United States Agency for International
Development
Bureau for Humanitarian Response
Office of Transition Initiatives
Program Description
The main objective of the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) program in Colombia is to facilitate and accelerate the peace process at the national level, and to build stability and cooperation at the community level. OTI's program in Colombia began with three innovative pilot activities in 1999 and a budget of $1.1 million. Although the budget has increased to $3.75 million, the goals remain the same.
Country Situation
In spite of the optimism that existed one year ago, peace did not come to Colombia in 2000. Negotiations between the Government of Colombia (GOC) and the FARC, Colombia's main rebel group, remain frozen. The FARC continues its control of the despeje zone, the Switzerland-sized area given over to them by the GOC two years ago as a major incentive to negotiate, but its future is in doubt. Just as the agreement was due to expire on December 7, it was extended until January 31, 2001. This short extension, compared to last year's six-month extension, is an expression of both public and government frustration with the stalled peace talks. President Pastrana continues to press for peace, but public sentiment is running against additional concessions to the FARC as guerrillas continue to operate with seeming impunity throughout Colombia, engaging in massive kidnappings, indiscriminate murder of civilians and police, and use of child soldiers. The despeje has come to be seen as the GOC-approved base for these operations.
The GOC military scored their first major victory in months when they trapped a FARC column making its way through a mountainous area in the north of the country. The guerrillas were preparing for a new assault on a village. Reports indicated 77 FARC fighters were captured and 46 were killed. However, the most disturbing news of the incident was the numbers of child combatants participating in the FARC column - 32 of the 77 captured were under 18 (19 of whom were also under 15), as were 20 of the 44 who were killed. It is unclear whether this column is atypically young, or if the number of children estimated to be fighting in the FARC needs to be revised substantially upwards.
Child soldiers are particularly vulnerable in Colombia, and are used by all guerrilla fronts, as well as by the paramilitaries. Previous estimates were that there were between 3,000 and 7,000 child combatants. OTI's $2.5 million child soldier program will help address the issue.
OTI Highlights
A. Narrative Summary
OTI signed five additional small peace grants under its grant to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). A total of eight sub-grants have been approved since the grant was signed on September 11, worth over $208,000.
Two subgrants were given to the organization Medios Para La Paz, which is well known for its work to de-sensationalize and de-glorify the conflict by helping journalists use non-inflammatory language and remain neutral. Their programs help the media shape public opinion for peace and assist media to avoid manipulation by armed groups. The first grants will enable Medios to extend their university courses in journalism to five major cities. The second will fund a web site that their member journalists (and others) can access, replacing the print magazine they had previously published but were forced to abandon due to high costs and circulation difficulties.
Two other subgrants will support community radio and television stations in war-torn areas. These stations strengthen communities and grassroots organizations as bulwarks against the conflict by promoting peaceful dialogue. Connecting the stations to national or regional networks will increase access to responsible and ethical voices in journalism and improve the local climate for peace in frontline areas. In addition, these two subgrants will fund the training of local community leaders as journalists, which will also help protect them by increasing their exposure outside their communities, enabling human rights NGOs to track them and their activities more closely.
The final new subgrant supports outreach by the Youth Clubs of Florencia (a frontline city in the south of the country) into areas which have been settled by internally displaced families. The Youth Clubs will take a collection of war-like toys and replace them with nonviolent toys, symbolically destroying the old toys by making them into a "wall of peace" in a local park. A separate USAID-funded activity will complement this initiative by supporting the expansion of the Youth Clubs into these areas on a permanent basis, providing a positive alternative to gangs, drugs and illegal armed forces for displaced teens.
B. Grants Activity Summary
OTI currently has three grants in implementation in Colombia.
OTI's $500,000 grant with IOM funds the small peace grants initiative. Entitled "Strengthening Peace through Civil Society Initiatives at the Community Level", the project makes small grants (under $50,000) to local organizations that are working for peace, in particular seeking out local initiatives that can have a national impact.
OTI's $250,756 grant to the Salesian Missions provides scholarships for children from war zones who are at risk of being recruited by armed factions; makes small productive loans to vulnerable populations; and funds small community projects for disadvantaged populations in Meta province. The project currently has 162 micro-credit loans and 14 community projects. This grant will end in January 2001.
OTI also supports the Javeriana University and Georgetown University ($195,625) as they work with the GOC to develop negotiating positions for the peace talks with the FARC.
C. Indicators of Success
Both the OTI subgrantees featured in the November OTI report have received important recognition in the past month. The Colombian Theatre Corporation was selected by Semana magazine as one of the ten most innovative peace initiatives of the year for their theatrical work "Death Wanders Around," written by children whose families have been displaced by violence.
OTI's grant to the Unidad Investigativa television series to negotiate ceasefires between gangs also received massive press coverage. The director took the stars of his top-rated soap opera Gangsters, War & Peace (the stars are former gang members themselves) to Popayán, where his first OTI-funded negotiation resulted in a truce between five gangs, and collected some 3,000 weapons. As part of the project, the mayor's office agreed to fund eight micro-enterprises for 200 former gang members. The press in Popayán hailed the disarmament (and the subsequent soccer game) as one of the best things to happen to the city in a long time, and it made the front pages for the week of December 11. The documentaries will air nationally December 25, January 1 and 8. The OTI initiative will fund at least three additional documentaries and ceasefires - including one request to negotiate in a notoriously dangerous prison. Over 90 percent of the violent deaths in the country are caused not by the civil conflict, but by gangs, drug wars and other violence which are outgrowths of the conflict's violence and erosion of law and order.
D. Program Appraisal
The OTI program is advancing, and has played a key role in setting the agenda for assistance to internally displaced people, and supporting peace initiatives. Bringing peace to Colombia involves more than just a settlement between the armed groups, but also a disarming of the violence which is an inevitable outgrowth of that conflict.
NEXT STEPS/IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES
OTI's immediate priority is to begin assisting former child combatants. This is one of the biggest issues of the conflict, along with the need for the guerrilla groups to agree to respect international humanitarian law. The GOC has a pilot program to assist former child combatants, and OTI will strengthen and expand on it as part of its program. OTI expects to make significant progress on this issue in the January.
For more information, please contact:
In Colombia, David Gould,
tel. 571-315-2116 or e-mail: dgould@usaid.gov.
In Washington, Americas Team Leader Russell Porter, tel.
202-712-5455, or e-mail: rporter@usaid.gov.