From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 08:00:58 -0500 (CDT) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: COLOMBIA: Weekly News Update #599, 7/22/01 WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #599, JULY 22, 2001 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [.....] 5. Colombia: Indigenous Protest Abductions 6. Colombia: Rebels Kidnap Ex-Governor 7. Colombia: Coca-Cola Charged in Lawsuit [.....] *5. COLOMBIA: INDIGENOUS PROTEST ABDUCTIONS On July 20 some 800 indigenous people set out on a search mission in the southern Colombian department of Cauca to find three German technical advisers who were abducted July 18 by the Sixth Front of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Leaders of the Paez and Guambiano tribes gave the FARC two days to release the Germans before beginning the search. The abducted Germans "are three friends of the indigenous people and work in the development of alternative projects to eradicate coca crops in the zone," according to Armando Valbuena, president of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC). Reiner Bruchmann, Thomas Kuenzel and Ulrich Kuenzel work for the German government's technical support organization, GTZ, which carries out social development projects in impoverished countries. They were abducted in the indigenous municipality of Silva while on their way to inspect agricultural projects where campesinos are planting blackberries and capers to replace coca plants. The FARC have reportedly conditioned release of the Germans on the suspension of aerial herbicide fumigations in the zone. The German government already opposes aerial fumigations; it supports the voluntary manual eradication of drug crops, along with alternative development projects for farmers. The abduction came as local indigenous communities were stepping up their peaceful protests against the US-sponsored fumigations, which have had a devastating impact on the environment and the health and livelihood of local residents. On July 15, nearly 35,000 people from the Paez, Guambiano and black communities of Cauca, along with other campesinos, began to mobilize toward the departmental capital, Popayan, where they planned to try to blockade the Pan-American highway in an effort to halt the aerial fumigations. Guambiano leader and Cauca governor Floro Tunubala, along with other area governors and local leaders, continue to lobby the government for an end to the fumigations, which are scheduled to resume soon over indigenous territories in Cauca and neighboring Narino, in violation of earlier accords that allowed for manual eradication in the area. [El Nuevo Herald 7/21/01 from AFP, 7/22/01; El Colombiano (Medellin) 7/16/01] *6. COLOMBIA: REBELS KIDNAP EX-GOVERNOR On July 15, leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) abducted former Meta governor Alan Jara Urzola as he was riding in a United Nations (UN) vehicle with diplomatic plates near the rebel-controlled demilitarized zone in southern Colombia. Jara and UN personnel had just attended a ceremony marking the inauguration of a "bridge of reconciliation" in southern Meta. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned the abduction in a July 16 statement. [AFP 7/17/01; Xinhua News Agency (China) 7/17/01] The FARC's Eastern Bloc took responsibility for the Jara abduction in an undated communique which was distributed on July 19 via email by the FARC's International Commission. The communique accused Jara of being "the intellectual author, in complicity with top military commanders and [local politicians], of innumerable selective murders of grassroots leaders and massacres in all of Meta department." The FARC said Jara will be subjected to a "people's trial," and asked the UN "to explain to the Colombian people and the international community the reasons why this man was traveling under their protection, putting in jeopardy the recognized neutrality of this organization." The communique suggested that Jara was using the bridge inauguration to further his electoral ambitions, and said it was "incomprehensible that an organization as respectable as the United Nations would let itself be used in this way." [FARC Communique, undated, sent 7/19/01] The abduction came less than a week after Jose Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch (HRW) director for Latin America, released the text of a 20-page letter sent to FARC top commander Manuel Marulanda Velez ("Tirofijo"). In the letter, Vivanco charged the FARC with "a record number of violations" of international humanitarian law, and urged an end to the crimes. In statements published by several newspapers on July 13, Marulanda claimed the FARC has respected human rights since its founding in 1964, and said he never received Vivanco's letter. Vivanco told the Bogota daily El Tiempo that he delivered an original and 20 copies of the letter to the FARC, one of which was addressed to Marulanda. The letter was also emailed to the FARC. Vivanco told El Tiempo that if the rebels have not received the statement, another copy could be sent "by certified mail." The letter was unusual in that HRW, like most human rights watchdog groups, generally directs its criticisms at governments and does not comment on the actions of illegal groups. [ET 7/13/01; EFE 7/13/01] *7. COLOMBIA: COCA-COLA CHARGED IN LAWSUIT Coca-Cola Company is one of three defendants accused in a Miami federal court of collaborating with death squads to kill, threaten and intimidate workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia. With the support of United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund, the suit was filed on July 20 in the US federal court for the southern district by plaintiffs that include Sinaltrainal, a Colombian union representing 2,300 food workers, including 500 bottling plant employees; current leaders of the union; and the estate of Isidro Segundo Gil, a union leader shot to death in 1996 at the entrance to a bottling plant in the northern town of Carepa, in Antioquia department, in the region of Uraba. Sinaltrainal charges that Gil was killed by paramilitaries acting on orders from a plant manager and on behalf of the bottling company's owners. The lawsuit, filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, is seeking $500 million in damages; it names Coca-Cola as a defendant because the US-based company "exercises considerable control" over the bottling companies and benefited from their repression of unionists, according to lawyers for the union. "We vigorously deny wrongdoing regarding human rights in Colombia or anywhere else," said Rafael Fernandez Quiros, the manager for international public affairs for Coca-Cola. "Neither Coca-Cola or its Colombian subsidiary own or operates any bottling plants in Colombia." The other two defendants are Panamerican Beverages, a Miami company which is the largest soft-drink bottler in Latin America, and Bebidas y Alimentos, a bottling plant in Colombia run by Richard Kirby of Key Biscayne, Florida. The stock of Panamerican Beverages, which has had a nearly 60-year relationship with Coca-Cola, fell $0.11 to $19.65 on the New York Stock Exchange following the filing of the suit. [Equipo Nizkor/ Derechos Human Rights/ Serpaj Europa Informacion 7/20/01; Miami Herald 7/21/01] The case has been assigned to Judge Paul Huck. [CNN en Espanol 7/20/01 from Reuters] Attorney Daniel Kovalik, counsel to the Steelworkers and to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, dismissed Coca-Cola's attempts to distance itself from its affiliates, pointing out that under the terms of its contracts, the company constantly supervises and inspects the plants it works with. "It's inconceivable that they didn't know about it," Kovalik said. "They even control the type of uniforms the workers wear." [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 7/21/01, quote retranslated from Spanish] [.....] ======================================================================= Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139 http://home.earthlink.net/~nicadlw/wnuhome.html * [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================================================= ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * CLM-NEWS is brought to you by the COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR at * * http://www.prairienet.org/clm * * and the CHICAGO COLOMBIA COMMITTEE * * Email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or * * Dennis Grammenos at [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To subscribe send request to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * subscribe clm-news Your Name * **************************************************************** _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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