OneWorld.net (U.S.)

BOGOTA, Sep 10 (OneWorld) - Colombia's nineteenth annual Peace Week was launched Sunday by a coalition of local non-profit groups, with a call for a greater focus on truth to help alleviate the country's ongoing conflict.

© Lutheran World ReliefThe Week, which has been held every year since 1988, will include concerts, peaceful protests, and an ambitious campaign to bring about a nationwide peace ballot.

Peace Week "should be an opportunity for all Colombian men and women to practice and to experiment with the values of honesty, bravery, and loyalty in the construction of peace and reconciliation with social justice," said Ana Teresa Bernal, director of the Peace Initiatives Network (REDEPAZ).

The week's events have been organized by 37 organizations, including REDEPAZ, the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, and the Islamic Cultural Center. They hope Peace Week will give greater voice to the victims of Colombia's violence, whose perspectives, they say, often go unreported by the media.

The related ballot campaign, which is calling for a "Vote on Freedom, Peace and Hostage Exchanges" to be included in October's regional elections, will also be formally launched on Thursday.

In July, thousands of Colombians marched for the return of the country's more than 3,000 hostages, yet negotiations over a possible exchange between the government and left-wing guerrillas remain stalled.

If the ballot proposal succeeds, voters in the regional elections would be given an extra ballot paper to mark their support for a short text, which demands political commitment to end Colombia's violence.

The campaign already has the support of almost 200 organizations, but needs the approval of the National Electoral Committee to become part of the elections. Should the Committee reject the idea, the campaign organizers plan to carry out the ballot unofficially, by placing ballot boxes through the country from October 1.

In 1997, 10 million Colombians supported a similar initiative, which led to a so-called Citizens' Mandate for Peace, Life, and Freedom.

The Mandate helped bring about the handover of children kidnapped by left-wing ELN guerrillas, as well as encouraging candidates in the country's 1998 presidential election to commit themselves to peace talks.

The winning candidate that year, Andres Pastrana, began peace negotiations with the FARC guerrillas, involving the creation of a demilitarized zone, measuring 42,000 square kilometers in the south of Colombia. In 2001, however, the talks were abandoned after it was revealed that the zone was being used for drugs production and kidnapping.

© Refugees InternationalThe obstacles to peace in Colombia have evolved significantly in recent years. Pastrana's successor as president, Alvaro Uribe, has not resumed peace negotiations with the FARC, stating the need to weaken the group militarily to enable future dialogue. More radically, in 2003, the Uribe government signed a peace agreement -- which has been severely criticized for its leniency -- with the country's right-wing paramilitaries.

The criticisms of the paramilitary demobilization process are captured in this year's Peace Week slogan: "Truth conquers impunity. Truth, force for peace."

Under the 2003 peace agreement, paramilitary leaders -- responsible for some of the country's worst atrocities -- will receive a maximum of eight years in jail, providing they confess fully to their crimes. But the accounts rendered so far by key paramilitaries have proved highly unsatisfactory to many victims, often descending into accusations against other individuals and organizations rather than focusing on truth and reparation.

One major paramilitary leader, known as Jorge 40, appeared in court with a placard citing Jesus' biblical phrase, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." In his testimony, Jorge 40 refused to provide information on the murder of many civilians by paramilitaries under his control as he "had not personally participated in the fighting." Many victims attending the hearing walked out in protest.

A key event during Peace Week will be the first national meeting of Mothers for Life, which brings together over 300 female victims of violence.

"The mothers' voices have the authority to say that Colombia can't keep on accepting violence as a way of resolving any type of conflict," said REDEPAZ's Bernal.

On Wednesday, the mothers will sew a map of Colombia showing the fighting's impact, in the main square of the capital, Bogota.

Yet the organizers also hope that the call for truth will apply beyond the sphere of political violence.

"This year we want to strengthen the conception of truth in everyday scenarios -- personal, family, school, social, and public," said Peace Week participant Hector Fabio Henao of the organization Pastoral Social.

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