Katherine Soto Ospina, a vibrant and intelligent young Colombian, studied chemistry at the Universidad del Valle. Also a human rights advocate, she dreamt of being a teacher and working for justice and peace in her beloved Colombia. During our Witness for Peace delegation, "Women Leading the Way to Peace and Justice," we visited the memory gallery named after a priest who was massacred in Trujillo. We learned that Katherine´s dreams were taken from her when she was brutally murdered by the military. Her tragic death occured when she was visiting with a friend in San Cipriano near the port town of Buenaventura. Accused of being a guerilla, the military took her life and tried to steal her dignity by creating what human rights and social justice advocates call a false positive. This is a tactic used by military and paramilitary groups to justify murdering innocent people. For the families of those murdered and accused of being guerillas (or guerilla sympathizers), this makes an already unimaginable and unbearable situation even worse.
Although the work of investigating and recording information about crimes against humanity poses additional danger during an active conflict, there are groups who are working to construct an archive of testamonials and memories of victims. These testamonials and memory galleries help acheive justice through discovering and recording the truth. They are in the process of creating a collective memory so that the victims are not forgotten. Often victims of this public military violence are re-victimized by the imposed truth and the glorification of the perpetrators through military propoganda and campaigns such as "Heroes Exist." Generals are claiming that they are just completing their duties when accused of killing innocent bystanders. This is in the face of those suffering incredible loss who are fighting to denounce the victimizers and stop the widespread impunity.
Families of those killed or disappeared have reasonable requests and deserve justice. They seek holistic reparation in which: victimizers publically admit fault and publically admit who the victim actually is, instead of lies that attempt to legitamize the murder; they receive sufficient attention and efficient processing of the cases; perpetrators admit when the victims are actually killed for economic reasons; and the victimizers are held accountable for thier crimes against humanity.
We met Katherine´s mom who bravely shared her story in light of the harrassment she has endured. She told us that even though it has been four years since her daughter was murdered, it still feels like yesterday. She is one of many Colombians who are victims of this senseless war that disproportionately affects women. In addition to being vicimtimized, these people suffer from re-victimization by harrassement, threats and lack of justice.
There are people who say that situation in Colombia is complicated and that it is tricky to get at the root cause of the problems. I agree that are many layers of injustice that include actors with various motives. For certain, I have only scratched the surface of these issues myself. However, one does not have to look very hard to see that there is rampant corruption - among both the leftist´s who claim they are fighting for the campesinos and the disadvantaged, to the conservatives who claim they are opening up the country to multi-nationals to improve the economy and create jobs. Ultimately, it is about resources and land - Colombia is rich with resources that are ripe for exploitation. One thing that is clear to me: there is a lot of ancestoral territory in which people who have respected the earth and each other have lived for centuries. This is the terrority that contains oil, gold, coal and other biodiverse resources that are huge profit making opportunities for multi-nationals. In the end, it is not that hard to figure out why there is conflict.
A beautiful quote from the Memory Gallery Project:
"Del arból de la memoría contra el olvido y la impunidad, recogemos semillas de verdad, justicia y reparación integral."
"The tree of memory counters (fights) oblivian (loss of memory) and impunity, we collect seeds of truth, justice and holistic reparation."
You can learn more about the Memory Gallery here (in Spanish):
No comments:
Post a Comment