Aid to the Church in Need: Colombia: The village of Bojayà

Colombia: The village of Bojayà - symbol of the folly of war

Posted by Press release on 2/12/2008, 3:28 pm
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Bojayà, symbol of the folly of war

A journey to the heart of the Colombian selva, among narcos, paracos and guérilleros

by Jacques Berset

A mutilated Christ, without arms or legs, hangs in a glazed niche behind the altar of the new church in Bojayà, in the centre of the new village of Bellavista-Bojayà… This "Christo mutilado" is the symbolic figure of a future shrine to the place where almost 100 villagers died after taking refuge in the village church. The parish priest would like to turn this martyred village into a place of pilgrimage, a symbol of the warlike barbarity that has ravaged Colombia for several decades.
The people of Bojayà, in the heart of the virgin forest on the Pacific coast, has still not recovered from the trauma of this terrible event, six and a half years after it happened. This little village lies tucked away in the humid selva, the rainforest, on the banks of the Rio Atrato, the vast river that travels for almost 450 miles through the Department of Choco before flowing out into the Gulf of Uraba, in the north-west of the country, on the Caribbean side.

The "pueblo nuevo" of Bojayà, with its concrete block houses grouped around the new church in the parish of St Paul the Apostle, looks sad on this muddy autumn day. Situated a little back from the river, it was rebuilt less than a kilometre from the site of the tragedy that cost the lives of almost 90 civilians, half of them children, who had sought refuge in the little village church.

On that day, the 2nd of May 2002, the second day of the military stand-off between the guerrillas of the FARC and the paramilitaries of the AUC (Autodefensas unidas de Colombia), the guérilleros were trying to dislodge the "paracos" who were hidden in the houses close to the church. Father Vicente Gonzalez Murillo, who arrived in the parish in 2006, tells us that the paramilitaries had turned the civilian population into a veritable "human shield". The parishioners had sought refuge from the fighting in the presbytery, the health centre, the wooden convent of the Augustinian missionary sisters and in the little church right next to it, directly opposite the old landing stage that linked the village to the Rio Atrato.

It was later established that several hundred paramilitaries belonging to the "Elmer Cardenas" brigade, led by Freddy Rendón Herrera, alias "El Alemán", had passed unhindered through the military checkpoints of the regular Colombian army, which is in cahoots with these extreme right-wing militia. The "paracos", preceded by their sinister reputation in regard to human rights violations and the massacre of civilian populations, were seeking to recapture the area, which had been controlled for the past two years by Fronts 5 and 57 of the Bloc José Maria Córdoba of the FARC.
One of the "pipetas" launched by the FARC - a gas cylinder filled with gunpowder and bits of scrap iron and fired from a homemade mortar -- crashed through the roof of the church and landed on the altar. The explosion ripped the building open and blew the roof off, dismembering everybody in its path.

Under the drumming rain, the ruins of the old village of Bojayà suddenly appear on the luxuriant banks of the Rio Atrato. We have now reached our destination, after a journey of almost 4 hours on the rapid launch belonging to the diocese of Quibdo, zigzagging among the dangerous tree trunks floating on the grey water.
On this journey of some 125 miles (200 km) we had passed no fewer than seven "retenes" - military checkpoints of the army, the marine infantry or the national police -- where on each occasion we were required to present our papers and give the reasons for our presence there.
While the river is safe during the daytime, there is no question of trying to navigate it once the sun has set, or of venturing onto its tributaries, since this is where the FARC, the "paracos" and the drug traffickers hold sway. Passing anywhere within range of the "lanchas Piranha", the fast military launches equipped with four machine guns and a cannon and hiding beneath the overhanging branches of the trees, you are strongly recommended to stop... for the soldiers can shoot without warning -- something that has already happened before!
The diocesan boat is certainly highly visible, with all its crew wearing yellow hats and distinctively marked lifejackets -- not to speak of the conspicuous signs on the bows of the vessel, depicting an M-16 rifle at the centre of a large red circle, with a line through it... Our guide, Bishop Fidel Leon Cadavid Marin, has taken care of all the necessary documentation. Our journey has been notified in advance to the security forces and on several occasions the soldiers respectfully salute the Bishop of Quibdo.

