Human Rights United Methodist Witnesses for Peace in Colombia  | | Scott Kerr (left) and other members of Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT) study documents before traveling into a contested area of Colombia, where guerilla and paramilitary groups struggle for control. CPT is an ecumenical ministry started by Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends Meetings to support "violence reduction" efforts around the world. Kerr is a member of First United Methodist Church in Downer’s Grove, Ill. A UMNS photo courtesy of CPT. |
For Scott Kerr, being a Christian witness for peace means taking the same risks as the people he hopes to protect.
In February, he could be found in the countryside in Colombia, accompanying farmers back to the homes they had fled in fear of both guerilla and paramilitary violence in that Latin American country. "I believe in the vision of Christians taking peacemaking as seriously as people in the Pentagon take war-making," said Kerr, a member of First United Methodist Church in Downer’s Grove, Ill. He is part of Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), an ecumenical ministry started by Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends Meetings to support "violence reduction" efforts around the world. The organization arrived in Colombia a year ago and set up its project base in Barrancabermeja, or Barranca for short, an eight-hour bus ride north of Bogota. Because Barranca is an oil refinery town, processing about 60 percent of Colombia’s oil, it is a strategic location for the armed groups struggling for power, according to Kerr. Although it was once under guerilla control, paramilitary groups overtook the town a year ago, escalating the number of killings and human rights violations, he said. In town, CPT has run street patrols, served as public witnesses to events and set up a presence at a refugee center in order to help reduce the violence. In the countryside, CPT members accompany people returning to their homes and maintain a regular presence in villages where residents try to live their lives apart from the armed power struggle. "We have witnessed a number of human rights violations, but we believe because of our presence there are less of them," said Kerr, who was part of a CPT program in Chiapas, Mexico, for a year and a half before going to Colombia. Although having a U.S. passport "gives us a little more space to operate," he admitted that Colombia can be a dangerous place for just about anyone. "We stay safe by using absolute transparency," he explained. "We have meetings and are in communication with all the armed groups. We have a lot of trust here because they know we don’t believe in the use of guns." Kerr said that while he serves as an "unarmed bodyguard" for farmers returning to their homes, his supportive church congregation and network of friends back home also offer some protection because he knows they would respond if he were kidnapped. Many church groups – including the National Council of Churches and its related relief agency, Church World Service – have been critical of the way the U.S. government has used aid money in Colombia in efforts to eradicate the drug trade there. They argue that the aerial fumigation of coca crops and the U.S. involvement in Colombia’s military and its internal warfare have had a negative impact on innocent civilians whose homes, health, food supply and overall human rights have been affected. Kerr made his own statement about the U.S. military presence in Colombia and other parts of Latin America when he joined a "Litany of Resistance" protest last November at the U.S. Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga. The controversial school has been criticized by some who consider its Latin American graduates guilty of human rights abuses. Kerr was released after being arrested, and his case is still pending, he said.
On Feb. 5, representatives of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Washington Office on Latin America said their recent findings showed the Colombian government has not met the human rights conditions necessary to obtain up to $625 million in new aid from the U.S. government. They found, according to Human Rights Watch, that the Colombian government has failed to suspend members of its armed forces "credibly alleged" to have committed gross violations of human rights or to have helped paramilitary groups; that the Colombian armed forces continue to organize, coordinate with, support and tolerate paramilitary groups; and that the armed forces are not cooperating with civilian prosecutors and judicial authorities in investigating abuses or pursuing paramilitary members. Kerr estimated that more than 80 percent of the human rights abuses in Colombia are committed by paramilitaries that are too closely associated with the country’s military. "We witness them together at the same place, at the same time," he said. "The connections are very clear." The farmers he has worked with have told Kerr that there will be no peace in Colombia "until the U.S. government decides there will be peace." More information can be found at www.cpt.org, the organization’s Web site. This United Methodist News Service article was released Feb. 14, 2002.
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