Speech by Carolina Charry : HUMANITARIAN AGREEMENT NOW!

Speech by Carolina Charry, daughter  of Valle del Cauca State Senator Carlos Charry:
 
Humanitarian Agreement Now!
(Translated by Amy Rose Pekol, a CSN translator )
 

[ 07/06/2007] [ Author: Carolina Charry]
 
Good afternoon.  I’m Carolina, the daughter of Congressman Carlos Alberto Charry, who was murdered by the FARC with the complicity of the Colombian Government that broke its promise to bring them (the hostages held by the FARC) back alive.
 
I’m a Colombian girl who, for more than 5 years, hasn’t been able to hug her father, tell him her dreams, feel his protection, receive his blessing each night or look him in the eyes and tell him, “I LOVE YOU WITH ALL OF MY HEART, I NEED YOU AND I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU.”
 
But today this void is not the only thing that I have to tolerate.  Now I have been refused the possibility of saying goodbye to my father, to Army Major Guevara and 10 more Valle de Cauca congressmen as these good fathers, husbands, sons and friends deserve.  There is no possibility of saying goodbye with a ritual that allows one to exercise his right to choose his own religion and with the return of their mortal remains to the earth from which they came, accompanied by the people who love them most: their family and friends.
 
I am here in the first place to thank you, on behalf of the families, for the solidarity you have demonstrated with your presence in this march.  Secondly, I am here to clarify what is being sought by this action and to prevent the government’s opportunism from distorting the true reason for such a large accompaniment that is being repeated in different cities all across the country and symbolizes the pain and suffering of this country, not simply for the infamy committed, but also for the demonstrated negligence.
 
Thank you for mobilizing with the Echeverri, Giraldo, Narváez, Barragán, Varela, Pérez, Quintero, Hoyos, Arismendi, Orozco, Charry and Guevara families to DEMAND that the FARC respect our grief, respect the dignity the deceased, and respect a country ashamed of the guerilla group that lost its way and has been militarily, ideologically and politically incapable of gaining the support of its country and, on the contrary, remains alone in the midst of its insanity.  Our deceased belong to us!

Thank you for mobilizing against the government policies that are stained with the blood of my father and ten of his companions who were murdered along with him.  These are the individuals to whom an indolent president refused to listen when they begged him to declare Pradera and Florida MEETING ZONES FOR THE HUMANITARIAN AGREEMENT—their only possibility of returning home alive. Knowing what really happened is not a wish of the family members; it is a necessity of the kidnapping victims.  
 
I am from the generation that grew up with a constitutionally elected government that shamefully decided to put itself on the same level of a guerilla group without ideals and loaded with injustice and evil.  This government therefore leaves the life of those kidnapped in the hands of the FARC, despite having the judicial, political, humanitarian and moral reasoning and instruments to free them and bring them back alive.  
 
It’s a lack of shame and respect that one of the protagonists of our tragedy marches today in Bogotá to cover up his responsibility, to lift a new curtain of smoke over his mistakes and to avoid stirring more hatred over his cold-heartedness.  Surely his conscience will not allow him to sleep peacefully knowing that he could have saved my father,Army Major Guevara, the Valle de Cauca congressmen and dozens of other victims of the FARC.  
 
How morally incompetent is a guerilla group that kidnaps a community to then say that it was the crossfire that killed the prisoners and then hide behind virtual messages, offending only the adversary and inventing condolences in which no one trusts because the group does not know the meaning of piety, compassion or the sorrow of another human being.
 
Colombians with hearts clean of grudges for not having suffered the humiliations or atrocities of the two most similar antagonists known to Colombian history, do not allow to continue being governed by surveys, make possible the return of our deceased, allow our families to start mourning with a burial and, above all, support the meeting zone.  On the contrary, we will continue repeating this march each time the FARC murders other compatriots or President Uribe decides to experiment with more vain military rescue attempts,  as other kidnapped victims with more than 10 years in captivity can give testimony:  that this type of rescue is not  successful


We ask for your solidarity, not only on the day of the march, but daily.  Solidarity is supporting the Humanitarian Agreement, demanding a meeting zone, demanding the return of bodies of those kidnapped and murdered, refusing to listen to the insults and slander that some try to provoke against us only to demean our struggle and echo the violent people who only speak the language of evil and war.  We are good people that don’t know how to do malignant calculations  and know very little about strategies, for, if that were the case, we would have used them to bring our dear friends and family members back alive.
 
I will not tolerate more pain, more indignation, more sadness, more rage, more humiliation for not having my father once again…or what remained of him.  Help us recover the bodies of the congressmen from Valle del Cauca and Major Guevara.  Let’s make a common front to obtain the return of our deceased and of those whom are still alive.
 
The FARC cannot continue mocking our pain; they can leave the cadavers in any part of the jungle and escape before informing anyone of the coordinates of that location.  That way we can regain a little bit of the dignity that they took from our relatives and left in ruins.
 




!NO TO THE KIDNAPPING OF ALIVE OR DEAD PEOPLE!
 
TO THE RETURN OF OUR ONLY LIVE SURVIVOR SIGIFREDO LOPEZ AND ALL OF  THE KIDNAPPED PEOPLE : A HUMANITARIAN AGREEMENT NOW!
 
 






Colombia Support Network
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