Peace and Justice for Colombia

17th December 2010

The Hon Stephen Smith

Minister for Defence

PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Minister,

As you will be aware, the Colombian regime is currently holding hundreds of political prisoners.  Those deprived of their liberty include human rights defenders, trade unionists, student and community leaders and academics.
I trust that you will agree that this practice of jailing innocent people because of their opposition to Government policies is completely unacceptable. Therefore, we hope the Australian Government will speak out forcefully about this situation and demand that the Colombian Government free those that continue to be jailed for expressing their political opinions.
British academics and parliamentarians have recently called for the release of the following Colombian political prisoners: trade unionists, Rosalba Gaviria and Liliany Obando; human rights defenders, David Ravelo Crespo, Jose Samuel Rojas and Carmelo Agamez and university professor, Dr Miguel Angel Beltran.  In Australia, we also believe that these political prisoners must be released as they have been in jail for well over a year without having been convicted of any crime whatsoever.
The Colombian regime cannot expect to have normal relations with democratic countries such as Australia as long as they continue to imprison their critics.  We look forward to hearing from you with regard to any progress that you have made in encouraging the Colombian authorities to free their political prisoners.

Yours faithfully,