BIRMINGHAM — When the Rev. Milton Mejia accepted one of the two 2006 Peaceseeker Awards granted by Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF) at its annual breakfast here yesterday, he said it represented a covenant between two churches.
Volunteers — most trained and recruited by PPF — from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (PCC) are living as international witnesses to non-violence inside the Colombian church, a community where several of its leaders have received death threats, including Mejia.
PPF is a pacifist organization that is committed to non-violent action in the world.
“I see this as a covenant between churches — here in the U.S. and in Colombia — and many individuals to keep on working for peace,” said Mejia, who stood at the podium with Anne Barstow of New York City, who coordinates PPF’s role in the accompaniment effort.
Barstow was also a recipient of a Peaceseeker Award for her role in organizing the accompaniment program, which was approved by the General Assembly Council in 2004.
New threats emerged against Mejia again in February, as well as against Mauricio Avilez, another church worker, who was jailed for four months in 2004 on charges that he was aligned with a guerilla organization, one of the armed groups engaged in Colombia’s long-running civil conflict.
Avilez was released when no evidence was produced to document the charges.
The latest threats apparently alleged that both Mejia and Avilez are linked to guerrillas and the information allegedly originated with government military intelligence.
Mejia has repeatedly denied such allegations, insisting that the church works through peaceful and democratic means. The PCC has ministered among Colombia’s more than three million displaced persons who have been forcibly removed from their land by violence and who are flooding into already overcrowded cities seeking work.
The displaced are considered by officials to be at high-risk for guerrilla or paramilitary activity.
The Colombian Inter-ecclesial Commission for Justice and Peace said that a displaced man reported that he was offered $1,000 to say that Mejia and Avilez have ties to guerrillas and that both men are to be assassinated. The government apparently uses paid informants to give false testimonies.
“You have helped protect many lives,” Mejia told the group. “And we need this to increase.”
In an interview with the Presbyterian Outlook, Mejia said that pressure is increasing on human rights organizations in Colombia and among church groups who take strong stances to protect civil liberties and to demand justice for displaced families.
Several leaders in the Barranquilla human rights groups have moved or gone into hiding and Mejia himself is less visible.
The vacancies and absences make it harder to get work done, he said.
Colombian activists say that part of the strategy to stall human rights work is to scare the leaders into silence or exile, weakening or collapsing already overworked organizations.
Avilez, too, has left Barranquilla for his own safety, although he is still engaged in human rights work.
Barranquilla is a port city on Colombia’s north coast and it is where the PCC is headquartered. The church offices have apparently been under government surveillance during certain periods.
“It’s been very hard,” Mejia said, adding that he moves around frequently and is sometimes separated from his family in an effort to stay safe and to protect them.
Several years ago, an anonymous caller attempted to extort Mejia and threatened to kill him or other family members unless he paid $4,000. The caller said he was aligned with a paramilitary group and suggested that Mejia find the funds among monies collected to help the displaced.
Police arrested the caller but he was later released from jail on a day pass. He was not re-arrested, and his whereabouts are not clear.
Barstow told her PPF audience that the accompaniment program now has 35 trained volunteers, from ages 23 to 73. Ten have signed up for multiple placements.
“Through this experience, the Colombian church has learned it is not alone. And the accompaniers have learned what it costs to speak out against injustice,” she said. “The program is a further step is making large and small actions for peace in a world where peace does not get much respect.”
The Ecumenical and Interfaith Committee is recommending that a commissioner’s resolution asking the General Assembly to commend the church bodies who initiated the program and to add its voice of support for the accompaniment effort.
It also asks that the Assembly commend the “nonviolent efforts of the PCC for answering the call of Christ by joining with partners to bring peace to the nation and to minister to the poor and suffering and to stand for the human and civil rights of all.” It asks for specific commendation for the Colombian church for its “fidelity to the mission of Christ in the face of constant threats, intimidation and assassinations.”
It also calls upon Presbyterians to urge the U.S. Congress to change U.S. policy, including:
“¢ Withdrawing military support which is used to hurt the people of Colombia in their pursuit of a life of peace;
“¢ Reorienting U.S. policies toward Colombia …. to encourage more equitable distribution of wealth and to protect the rights of people-groups threatened by the interests of large corporations;
“¢ Transferring U.S. support to growing civil society committed to democracy and peace; Increasing aid for resettlement of displaced persons in their homelands;
“¢ Ending aerial fumigation for coca crops and focus on programs in Colombia that provide ways to support farmers to develop alternative crops and on U.S. programs that reduce the demand for drugs.
