Sample Letter to U.S. President George W. Bush

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
FAX: (202) 456-2461

Dear President Bush:

I am writing to urge you to support legislation that would ensure that U.S. security assistance to Colombia include human rights conditions. These conditions protect human rights and prevent the United States from funding an abusive military or the paramilitary groups responsible for most human rights violations in that country.

I am deeply concerned by the deterioration of the human rights situation in Colombia. I am also extremely disturbed by the continuing credible evidence of ties between the military and the paramilitary groups responsible for many of the massacres.

Human rights organizations have documented abundant, detailed, and consistent evidence showing that Colombian Army brigades, some Navy units, and some police detachments promote, work with, support, and tolerate paramilitary groups, treating them as a force allied and compatible with their own. The Colombian government's efforts to break these ties have been ineffective and, at worst, wholly absent. Even as abuses directly attributed to members of the Colombian military have decreased in recent years, abuses credited to paramilitary groups working with the military's acquiescence or open support have skyrocketed.

It is crucial for the United States to send a strong message that we support human rights and ensure that tax dollars do not fund an abusive institution.

I urge you to insist that all U.S. security assistance be conditioned on explicit actions by the Colombian Government to sever links, at all levels, between the Colombian security forces and paramilitary groups and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

Yours sincerely,

Home | About Us | News Releases | Publications | About HRW | Info by Country | Global Issues | Campaigns | Free Mailing Lists | Community | Store | Film Festival | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | Press Contacts | Privacy Policy