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ACT Update

Colombia - LACO21 - 01/2003

Relief for Internally Displaced

Geneva, 26 March, 2003

For many years Colombia has suffered from an internal armed conflict, involving the Colombian Army, guerrilla groups and paramilitary forces, which has escalated steadily in recent years. Continual threats, kidnapping, selective murder, forced disappearances, recruitment of children, burning and destruction of houses has caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. The peace talks between the Government and the largest guerrilla group in the country - FARC- were disrupted at the beginning of 2002. This has led to intensification of the hostilities between the various groups all over the country and particularly in the zone controlled by the FARC (40,000 km2). With the break down of the peace talks the army started the "recovery" of the areas resulting in the population fleeing their homes in fear of the bombing campaign and the arrival of the paramilitary groups.

An ACT appeal was issued on 18 March 2002 including the proposals from the Lutheran Church of Colombia, LWF/DWS, ACT Netherlands - Project Counselling Service (PCS) - and Diakonie, Germany. So far the activities have been accomplished by Diakonie and ACT Neherlands-Project Counselling Service.

The ACT member, Lutheran Church of Colombia/LWF/DWS has requested an extension of the date of completion of the appeal from 30 April 2002 to 31 July 2003 due to the following reasons:

  • Late arrival of the funds
  • Delays from other organizations committed to providing complementary support to the projects.
  • Slowness in the participation process of the community due to security reasons (fear of being identified as displaced)

Click here for a brief update (PDF file) of the Lutheran Church/LWF/DWS project activities.

The ACT CO recommends the approval of the extension.