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A PROPHETIC CALL:

Colombian Protestant Churches document their Suffering and their Hope

Bogotá, August 2006
Thursday 5 October 2006, by Janna Hunter-Bowman · Jenny Neme · 
Justapaz and the Commission for Restoration Life and Peace of CEDECOL last jointly reported in 2003 on the violence related to the armed conflict as it affects churches. The two organizations have now joined together to provide an updated report based on the results of a grass-roots documentation program focused on the Protestant churches of Colombia, a minority group estimated at more than five million people.

During the report period of January 2006 through July 2006, this report notes 29 assassinations of men, women and children linked to congregations, 84 cases of displacement, 21 civilian combat-related injuries, four arbitrary detentions and other human rights violations. Also documented in this report are several significant social restoration and peacebuilding initiatives undertaken by Protestant churches in the past three years.

To address the underlying factors that both cause and allow unacceptable violence to continue, the churches call for specific changes in Colombian and U.S. national policy.

We invite you to share this compelling data, pray for the victims, the perpetrators and the peacemakers, and advocate-speak truth to government officials — on behalf of those brave souls who, despite the smell of death, continue to give life to seeds of peace.

Please help us distribute this report widely. We invite church and advocacy organizations to reproduce, in part or whole, this report as useful in their education and policy advocacy efforts. A limited number of hard copies will soon be available through Mennonite Central Committee, Jean L Sensenig, jls@mcc.org

Sincerely,

Jenny Neme , Director Justapaz

Ricardo Esquivia , Director Commission for Restoration, Life and Peace Justapaz

Janna Hunter-Bowman , Documentation and Advocacy Coordinator, Justapaz

Pedro Acosta , Advocacy Coordinator, Commission for Restoration, Life and

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A PROPHETIC CALL No. 1
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