Recognizing 2007 As The Year Of The Rights Of Internally Displaced Persons In Columbia

Floor Speech

RECOGNIZING 2007 AS THE YEAR OF THE RIGHTS OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS IN COLOMBIA -- (House of Representatives - July 11, 2007)

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Mr. McGOVERN. I want to thank my colleague from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) for her generous words and for yielding me the time and for all of her work on behalf of human rights.

I want to thank the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Lantos, for his leadership throughout the years on behalf of those who have lost their homes, their livelihoods, and their land through violence or natural disaster.

I would also like to recognize the ranking member for her work in educating Members of Congress about the suffering of refugees and the internally displaced.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 426, which shines a light on Colombia's more than 3 million internally displaced people, or IDPs, a number second only to Sudan.

In 2005, the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees described the IDP situation in Colombia as one of the most invisible humanitarian crises in the world. This is a crisis that the government of Colombia cannot handle alone.

Earlier this year, the UNHCR, the Colombian Catholic Church, and the Consultancy for Human Rights and Internal Displacement jointly declared 2007 as the Year of the Rights of the Internally Displaced People in Colombia. This resolution commends this initiative and encourages the United States and the Colombian governments and other donor nations to place greater priority on providing the necessary resources to aid and protect Colombia's internally displaced so that they might rebuild their lives.

Mr. Speaker, an estimated 3.8 million people have been displaced inside Colombia over the past two decades. This is approximately 8 percent of Colombia's total population. Currently, 200,000 people continue to be internally displaced every year. Almost one-third of these people are Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples, and with conflict escalating in the regions of Narino and Choco, this number is likely to increase. A large majority, like displaced people all around the world, are women and children. Very few can return to their original homes. Many are displaced multiple times, finding no safety anywhere. It comes as no surprise then that Colombia's IDPs are poorer and more disenfranchised than the general population. Around three-quarters suffer from lack of food, inadequate shelter, and limited health care and other services. And, sadly, the harsh realities of life faced by the internally displaced are invisible even to most Colombians. They are a forgotten people, a marginalized people.

Mr. Speaker, I have traveled to Colombia several times, and on each trip, I have included a trip to internally displaced communities. On my very first trip in 2001, I went to Barrio Kennedy in the slums of Bogota. The majority of these families are from Tolima. They had been violently displaced by attacks mainly from FARC guerillas. They were rural families used to growing their own food and making a living by farming. In the capital, they were lost. They had no jobs. They couldn't grow their own food. They would get up early in the morning and hang around the trucks that brought in produce for the markets and gather up the food that fell off the trucks into the mud. They picked through the garbage looking for food to eat or items to barter. Alcoholism and domestic violence were rising. They lived in horrible conditions with a growing sense of hopelessness.

In 2003, I traveled north to the Department of Sucre. In Sincelejo, I visited the community of Cristo Viene. These families had been violently displaced by paramilitaries from their communities in the mountains of Maria. They had small shacks for shelter. They had organized their teenagers into a group making bracelets and other items to sell in order to give purpose to the young people and generate some income for their community. All the youngest children had the rusty colored hair indicative of malnutrition. Nearly all the infants and toddlers had serious eye disorders or were already blind from vitamin deficiency. They could get access to rudimentary electricity and water, but only if they sold their vote to a corrupt local politician.

The Colombian Catholic Church and the Mennonite churches had joined together in their first ecumenical initiative to provide schools of basic humanitarian aid for these people.

In 2001 and 2007, I visited IDP communities perched precariously on barren hills next to the municipality of Soacha, on the outskirts of Bogota. On my first visit, I saw a school and a school feeding program, both funded by the United States and carried out by World Vision and the World Food Programme. For these children, these programs were the only stability in an insecure world. Paramilitary and FARC agents roamed freely trying to recruit children into their ranks. A mother came up to me and thanked the United States for supporting the school and free meals. She told me that if these programs didn't exist, her 11-year-old son would have gone into one of the armed groups just so he could get something to eat.

When I returned to Soacha this March, little had changed. If anything, things were worse. Over the past 6 years, violence has forced hundreds of thousands out of the countryside. Many ended up in Bogota, settling in the Soacha slum. They were from all over the country. So-called landlords are charging them outrageous rents when IDPs build themselves a shack. Children can't walk to school without fear of being assaulted, robbed or raped. The price of water was several times higher than that of regular Bogota residents. IDP community leaders working with Colombian and international NGOs were doing their best to address the community's problems but lacked the necessary resources. And the local officials of Soacha were struggling to meet basic needs.

Madam Speaker, I am proud that the United States has always targeted resources for IDP communities, and the recent House-passed Foreign Operations appropriations bill increases that funding.

Madam Speaker, H. Res. 426 is a bipartisan bill, and I want to thank my colleague, Congressman JOE PITTS of Pennsylvania, for joining me in introducing this legislation. It is supported by Refugees International, Catholic Relief Services, the Mennonite Central Committee, Jesuit Refugee Services USA, the Jesuit Conference of the United States, Lutheran World Relief, the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps and several other national organizations.

Madam Speaker, I commend the UNHCR, the Colombian Catholic Church and CODHES for bringing attention to this humanitarian crisis facing Colombia's internally displaced. I hope that there will be a renewed effort by the United States and the world community to help these people.

I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 426.

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