(Bishop Fidel Leon Cadavid climbing out of the Diocesan boat)

The village of Bojayà was evacuated following the tragedy of May 2002. There are only 800 people left, whereas there had been around 1200 inhabitants before the incursion of the "paracos". Many people took refuge afterwards in the departmental capital, Quibdo. As throughout Choco, here too the people are overwhelmingly black (the "afrodescendientes", or descendants of slaves) together with some Embera Indians, Father Vicente tells us.

"The people have suffered a terrible trauma. You might think, seeing their smiles, their spontaneity, that they have forgotten it all. But when you have the chance to get to know them better, you can see that the suffering caused by that fateful day has not gone away... and the memory of it will not be simply wiped away by the building of a new village -- a way of the Colombian government acknowledging its moral responsibility in the face of these terrible events... No, it is going to take some time yet!", Fr Vicente reminds us.
Whereas the new church has been built "with the solidarity of the benefactors of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), as one can read on a marble plaque in the interior, the state has ended up by providing the village with a town hall, a health centre, a college, a school, a kindergarten and a sports centre.
"Before these tragic events, Bojayà was totally neglected by the authorities. After the tragedy, the state -- which had done nothing, despite the repeated warnings of the Life, Justice and Peace Commission of the diocese of Quibdo, the 'defender of the people' (ombudsman) and the United Nations -- has felt obliged to intervene. The authorities had been warned, weeks beforehand, of what might happen to the people in light of the threatening presence of armed groups in the region. The army must surely have suspected what was going to happen, but it allowed the paramilitaries to pass by upriver. There was obvious connivance between the ‘paracos’ and the armed forces", Father Vicente comments.
He recalls that before the events the state was nowhere to be seen and had left the population to their own devices for years. The guerrillas, who include very few blacks from Choco region in their ranks, had come from Bajo Atrato, downriver, their fighters being in the main 'Chilapos', or mestizos. "There is a sense of deceptive calm here, it's like a sleeping lion, even though the guerrillas have lost a great deal of ground following the bombing of the church. The people have rejected them and they have been forced to retreat to the mountains".
But the parish priest here in Bojayà knows that, although the paramilitary militias have been seemingly disbanded, they have in fact merely given birth to new groups of "paracos", such as the "Aguilas Negras" and others (**). " The people are afraid", he tells us. Right next to the former church, in the midst of the ruins of the old village, Sister Maria del Carmen Garzón, one of the Augustinian missionary sisters, welcomes us to her convent, built of wood on stilts, which has remained intact in the midst of the destruction. For years now her community has been working for the evangelisation of these peoples, who live in great poverty on the banks of the Rio Atrato. They are also active in the field of health care, "for the people here are so poor and deprived".

Sister Maria del Carmen comes with us to unlock the chains that seal up the entrance to this place of martyrdom. Her eyes downcast, her voice still filled with emotion, this little nun tells us in her own words about that terrible moment when the paramilitaries invaded the village... the crossfire, then the gas cylinder, filled with explosives and scrap iron, which fell in the midst of the terrified people.
"Father Antún Ramos, a young priest, who was himself injured by the explosion, found a white sheet and placing himself at the head of the survivors set out for the riverbank, crying out, "We are civilians, we are civilians, respect us!". The people went forward, under the hail of bullets, to embark on a large boat belonging to the diocese of Quibdo, and left in the direction of Vigia del Fuerte." Even today, many of the inhabitants of the parish are still so traumatised that they have never found the courage to return to this place, where they lost a part of their family.
In the cemetery, with its muddy footpaths, on higher ground behind the village, the banners and the numbers on the common graves where the victims of the bombing of the church lie, are washed by the rain that falls unceasingly, as though to wipe out even the memory of this traumatic event. "We should erect a monument to remember them, so that we do not forget", Father Vicente emphasises.

(These two sisters stayed in Bojaya during the massacre in May 2002)

As we emerge from the Mass celebrated this Sunday in the new church of Bojayà, Bishop Fidel confided to us that throughout all those years the Church had found herself quite alone in striving to help these communities, many of which were held hostage by the armed movements and abandoned by corrupt local authorities. "Many of the traumatised refugees, the survivors of this tragedy, still live to this day in Quibdo. They feel unable to return and confront the reality. Some have lost a child, some father, some a mother... Often there is no one but the Church to help them". As I write these lines I learn that the Bishop of Tumaco, Mgr. Gustavo Girón OCD, has just received some new and very precise threats -- he has one month to close down the office of pastoral and social work in his diocese, or else... Just one more proof that the "paracos" are still very active in the area!

For further information or to help this cause please contact the Australian office of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need on 02 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org

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