"Unarmed Bodyguards"
PBI AUSTRALIA NATIONAL SPEAKING TOUR
Australian volunteer Denise Cauchi has recently returned after a year on the
PBI Colombia Project. Denise welcomes the opportunity to discuss her work,
and her experience using active nonviolence as a tool in the Colombian
conflict .
SYDNEY
7:30 pm Wednesday 15 November
Newtown Neighborhood House
contact: 0415 110197
PERTH
7pm Sunday November 19, 2000
Monkey Bar function room, Brass Monkey Pub, 209 William Street
$10 entry donation ph: 92277880
MELBOURNE
7pm Thursday 23 November, 2000
Borderlands , 1 Canterbury Road Camberwell, Victoria.
RSVP for Melb: 9481 6589 or reply email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Official launch of PBI Victoria group
PEACE BRIGADES INTERNATIONAL
Peace Brigades International is a global non-governmental organisation that
provides international human accompaniment to threatened human rights
workers in conflict zones.
An Australian PBI Country Group has formed recently to promote and support
PBI's presence in our region, mobilize Australian volunteers for PBI's
various projects and to build PBI's capacity to respond to requests for
nonviolent accompaniment in the Asia-Pacific region.
Founded in 1981, PBI began working in 1983 after responding to requests from
the Guatemalan Relatives of the Disapeared (GAM)for protective
accompaniment. Since this time, PBI has provided unarmed bodyguards
throughout Central America, Sri Lanka, Haiti, the Balkans and more recently
has established a project in Indonesia and East Timor.
PBI is ordinary people using active nonviolence as a tool for confronting
state terror and promoting human rights. In essence, PBI works to 'create
space for peace' by accompanying local activists under threat as carry out
their own work for peace and justice.
DENISE CAUCHI
Denise flew from Melbourne to Columbia in November 1999, a country with one
of the worst human rights records in the world. Denise joined a team of 29
other international volunteers with Peace Brigades International. Denise
was responding to requests from local human rights workers in Columbia for
the protection of international unarmed bodyguards.
Denise will talk about the use of active nonviolence as a way of confronting
conflict,and her experience as an unarmed bodyguard in Columbia. Denise
will return to Columbia for a further year of human accompaniment.
PBI Australia look forward to seeing you on the night.
To Contact PBI Australia:
phone: 03 9481 6589 (Eastern States)
03 9227 7880 (WA)
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Post: PO Box 186 Northbridge WA 6865
WEBSITE: www.igc.apc.org/pbi
More Info on PBI in Colombia_________________________________________
Five Years in Columbia
During 1999 the human rights situation in Columbia continued to deteriorate
with further assassinations and threats against human rights defenders,
trade union leaders and the civilian population. These developments led to
a greatly increased demand for PBI's presence, with an increase to 30 team
members. PBI Columbia provides a constant or periodic presence in the
offices or headquarters of 13 NGO's with 90 human rights workers, in three
refuges for displaced people with 1,200 people, and in four resettlement
areas with 3,000 displaced people. The Project carries out at least two
accompaniments per day, many of which required two team members for security
reasons.
Human rights abuses by paramilitary forces in Columbia continue without
impunity, and there are numerous illegal armed actors. On 8th July 2000
masked men entered the village of La Union and gathered the inhabitants
they found. After asking them several questions and accusing them of
"supporting the guerilla", they separated the women, children and elderly
and shot at a group of men, killing six of them. La Union is a village
composed of displaced population, which sought refuge in this area after
already suffering two massacres. The displaced had proclaimed themselves a
Peace Community � Comunidad de Paz � in 1997, with the hope that the armed
actors would respect the community and that the community would not have to
abandon their land.
Columbia has one of the worst human records in the world. Despite having a
stable parliamentary system, the country is host to numerous paramilitary
organisations. There are separate, armed conflicts among three independent
insurgence groups and the army. Danilo Rueda of the
Intercongregational Justice and Peace Commission in Columbia explains that
"PBI's presence has made protective mechanisms more effective, and has
contributed to a recognition of State responsibility for security and
protection�In the midst of the barbarity their presence has enabled us�to
continue accompanying the displaced communities, those in the process of
return, and the peace communities, has prevented the numbers of
assassinated, disappeared, tortured and displaced persons from multiplying".
In October 1999, the PBI Columbia project celebrated its fifth anniversary.
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