net/~soa

School of the Americas Fort Benning, Georgia
New Name Same Great Taste
(Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation)
http://www.ciponline.org/facts/soa.htm

School of the Americas Bill
http://www.ciponline.org/facts/soa.htm

Shut Down the School of the Americas!
http://www.patweb.com/soa/index.cfm

Students protest School of the Americas
http://www.tulane.edu/~tuhulla/19981120/news/protestzR.shtml

Unitarian Universalists at the School of the Americas
http://www.hevanet.com/joeyl/soaw.html

History of the School of the Americas (SOA)
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/40/index-a.html

Get Out of Colombia by Congressman Ron Paul, MD
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul19.html

The Colombia Deception
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2001/05/100377.php

http://www.americas.org

The Smirking Chimp
http://www.SmirkingChimp.com


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