Peace and Justice for Colombia

On February 5th, Peace and Justice for Colombia sent the following letter to Mr. Brendan O´Connor,  Australian Minister for Home Affairs protesting the interrogation of a member of our organisation.

Mr Brendan O’Connor MHR
Minister for Home Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Mr. O´Connor,

Minister for Home Affairs,

We are writing to protest against the interrogation of Mr. Alejandro Rodriguez by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) on February 3^rd. Mr. Rodriguez is a member of our organisation, Peace and Justice for Colombia, and he is a well known advocate for workers´ rights and solidarity.

It is of our knowledge that during the interrogation Mr. Rodriguez was asked about individuals, the work of Peace & Justice for Colombia and about the Agricultural Workers Unions Federation of Colombia (FENSUAGRO). FENSUAGRO is a legitimate Colombian organisation that is formed by several affiliated unions, peasants and farmers´ organisations, with a total of 80,000 members nation-wide, with presence in 22 out of the 32 federated entities of the Colombian State. In a country where land distribution continues to be a major motive of inequality and injustice, FENSUAGRO is also the union that has been more brutally targeted by the Colombian state, its official forces and the paramilitaries. According to the International Trade Union Confederation, 49 union leaders were killed in 2008 alone, and 838 between 2000 and 2008; 95 per cent of the cases are reported as ’unsolved ’, many of these crimes have been committed against FENSUAGRO organizers and activists. We consider it to be a trust-worthy union.

It has been well documented that key members of the Colombian government have been historically linked to leading drug trafficking organisations and far right extremist groups. In 1991, the US Defense Intelligence Agency listed Uribe among ‘important Colombian narco-traffickers’ as well as a ‘close personal friend’ of Pablo Escobar Gaviria. Uribe’s Colombia is also responsible for arguably the largest internally displaced population in the world; 4 million Colombians are internally displaced rivalling only the Sudan.

We are also aware that the government of Alvaro Uribe has launched a campaign to censor and delegitimize solidarity initiatives internationally. We can only consider this interrogation as part of the mentioned campaign and it is completely disgraceful that the AFP is being used for the systematic persecution of human rights defenders, journalists, labour leaders and any other organisation or individuals who raises their voices in support of the Colombian people in their demands of democracy and social justice, and denounce the atrocities committed by Uribe´s government. Mr. Rodriguez has the support of professionals, trade unionists, academics and human rights organisations in Australia and internationally. For his work and commitment to the people of Colombia and Latin America, he too deserves the support of the Australian government.

• Peace & Justice for Colombia is an Australia-based solidarity organization that aims to build solidarity amongst Australians with the Colombian people and workers, and all the work we do is public and open.
• Peace & Justice for Colombia strongly condemns any attempt by the AFP, ASIO or any other intelligence agencies in Australia to persecute, detain or harass Mr. Rodriguez or any other solidarity activists. We consider this is a serious abuse of power under the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2005.
• We protest against the AFP cooperation with the Uribe administration.
• We condemn any attempts of Uribe to criminalise international solidarity with Colombia.
• We demand that the Australian Government suspends its involvement with the Uribe regime while human and labour rights are not respected in that country.

Yours sincerely,

Peace and Justice for Colombia

written by admin