Re: Human Rights Watch versus the FARC

About HHRR watch institutions there are several vacuum points about the 
range of action, entities watched, situations and rights violated like:
1) Do they refer to possible violations(open or covert)  by states, by 
political movements, or by individuals?
2) Do they refer to factions of civil war, or independence war inside a 
nation?
3) Do they refer to individual or social rights violations?
4) Do they include human economic rights of the excluded majorities of a 
nation?

Let’s remember that social injustice kills many more people than wars, but 
in a silent way.

In Colombia there is a civil war between the state and guerrillas with 
partial peasants  support. The state uses taxes of colombians and taxes of 
US people (Plan Colombia, disguised as a counternarcotic operation) to 
support the alliance between the landlords-army sectors-paramilitar groups, 
that have conducted the worst atrocities and has been condemned by HHRR 
groups in the past. Obviously, the regime has declared ilegal the armed 
oposition in order to avoid being controlled by civil war international 
regulations which are different.

More than fifty  thousands of peaceful urban colombians that tried to 
excercize legal opposition were killed during last four decades, (not to 
mention the hundred of thousands killed by elites/empires during our hole 
history) and the only feasible opposition whose heads have survived is 
represented by groups like ELN and FARC guerrillas. It is true that 
guerrillas have obtained resources from rich people kidnapping and forced 
contributions, and also that they tax coca growers. It is true that when 
they attack police/army headquarters in small towns they have caused civil 
destruction and victims (not as big like Nato/USA bombings of civil targets 
in Irak, Yugoslavia, ...).

During independence and civil wars, forced/voluntary contributions were the 
norm, until military service and taxes made it legal only for the state. 
Today landowners contract peasants/militars to work for paramilitaries; in 
the past they were supposed to fight for their master political party. It 
was then normal to use young people over 14 years old.

Recently, guerrillas delivered back 300 prisoners taken to the army in 
combat, it was a unilateral gesture. However, the state only freed 15 sick 
insurgents of the 500 estimated amount they keep in jail. The president lied 
when it declared that it was the product of an agreement and mounted a show 
with the soccer Copa America to cover the issue. It is a trick to avoid 
conceding the status of contenders under civil war, which would declare US 
intervention as evidently illegal under international laws. But does Bush 
really cares about international laws?

In general, my appreciation is that unless HHRR ONGs understand our history, 
and makes it clear if they are concerned about the right of selfdefense for 
people clearly masacred, economically excluded and displaced from their 
homes, they may become complices of US-official genocide in Colombia, not 
too different from what they made in Vietnam, Chile, Serbia, Central 
America, Timor, Cuba, etc., etc.

In summary, HHRRs are very important, but they should keep in mind that the 
US-gov does not have moral, nor historical authority to influence their 
conclussions. Under war conditions, and its normal brutality, all sides 
necessarily commit atrocities, because that is the absurd essence of war, to 
solve problems by killing. But may we expect something different from 
colombian elites or from cowboys mentalities?

Like many colombians, I think that our best hope for peace with social 
justice depends on the peace talks process which has advanced slowly, and 
faces the opposition of big sectors of our elites, of the US state 
department and from colombian army (Latinoamerican army top-generals have 
been historically opposed to social justice, with minor exceptions). So, the 
situation is much harder to understand for the victims than for HHRR’s well 
intentioned groups).

Thanks, Emilio


----Original Message Follows----
From: Andre Gunder Frank <franka@fiu.edu>
To: Richard N Hutchinson <rhutchin@U.Arizona.EDU>
CC: Louis Proyect <lnp3@panix.com>, marxism@lists.panix.com,   
SOCIALIST-REGISTER@YORKU.CA, wsn@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: Re: Human Rights Watch versus the FARC
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 22:54:26 -0400 (EDT)

Not just vs. FARC but also pro KLA. HRW was very active in paving the way,
indeed forging a way, for the NATO war against Jugolsavia ''in defense of
human rights'' as per the Orwellian War is Peace double-speak.
Amnesty went along with that war, but HRW actively lobbied for it - to
make it start. I confess that I do not remember the specifics, but i
suspect some of tnhem are recorded in my NATO/Kosovo page made at that
time.



     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                  ANDRE  GUNDER  FRANK

         1601 SW  83rd Avenue, Miami, FL. 33155-1133 USA
         Tel: 1-305-266  0311      Fax:  1-305  267 9606
   E-Mail: franka@fiu.edu   Web Page: csf.colorado.edu/agfrank/





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