Colombia, 2002

I greet

you, Your Excellency Mr. Jan Kavan of the Czech

Republic, President of the General Assembly, which I

address for the first time.

A short distance from here, on the fateful day 11

September, 2,801 citizens of the world died. In

Colombia, violence claims the same number of victims

every month. Forty three million Colombians, peace-

loving people, are experiencing one of the world's

worst humanitarian crises. Every year Colombia buries

34,000 of its own, victims of violence. We have lost 10

per cent of our youth. Last year the country registered

the highest homicide rate in the world: 63 per 100,000

inhabitants.

During the past five years, we have experienced

8,000 acts of collective destruction, more than those

recorded for any other cases of violence in the world;

280 villages were the object of guerrilla and

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paramilitary attacks with serious consequences for

local civilians and the armed forces. The terrorist

attack carried out during my inaugural ceremony killed

21 ordinary people. Two million people, 40 per cent of

them children, have been forcibly displaced under

pressure from violent groups. That is the equivalent of

the simultaneous displacement of the communities of

Washington and Manhattan. During the past five years,

16,500 people have been kidnap victims. Yesterday, six

children were kidnapped and one of them is still being

held.

Just as the 11 September terrorist attacks moved

the entire world and triggered justified and universal

condemnation, mankind should be shaken by attacks

such as the one carried out by guerrillas on 2 May

2002, in Bojay·, a village of 1,000 inhabitants. They

killed 117 civilians who had taken refuge in the church.

Such violence makes our people poorer every

day, discourages investments, hampers economic

growth, diverts valuable resources and prevents us

from overcoming our economic and social

backwardness. Violence absorbs four per cent of my

country's gross domestic product. Hijackings,

kidnappings and assaults are daily occurrences on our

main highways, including the one that joins our two

largest cities. Imagine a similar situation between

Brussels and Paris, or New York and Boston.

Today, Colombians are making a great effort to

address the problem with public order policies, State

reform aimed at defeating corruption and political

chicanery and greater economic growth and social

investment. The main objective of our democratic

security policy is to restore the rule of law. Security is

not for persecuting real or imagined ideological

enemies or maintaining a one-party regime. The aim of

democratic security is to protect all citizens in a

pluralist nation, open to fraternal and creative debate.

Democratic security is for all Colombians and is

intended to ensure that peasant farmers are not driven

from their land; that members of the business

community are not kidnapped; that journalists are not

threatened; and that the missions of bishops, priests,

nuns, preachers and educators are respected. It is also

intended to ensure that union leaders can freely

exercise their actions; political leaders can move about

without fear; and that human rights advocates can work

without threats.

As civilian commander-in-chief of the armed

forces, I am committed to rigorously observing and

respecting human rights. Failure in this regard may

lead to appeasement, but it would never bring

reconciliation. Our emergency measures do not restrict

human rights, but rather demand the observance of

rules, for example with regard to the mobilization of

citizens, in the name of freedom of movement, to

prevent explosives from continuing to be transported to

assassinate people.

We respect debate. The security policy that is

being implemented is not aimed at silencing criticism,

but rather at confronting violence. That policy is

irreversible.

The number of military and police personnel in

Colombia is low: 3.9 per 1,000 inhabitants. New York

has 42,000 police officers, while all of Colombia has

75,000. We must strengthen our armed forces. We have

decreed a wealth tax that will be paid by high-income

businesses and citizens. The additional tax revenue

should amount approximately to 1 per cent of the gross

domestic product.

As part of the implementation of the democratic

security policy, our Government has called on the

solidarity of a million citizens to cooperate voluntarily

with the armed forces and justice officials. An essential

element of a socially oriented constitutional State is

citizen support for its legitimate institutions. It

constitutes the individual's commitment to the

community, without which the State loses its social

nature. We must break citizen fear of the guerrillas and

paramilitaries, and we must create community-based

links with democratic institutions. To a large extent, the

efficacy and transparency of the armed forces depend

on citizen cooperation.

