News
U.S. Supports Memorial Ceremony to Honor Victims of El Salado Massacre
September 11, 2009
So as to promote reconciliation and grant victims of illicit armed groups access to their right to truth, justice, and redress of grievance, the U.S. Government through its Agency for International Development (USAID) supports the 2nd version of the Historical Memory Week, organized by the National Commission for Redress of Grievance and Reconciliation (CNRR its acronym in Spanish). The event is taking place September 13-25, 2009. On Sunday, September 13, CNRR presented the report entitled: La masacre de El Salado: esa guerra no es nuestra (“The Salado Massacre: This War is Not Ours”). It presents and assesses the massacre committed by paramilitaries on February 2000 against residents of El Salado, Bolivar. The historical memory here summarizes the extreme cruelty of war and the perverse consequences of stigmatizing the civilian population.
The event was presided over by Eduardo Pizarro, CNRR Chairman; Ileana Baca, Director of USAID/Colombia Demobilization and Reintegration Program; Frank Pearl, Senior Presidential Advisor for Reintegration and Alejandro Santos, Chairman of the Fundación Semana, among others.
In order to move along the execution of the National Redress of Grievance Plan, CNRR employed USAID financial resources to develop and begin a collective redress of grievance pilot plan for symbolic cases: La Libertad (San Onofre, Sucre), La India (Landázuri, Santander), Buenos Aires (Cauca), El Salado (Carmen de Bolívar, Bolívar), El Tigre (Valle del Guamez, Putumayo), La Gabarra (Tibú, Norte de Santander) and the collectives Madres de la Candelaria (Medellín, Antioquia) and the Trade Union Movement (nation wide), who all suffered continuous violations to their human rights and to the International Humanitarian Law.
The support USAID provides to these communities is worth USD$500,000 and includes support to meet their basic needs such as healthcare, potable water and basic sanitary services, housing, food, education, community projects, community infrastructure adjustments, symbolic redress of grievance activities, organizational strengthening and psychosocial care.
In El Salado, USAID’s refitting of the local health center was worth USD 20,000. They will also begin the construction of a USD 25,000 computer center at the local elementary school that will benefit 230 boys and girls ages 6 to 15.
As part of another project, CNRR and USAID jointly organized a theatre forum to discuss the problems and consequences of forced displacement and forced disappearances within a social network.
Others equally committed to this process are: Fundación Semana, Coltabaco (Colombian Tobacco Company), Colombian Jurists Commission, the Secretary General on the Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP/OAS) and the Mayor’s Office.