Pubdate: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 Source: Boston Globe (MA) Copyright: 2001 Globe Newspaper Company Contact: P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378 Feedback: http://extranet.globe.com/LettersEditor/default.asp Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/ Author: Richard Chacon COLOMBIA'S NEUTRAL FIND NO PEACE SAN JOSE DE APARTADO, Colombia - The small hand-painted sign at the entrance to this remote mountain village is the first clue to the hope, frustration, and defiance within. "We say 'no' to injustice," reads the sign nailed to two tree branches next to the bumpy dirt road that leads into town. "We don't carry arms or participate with any armed actors." In a country fractured by years of conflict among cold-blooded insurgent groups and increasingly violent drug traffickers, the hamlet of 1,100, near the Panamanian border, has boldly declared itself a neutral "peace community." But it finds itself under attack by groups who scorn its wishes and seek to control it, and residents are paying with their lives. Here, there are two golden rules: Residents are forbidden to help any group involved in fighting Colombia's civil war; and no one brandishing a weapon - not leftist guerrillas, not right-wing paramilitaries, not even government police and soldiers - is allowed to enter the town or harass its inhabitants. "We don't accept any armed people here, whether they're from the government or not, because we see them as a possible threat to our people," said Luis Eduardo Guerra, 31, a member of the village council, which functions as the government. "The only weapon we have to survive is our neutrality and transparency." San Jose de Apartado is the oldest and largest of a growing number of "peace communities" that have sprouted in recent years across the war-torn country, formed by people weary of being questioned, threatened, or killed for their allegiance to one side or another. With assistance from international human rights organizations and local churches, the hamlets have created their own demilitarized zones, often replacing traditional government bodies with local councils that do everything from managing the local food cooperative to enforcing rules against guns, drugs, and alcohol. But there is an element of defiance in the community's attitude that has frustrated the authorities. Local and federal officials say that by refusing to allow a police or military presence, peace communities leave themselves open to attacks by rebels and make it impossible for government workers to provide basic services, such as health and education. There is only one school in San Jose de Apartado, one teacher, and few supplies. The village's only health clinic is run part time by a doctor who comes twice a week. "The philosophy of the peace communities is to reject guerrillas and paramilitaries, but they're also rejecting the police and soldiers who are supposed to protect them," said Antonina Chaverra, a local representative of the federal attorney general's office. She added that the residents' stubbornness has thwarted her attempts to collect evidence in recent killings allegedly carried out by paramilitary groups. There is little drug cultivation in this area of the Uruba region. But its geographic location - near major rivers, an international border, and two oceans - makes it crucial for rebels and drug cartels transporting drugs, guns, or supplies. Their self-proclaimed neutrality in a region where there is constant fighting has failed to bring peace to the residents of San Jose de Apartado and other nearby peace communities. Leftist guerrillas suspect them of being right-wing sympathizers; paramilitary soldiers think many are protecting leftist rebels; and the army thinks the town is crawling with "subversives." Since the area declared itself neutral in March 1997, human rights officials say, more than 80 residents have died in selective killings or massacres, including one a year ago in which five people were shot at point-blank range in front of observers from Peace Brigades International, a London-based group. During a visit Sunday from a US congressional delegation headed by James McGovern of Massachusetts and Janice Schakowsky of Illinois, residents and international organizations attributed most of the attacks to rightist paramilitary groups. Residents blame them for nine recent murders. They also accuse the military of collaborating with the paramilitaries or allowing them to threaten the communities - a charge that military commanders emphatically deny. "We combat all illegal armed groups and people outside the law," said General Gabriel Contreras Ochoa, commander of the Colombian army's 1st Division. Although the residents refuse military protection within the town, Contreras added, "we will continue to protect and preserve the safety of the community." Ten years ago, residents say, San Jose de Apartado was a thriving agricultural town of 4,000 residents in the heart of Colombia's so-called "banana axis," famous for its miniature bananas. The area was then controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. In October 1996, paramilitaries swept in and killed Samuel Arias, chief of the local farmers cooperative, and Gustavo Loisa, president of the agricultural association. Those killings were followed by another predawn invasion in February 1997, when paramilitary troops pulled residents from their beds, assembled them in the town square, and read names from a list. Those who were called were tied up, carried off, and killed for suspicion of being FARC supporters. Most of the survivors fled, leaving the town nearly empty. Within weeks, however, displaced families from smaller hamlets whose own villages had been attacked moved in. Many settled here at the urging of Catholic nuns and human rights workers, who promised to help them create a peace community. Since then, 54 such communities have been established, military officials say. Some allow a minimal police or military presence, but many do not, either because they fear the army's troubled human rights record or worry about attracting unwanted attention from FARC forces. More recently, residents complain that paramilitary units have stolen thousands of dollars in food and money by attacking delivery trucks on the main road that connects the peace communities to the larger town of Apartado, about 15 miles away. "This is the paramilitary's strategy of economic strangulation to force us to align with them," said one resident. "How could they do this with so many military soldiers around here? It's not such a big mystery, really. But we refuse to give up our neutrality." - --- MAP posted-by: Andrew