The Neighbors Who Put Food on Your Table Need Your Help. Now.

At least 14,000 hard-working families in the southern San Joaquin Valley were forced out of orchards and packing houses by the December freeze of the citrus crop. They face hunger and the loss of their homes. Yet many are afraid to ask for help. Many will never qualify for emergency assistance due to the screening practices of public relief agencies. Each farmworker household often contains a mix of US citizens and non-citizens. Farmworkers who are about to become citizens or who are attempting to address either their own immigration status or that of other family members fear being classified as a "public charge." This classification jeopardizes their ability to legally unite their families. Thus fear of family separation prevents workers from receiving critically needed food, rent assistance or medical care.

Letter Writing Campaign: Write Doris Meissner, Office of the Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization, 435 I Street NW, Washington DC 20536 and Vice President Gore, White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington DC 20501 and tell them to direct the INS and other federal agencies to publicly announce-in Spanish, too-that no farmworker suffering from a natural or agricultural disaster need fear the INS or any other government agency. Ask them to tell farmworkers in clear language that their families do not risk separation, now or in the future, because they seek emergency help. Write today. Urge them to expand emergency aid to all, regardless of immigration status. Tell them to end disaster assistance screening that drives families into misery and undermines the health and economies of rural communities.

Please send a copy of your letter to: AFSC, 65 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. This AFSC office will receive donations to their Farmworkers Relief Fund that gives direct aid to workers and their families.

On Kidnapping & Murder in Colombia

FROM: AFSC Central Region Executive Committee; Dean Young, clerk

We are deeply shocked and saddened by the news that Ingrid Washinawatok, Terence Freitas, and Lahe'ena'e Gay were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered while in Colombia at the invitation of the U'wa nation. Although no one has claimed responsibility for this act, the governments of the US and Columbia have publicly blamed the Revolutionary Army of Colombia (FARC) and have expressed the intent to search for, arrest, and extradite any persons involved in this crime.

We are deeply concerned by the speed with which the US government has assigned responsibility for this act, especially given the political climate in Colombia, and the US government's complex and violent history in Latin America. We fear that the eagerness of both the US and the Colombian governments to "solve" this crime may lead to further violence, the persecution of innocents, and the expansion of a climate of terror in Northeastern Columbia.

The individuals murdered in Colombia were indigenous peoples' rights and environmental activists, on a visit to explore ways to help the U'wa nation preserve its cultural integrity, under the auspices of the Pacific Cultural Conservancy International. Ingrid and Lahe'ena'e were indigenous, members of the Menominee and Kanaka Maoli nations. We believe it is significant that these three North Americans were, by their very presence, expressing support for the U'wa nation's survival as a distinct people in the face of North American-based threats of extinction.

In 1997, the U'wa won a court case against Occidental Petroleum USA which prevented the oil company from exploratory drilling on traditional U'wa territory. We believe this victory may have been due, in part, to the extraordinary collaboration of the U'wa with activists from throughout the Western Hemisphere, to bring their situation into the public eye. The U'wa, a nation of 8000, had threatened to commit collective suicide had OxyUSA proceeded with the drilling, for they believe oil to be the blood of the earth, and believe it their responsibility to protect her. Their victory, at least in the short term, has been a source of strength and encouragement to indigenous and environmental activists throughout the Americas.

We believe the killings were a political act, and should be examined in light of the complex political and economic climate in which they took place.

The AFSC Central Region speaks to this concern both from our experience with the issues at hand, and our relationships with at least one of those murdered. The CR has three programs working explicitly on indigenous peoples' rights, as well as other programs focused on human rights questions. Our staff has worked with Ingrid Washinawatok and considered her a friend and compañera. In addition to serving on the Third World Coalition, Ingrid was also chair of the UN Committee on the Decade of Indigenous Peoples, a member of the Board of Directors of the Indigenous Women's Network, program officer at the Fund of the Four Directions, and a MacArthur Fellow. Her death is an incalculable loss to our community and the struggle for justice.

It is in honor of her life, and those of Terence Freitas and Lahe'ena'e Gay, that we call upon the AFSC to demand that their deaths not be used to justify further state-sponsored violence against the U'wa or other peoples in Colombia, and to use all our available resources to establish the truth behind the murders of our slain compañeros.

Indictments for Salvadoran Killings Nearly two decades after Salvadoran national guardsmen killed four US churchwomen-Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan-the families of the victims have filed a lawsuit against two retired Salvadoran generals who were granted residency in Florida despite evidence that they covered up the internationally publicized crime. A United Nations Truth Commission in 1993 concluded that Jose Guillermo Garcia, then minister of defense, and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, then National Guard director "knew that members of the National Guard had committed the assassination and had facilitated concealment of the facts." The case is expected to highlight the growing problems of suspected human rights offenders who have taken refuge in the US, clarifying the vaguely defined role of US courts in prosecuting human rights crimes committed abroad. "We're talking about the murders of four American women who were brutally raped and killed....Everybody agrees that Vides Casanova and Garcia were involved in the coverup, if not worse. Given that reality, how the hell did they get here?" asked MA Rep James McGovern. R. Scott Greathead, member of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights which helped prepare the case said, "I think it's enormously important to pursue the notion that the commander who orders the crimes or who presides over the institutions that are responsible.. are criminally culpable for their acts."

Global Peace March in India May 11 to August 6

The Global Peace March started in Khetolai, the village nearest to the site of India's recent nuclear tests, and will end with a big meeting in Sarnath on Hiroshima Day. Three days later, on Nagasaki Day, organizers will present a powerful statement and 200,000 signatures to the Prime Minister of India and to the heads of the other nuclear power states. To learn more about this event or to help with the signature campaign, send Email to rahul@cc.iitb.ernet.in, or visit the march web site at <members.tripod.com/peacemarch/morcha.htm>

From the march statement:

"Last year the government of India carried out nuclear tests near Khetolai village. We are being told that it was essential for the security of our country...Increasingly common people believe that it has become necessary to possess weapons for security. However if we take a closer look, our insecurity has increased with the increasing presence of weapons, and human beings are victims of violence as never before in history. If we think about it seriously a human being can feel secure in real terms only in relationships with other human beings which are based on complete and continued trust."