Quote:

---

About Witness for Peace:
Witness for Peace (WFP) is a 16,000 member nationwide politically independent, nonviolent grassroots organization dedicated to peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas. Since 1983, more that 10,000 delegates have traveled to Latin America with WFP.
Witness For Peace..Colombia Missions

---

Quote:

---

For decades, Colombia has endured a brutal armed conflict between the nation's army, leftist guerilla movements, and right wing paramilitary groups. Overwhelmingly, the victims of this conflict have been civilians. Into this country wracked by violence, the U.S. has decided to send billions of dollars in mostly military aid and training, but also with substantial funding for aerial eradication of coca crops.

Ostensibly to fight the War on Drugs, this aid package has done little more than inflame a complicated conflict that already places civilians in the crossfire, and destroys huge quantities of legitimate subsistence crops.

Nearly 2 million people have been displaced from their homes due to the violence. Violence kills almost 30,000 Colombians every year. A total of over 300,000 Colombians have died in the violence over the past 15 years. Hundreds of thousands will likely be displaced as a direct result of U.S. policies, unless they are stopped!

Responding to calls for solidarity from Colombia, Witness for Peace has committed to sending delegations of U.S. citizens to the country. We know that NOW is the time to stand with the people of Colombia as they work for peace. We know that NOW is the time to educate U.S. citizens about how current U.S. policy will really affect Colombians. We know that NOW is the time to work together to change our government's destructive policy.

---

300,000 dead during the last 15 years!

I would like to post a banner on every page of my website. A banner listing the total number of dead since the U.S. began aiding the Colombian drug war. A banner that is updated regularly.

I have a similar banner on nearly every page of my website. My website gets around 20,000 hits a month. Here is the banner I am talking about:

Most were civilians:


--------------------
Million Marijuana March 2004 reports, photos

Post Extras: