Pubdate: Thu, 07 Sep 2000
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2000, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Forum: http://forums.theglobeandmail.com/
Author: David L. Raby, chair, Canadian Initiatives for Peace with Justice 
in Colombia

COLOMBIA'S TRAGEDY

Congratulations on Rick Salutin's Colombia: This Week's Kosovo (Sept. 1). 
It was a great satisfaction to find the plain and unvarnished truth about 
U.S. policy toward that long-suffering country set forth so explicitly. 
Those of us who work for human rights and a just peace in Colombia had 
hoped that Canada, like some European countries, would take a clearer 
position against the folly of Plan Colombia. But Ottawa, true to a fine 
Canadian tradition of facile posturing, has gone along with the plan while 
expressing mild reservations about some aspects of it. Meanwhile, the 
fragile peace process in which the Colombian government, the insurgents and 
civil society are striving to end that country's conflict is on the point 
of collapse. The stream of refugees from Colombia will soon become a flood 
and the drug-trafficking mafia led by paramilitary butcher Carlos Castao 
will not suffer one iota as U.S. interventionism continues on its arrogant 
path. 
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart