OCCCA

Today is market day and farmers are bringing their cattle into the town. The scene could almost be mistaken for the Swiss Alps if it wasn’t for the military road blocks, the sand bag posts around the square and the bombed building beside the church.

When the guerrilla forces took the town in the early 1990s they partly destroyed the church with mortar fire and flattened the priest’s house. The church has been restored but the parish decided that, rather than rebuild the presbytery, they would use their resources to help destitute families who are trying to rebuild their lives after decades of violence and displacement.

Carmen del Atrato is situated in a mountain pass which links the Pacific Coast with the Colombian mainland. The town has always been of strategic importance and over the years, its people have suffered violence at the hands of left wing Guerrillas, right wing paramilitary groups and the Colombian army. The military are now in command and people displaced to shanty towns in Medellin or Bogotá are beginning to move back to their farms.

Some families have managed to rebuild their houses and replant crops. Others are faced with the hardship of starting from scratch with no resources, overgrown land and burned out homes. SCIAF’s support will provide them with the seeds and tools they need and help them to gain legal ownership of their land.

One of the remarkable things about SCIAF’s partner, OCCCA, is that they have maintained neutrality throughout the conflict. Not taking sides meant they were victimised by each of the armed groups who assumed that they were helping their enemies.

At the community-run sugar cane processing plant, which was once captured and used as a military base by guerrillas, I hear the stories of their resistance.

For refusing to take sides, the townspeople were punished with killings and forced displacements. Every family here is a casualty of the violence but I am inspired by their strength and solidarity which has allowed them to survive and to keep hoping for a peaceful future.

SCIAF is supporting Caritas Colombia in its work with the victims of the conflict and their quest for truth, justice and reparation. We believe that a lasting peace in Colombia can not be achieved until all sides agree to recognise what really happened during the decades of civil war.

Before the people of Carmen del Atrato can truly move on, the government must ensure that the perpetrators of violence are brought to justice, witnesses are protected and families who have lost everything are given the support they need to rebuild their lives.

SCIAF will be taking part in an international campaign on the rights of victims of the Colombian armed conflict.

At the end of the meeting we share a cup of freshly picked, roasted and ground organic coffee, sweetened with raw sugar cane. It is definitely the best cup of coffee I’ve ever tasted.