delegations

• Delegation to Colombia: Apply Today!
  
• Letter from the Field: A Stranger in Our Midst
• U.S.-Aided Intelligence Unit Accuses Human Rights Groups
  
• The Dark Side of Plan Colombia
  
• Pentagon Plans Intervention Ability from Military Base
  
• News Briefs: Reasons to Celebrate; Called to Trial; A C.O. Speaks
  

Delegation to Colombia: Apply Today!

August 15-29, 2009: Delegation to San Jose Peace Community, Medellin and Eastern Antioquia

Witness the incredible commitment and experience of the Peace Community of San José and other Colombian grassroots initiatives.

Program Highlights:

• Travel to the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó
• Meet
  with people whose family members have been killed by the U.S.-funded
  Colombian army and are nonviolently working for justice for these
  crimes.
• Meet grassroots activists who courageously and creatively advocate for truth, justice and integral reparations.
• Experience
  unparalleled access and a rich part of Colombian life to understand
  both the war's impacts on peasant communities and advances to justice.
• Convey your experience as a group to U.S. officials

Four decades of armed conflict in Colombia have led to indigenous
people, women, union activists, youth, journalists, and human rights
workers being subject to killing, displacement, and kidnapping. Now,
victims have united in a national movement to demand that the
perpetrators of these crimes be held responsible.

Caroline Chinlund is a psychologist in New York City who has been involved in the Peace movement since the Viet Nam era. Caroline participated in the February-March 2008 civilian diplomacy delegation to Iran with the Fellowship of Reconciliation as part of her peace activities.

Roger Cohen, a columnist for The New York Times, wrote an excellent Op-Ed that was published two days ago in the Sunday edition of the Times. Titled "What Iran's Jews Say," it has been one of the top two "most e-mailed" articles on nytimes.com for the past couple days. Cohen's depiction of the Iranian Jewish community as both historic and ongoing reflects the witness and engagement that the Fellowship of Reconciliation's Iran delegations have experienced -- especially the two delegations in 2008 which sent a number of U.S. Jewish peace activists to Iran.

Several more reports have been received in the past 24 hours from FOR's 9th civilian diplomacy delegation to Iran. Father Louie Vitale writes:

The Fellowship of Reconciliation's ninth peace and civilian diplomacy delegation to Iran arrived safely in Tehran on Thursday, February 19th. There are six members of this delegation, making it the smallest one to date, as two-thirds of the group were denied visas. FOR is deeply concerned about what we are experiencing as an increasing series of challenges to an already difficult process of obtaining visas for U.S. citizens.

The six members of the current delegation come from New York and California. They are:

I just came back to the United States after a three-week trip to Iran. I led two civilian diplomacy delegations during those three weeks. The first one was a delegation of three CodePink leaders, small in number but important in substance.

Being with the two co-founders of Code Pink and another key member was a wonderful and unique experience. I learned a lot … and expended much energy! They are passionate about the need for peace and tireless in their pursuit of that goal.

FOR Iran Program Director Leila Zand (left) is interviewed by an Iranian journalist at Yousef-Abad Synagogue in Tehran.

More reports have come in today from the Fellowship of Reconciliation's 8th peace delegation to Iran. Jacob R., a young Jewish activist from the U.S. Pacific Northwest, has posted three reflections on a blog he is maintaining.

Before traveling to Iran, Jacob had expressed his commitment to building ties across political and religious lines, noting that he has traveled three times to Palestine and Israel to help connect Israeli Jews with Palestinians living in the West Bank. This formed a foundation for his interest in visiting Iran, and learning about the historic relationships between Muslim and Jewish communities in that land. What follows is an excerpt from his most recent set of written reflections:

Our 8th peace delegation to Iran is currently underway. One of the participants is Rae Abileah, who is is an organizer with Code Pink. She has been posting some great photos from the trip. You can see them in the slideshow below or view them full size at Flickr.

I am currently traveling in Iran with three leaders from Code Pink: Women for Peace.

Since my introduction to the peace movement in the U.S. about 4 years ago, I always wanted to work and collaborate with different organizations and people in the movement.  We at FOR have reached out to many organizations and worked with many of them in any occasions we found, such as the meeting with President Ahmadinejad we organized in September.  But this collaboration with Code Pink is an interesting experience for me.

Earlier this month, syndicated columnist Robert Koehler wrote about Civilian Diplomacy.  His column did a great job of explaining the historic founding of FOR in 1915 as well as the power of FOR's peace delegations to Iran. Koehler said a lot of smart things - such as "If we know enough we'll never go to war again" - but my favorte parts were the words of delegate Hank Brusselback:

"If the government isn't willing to talk to people, then the people need to be willing to (talk to each other)," Brusselback said. "It comes from a belief in the nature of security -- it's not about weapons, fear and posturing on the world stage. It's about communication, talking to people, everyone having their basic needs met. If you understood security that way, you'd see that security is about dialogue."  [...]

The following is a letter from Sara Koopman, recently returned from our August peace delegation to Colombia.

Dear friends and family,

Thanks for all your support vibes last week! Well, I was sweating so much in the tropical hazy heat that there wasn't much danger of me wandering off the path to pee. So, happily I didn't get blown up on the hike up to the peace community, though my stomach, skin and throat did all puff up incredibly - I got miserably sick in several unpleasant ways (thus the delay in this report-back), but I managed to keep it together long enough to be fabulously inspired by the brave folks there who are resisting being displaced from their land (1 in 10 Colombians have been forced to flee their homes and communities - and in the traditionally Afro-Colombian regions it`s more like 1 in 3).

It`s not hard to see why so many different actors want to get their hands on this land - it's stunningly gorgeous incredibly fertile tropical land in mountains that allow for access to a major Caribbean gulf port (that lots of arms and drugs flow in and out of) and access down to several valleys. It's harder to see how the community members have been brave enough to stay, and even serve on the community council, when over a hundred of them have been killed for it. Why are they willing to risk so much to build a peace space in the midst of a hot war zone?