Posted on 06/16/2004 8:15:08 PM PDT by El Conservador
He said some NGOs avoid pronouncing themselves on actions by organizations with which they seem to have idelogical coincidence
"It hurts me that yesterday 34 peasants had their throats slit and Amnesty International keeps quiet. Amnesty International, the same one that abuses its good reputation to accuse the Colombian Armed Forces, to mistreat it with ill words, to mistreat it with slander", he declared on a Police ceremony.
Amnesty Internationa, the one that at this hour hasn't pronounced itself, and that roams the European governments' high offices asking for the condemn the Colombian government, because, they say, it's terrorist", added the president
In his intervention, Uribe warned that human rights NGOs "cannot have political bias", because those rights have to be above any political color.
"Human rights NGOs can't point to an act of authority as a violation of human rights, when the act of authority is carried out by a government of an opposing political ideology. And they can't either keep quiet when the terrorist act is committed by a terrorist organization with which they seem to have ideological coincidences", he denounced.
"I know the debate is hard, but I have to do it", said Uribe, who received harsh criticism last year from some institutions in Colombia and abroad, when he accused a sector of NGOs of being acomplices of terrorism and "human rights traffickers".
"The fatherland is crying today for 34 dead peasants in La Gabarra (northeast Colombia. Can we keep quiet in the light of that? Then the president has to play nice with Amnesty International and not say anything to keep pretenses?", declared the president.
Then he continued: "Here, to keep pretenses, in many decades we have allowed terrorism to mistreat Colombians. To guard rules of hypocrite courtesy and not having the courage of denouncing Amnesty International, we've allowed the legitimacy of terrorism internationally".
"Que Amnistía escoja con quién se queda. Si se queda con los que degollaron a los 34 campesinos de La Gabarra. Si se queda con los terroristas que han asesinado a nuestros policías y nuestros soldados, y que causan luto a las familias, o si se queda con las instituciones colombianas y las respeta", advirtió.
"Para mí es más importante la defensa de los campesinos para que no los sigan degollando, o la defensa de los soldados, a simplemente guardar silencio para no incomodar a Amnistía Internacional", dijo.
"For me, it's more important the defense of peasant to keep them from having their throats slit, or the defense of the soldiers, than simply keep quite to avoid bothering Amnesty Internationa", he said.
Colombia ping (small but strong!!!)
Please put me on your ping list.
I daresay the American media will not report this. Thanks for posting it.
Consider yourself added!!!
BTTT
BUMPMARK
Amnesty International is a joke.
Turn the AUC loose and start up some more to beat the Marxist terrs at their own game.
The two most effective groups in recent Colombian history were M.A.S. and P.E.P.E.S. and both were paramilitary in the extreme.
It's a tough country.
Amnesty International has always played favorites.
The AUC - at least Carlos Castano and the others who were supporting the government on their own hook - got a bum rap, if you ask me.
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