AUT: SIPAZ

["Joe McIntire" <mcintire@xxxxxxx>]

June 1999

Dear Friend,

"Thank you for visiting us, seeing our reality and being our voice
in your communities and churches."

These words, spoken by a woman in the community of Nicolas Ruiz in
Chiapas as she addressed a delegation hosted by SIPAZ, reflect the reality
for the many indigenous in Chiapas. They live in communities where the
threat of violence is constant. They fear the military, which earlier this
month forcibly occupied five more Zapatista communities, sending families
fleeing into the mountains. They fear the paramilitary organizations, which
continue to operate with impunity, beating and intimidating people or
worse.   They have  little power or voice. They need the help of others to
tell the larger world what they want -- an end to the violence and peace
with justice.

The SIPAZ mission in Chiapas is to be not only a voice but also a
positive force for a nonviolent end to the conflict and for peace with
justice.

The SIPAZ international volunteer team, based in San Cristobal de
Las Casas, works to promote nonviolence and reconciliation, to reduce human
rights violations, to strengthen local peacebuilding efforts and to inform
the worldwide community about Chiapas and the struggle for social justice.

Building local support for nonviolence is a cornerstone of the
SIPAZ work. In October 1998, the SIPAZ team coordinated an exhibition in
San Cristobal de Las Casas on the life and thought of Gandhi. Even in
death, Gandhi is a voice for nonviolence and justice. Co-sponsored by
several cultural and academic institutions, the exposition was accompanied
by a series of other activities, including conferences, meditations,
theater, films, music,  and poetry. Seventy local volunteers worked with
SIPAZ and between 100 and 200 people attended each of the special
activities that were part of the exposition. Indigenous communities and
more than 800 primary school children took part in special guided tours.
The enthusiastic response was reflected in the comment of one visitor:
"This series of conferences and this exhibition provide us with a respite
in these difficult times, and a light and guide..."

As a follow-up to this work, in January 1999, the team gave a
series of workshops on nonviolence for the teaching and administrative
staff of one of the principal prep schools in San Cristobal.  Noting the
highly polarized nature of the community, one of the participants commented
several weeks later: "There is more tolerance among staff members of
different political persuasions." Hopefully this change in attitude among
teachers is reflected in their teaching.

In response to increasing requests, SIPAZ offers two to three such
workshops on conflict transformation themes each month. While occasionally
the constituency is the formal education sector, as in the preceding
example, the primary target group is the "intermediaries," the NGO
(non-governmental organization) representatives, pastoral workers, and
community leaders who work in the rural communities that are most directly
effected by the conflict. They are well placed to apply newly acquired
skills or even to reproduce the workshops in the communities where they
work. The strategy is to strengthen local peacebuilding capacities so that
local conflicts do not explode (as in the case of the Acteal massacre). In
the process, SIPAZ seeks to affirm and draw on the rich and elaborate
indigenous traditions of nonviolent conflict resolution.

SIPAZ believes that church groups - too often a source of division
- are in the long run a key to reconciliation in Chiapas.  The team
continues to support the ecumenical Bible School where grassroots community
members of both the Catholic and Evangelical churches participate in
workshops and prayer groups together. This leads to a better understanding
of each other and their beliefs, a deeper respect as they discover what
they share in common, and less conflict among the groups.

With the encouragement of local church leaders, SIPAZ is currently
researching a document on the history of Evangelical-Catholic relations as
a tool to further ecumenical understanding. We also plan a more simple,
illustrated version of the material suitable for use in the indigenous
communities where isolation, lack of information, negative propaganda, and
narrow local interests create serious obstacles to ecumenical dialogue.

In the first months of 1999, SIPAZ also coordinated visits for
three international delegations. Jelle Wind, SIPAZ team member from the
Netherlands, observes, "With the delegations, we try to present a wide
range of opinions on the Chiapas conflict. In general, the participants are
able to realize that it is difficult to think about the conflict in black
and white because there are many gray areas."

SIPAZ team members also make visits to communities in turmoil,
always with the same commitment to maintain contact with all factions of
the conflict and to be an independent and objective force for peace. In
March, Jelle Wind and Chiapas Coordinator Ricardo Carvajal visited the
northern region to meet with priests, evangelical pastors, community
leaders, county authorities, paramilitary leaders and returning refugees.
SIPAZ is initiating an accompaniment project in the region, based on
regular visits, that focuses on communities that are particularly polarized
and/or under threat from paramilitary groups.

The information team members gather is disseminated internationally
through the SIPAZ newsletter and through the 45  coalition member groups.
SIPAZ is recognized internationally for its objective presentation of
information and its independent posture. Earlier this month, the US Embassy
asked SIPAZ to arrange the itinerary in Chiapas for a visiting State
Department delegation. Over dinner, the team was able to discuss in some
depth our assessment of the conflict and peace efforts. The presence of
government intelligence officials surreptitiously taping the conversation
provided an additional glimpse into the climate of hostility and fear in
which human rights defenders work.

SIPAZ was founded in response to the conflict in Chiapas, and it
remains a unique international initiative that provides critically-needed
support for the peace process. It is a voice for nonviolence and peace with
justice.

You are part of this struggle for a nonviolent end to the conflict
and the building of a just and lasting peace. The SIPAZ international team
in Chiapas depends on your contributions to continue its work. They live in
shared housing, depend on public transportation and work with very limited
resources. In the international office in California, we rely on volunteers
to help produce and distribute the SIPAZ Report.

In the past, your support and the support of hundreds of concerned
people like you, have meant that the SIPAZ volunteer team members in
Chiapas have been able to continue their work in reducing violence,
enhancing conditions for dialogue and informing and mobilizing the
international community. Please send a generous tax-deductible contribution
to SIPAZ today. Your donation is a much needed and greatly appreciated
means of providing a voice for peace with justice in Chiapas.

In Peace,

Joan R. Condon
SIPAZ Steering Committee

P.S.  SIPAZ is a voice for a nonviolent end to the conflict and peace with
justice in Chiapas. It is time to reaffirm our commitment and redouble our
efforts. Your tax-deductible donation is urgently needed.  Thank you.

*****

Yes!  I want to support SIPAZ in  reducing
violence and strengthening efforts for a
just and lasting peace in Chiapas with my
            tax-deductible contribution.

  I would like to contribute:

        __$1000   __$500   __$250

        __$100     __$50     __$25

        OTHER_________________

Name_______________________________

Address_____________________________

____________________________________

Phone/FAX/e-mail_____________________

____________________________________
Please send checks in $US to:

SIPAZ, P.O. Box 2415
Santa Cruz, CA  95063  USA
Phone/FAX: 408 425 1257
email:  sipaz@xxxxxxx

Contributions may be made payable to:   SIPAZ.  In the
USA, tax-deductible contributions may be made to:
Eschaton/SIPAZ.

Or you can wire funds directly to our account:
Home Savings of America
Account number:  049-909605-5
Routing number:  32118780


Servicio Internacional para la Paz/International Service for Peace is a
coalition of North American, Latin American and European organizations
formed to support the peace process in Chiapas, Mexico.  SIPAZ combines
violence reduction and peacebuilding strategies in Chiapas with efforts to
inform and mobilize the international community.

SIPAZ International Office
P.O. Box 2415
Santa Cruz, CA 95063 USA
Tel. & Fax: 831 425 1257
E-mail: sipaz@xxxxxxx
http://www.nonviolence.org/sipaz



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