The Colombian problem jeopardizes the

democratic stability of the region. We need the world's

assistance to resolve it. I ask for the world's help

because my Government has made the decision to

defeat terror and to ensure that these four years do not

end in a renewed victory for crime or in new evidence

of State and societal vacillation before the arrogance of

the violent.

It is imperative that the sources of terror

financing be eliminated. That is why we must conquer

drugs and kidnapping.

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There is concern about weapons of mass

destruction within the United Nations, and we share

that anguish. But we must understand that drugs have a

massive capacity for destruction, equivalent to that of

the most feared chemical weapons.

We are determined to eliminate them. We request

the same level of commitment from the world. We

cannot continue with timid half-actions and decisions.

While we delay action, more drugs are produced

and traded by terrorism. I call on fellow members: do

not send us your weapons. Eliminate your markets for

drugs and chemical precursors. Help us with aerial

interdiction and drug seizures in the Pacific and in the

Caribbean. We need resources to pay our farmers to

destroy drugs and work to restore our forests.

Last week, Carlos Enrique Arenas, a 29-year-old

pilot serving with the Colombian navy father of a

2-year-old daughter and a second child on the way

and his co-pilot, Roberto Enrique Guardo the father

of three young children disappeared in the ocean.

The helicopter they were piloting crashed after

intercepting a speedboat carrying more than two tons

of cocaine. Sacrifices such as this demand the support

of all nations to defeat drugs, especially since until

now we have only managed to seize 20 per cent of the

drugs that are shipped from our country.

A United Nations resolution Security Council

resolution 1373 (2001) orders the seizure of bank

accounts, investments and other assets of individuals

who commit terrorist acts. That resolution has

remained a dead letter in those countries where the

resources that finance terrorist acts in Colombia

circulate.

My Administration's commitment to security is

not opposed to dialogue. Quite the contrary, we want

dialogue. This is why we have requested the good

offices of the United Nations through a special adviser

of the Secretary-General. That is the way to begin a

serious peace process, one that starts with the cessation

of violence.

The United Nations Charter tells us that dialogue

with those who commit acts of terror is possible only if

those acts are halted. The pain of thousands of

Colombians caused by the kidnapping of their loved

ones the list includes former presidential candidate

Ingrid Betancourt; several members of Congress;

members of state assemblies; the Governor of my own

state, a former minister and tireless worker for peace;

members of the armed forces, and hundreds of ordinary

people demonstrates that we need humanitarian

action that does not fuel violence but that leads us

along the path of reconciliation.

The world has plenty of analysts of Colombian

problems, and plenty of critics of our society and our

successive Governments. We need less rhetoric and

more action that is, real contributions to solving the

problem. We call for effective cooperation, because the

violence is financed through the international drug

trade and is waged with weapons not made in

Colombia.

Like other nations, we suffer dire poverty,

injustice, low investor confidence, high debt and a

budget deficit. We have always honoured and will

continue always to honour our international financial

commitments. We are making unprecedented efforts to

freeze operating expenditures and to increase taxes.

But we need significant bilateral and multilateral

economic support to invest and to expand

employment to begin to pay the social debt. A

victory over violence will trigger economic growth and

create resources for social development, which in turn

will consolidate peace.

One thought: the price of a pound of Colombian

coffee was once more than $3; it is now around 60

cents. International banks and cooperation agencies

should redouble their commitment and resources in

Colombia. The money will not to be used for wasteful

expenditures or to salvage bankruptcies, but will rather

be invested, in the interest of the poor, to ensure

governability.

The people of Colombia are proud, hard-working,

democratic and sensible; their spontaneity has not been

stifled by their suffering. The nation has the most solid

democratic tradition, widely recognized long-term

economic performance, a highly diversified industrial

base, a productive structure increasingly geared

towards international markets, and an enormous

potential for small democratic enterprises.

Representatives of the peoples of the world: with

your commitment and support, and with our own

determination, Colombia will be freed from the slavery

of violence and will be more prosperous, with greater

justice.