Translation of statement from the Medellí­n Youth Network
April 2007

The recruitment procedures that the national army uses are despicable, especially in our particular experiences in different parts of Antioquia state. There the pursuit and recruitment of youth has become a daily occurrence of intimidation and verbal and sometimes even physical violence, which ends with the placement of these youth onto a path to becoming killers.

As evidence of the cruel recruitment situation in our areas, we describe a case that occurred in the municipality of Cisneros, Antioquia:

Saturday, April 8, 2007, at six in the morning, Alejandro de Jesus Gonzalez Duque was driving to the city of Medellí­n when, just outside the city, the vehicle was stopped by soldiers who made him stop the vehicle and asked for his military papers [which show proof of military service]. Alejandro didn't have his papers because his service requirement had been resolved the December before by an exemption that the military gives for young people who are completing their university studies.

Alejandro is a youth of 18 in his final year at the Educational Institute Josefina Muñoz Gonzalez and was taking night classes while working during the day.

He explained his situation to the soldiers, but his arguments were in vain. They took him to a nearby base and he was held under the so-called "call to democratic security," which requires military service to defend the nation. Alejandro González was deprived of his freedom, and his rights to work and education were violated by the Army.

It was not until April 12 that he was set free, thanks to the intervention of a petition filed against the brigade on April 11. A complaint was also filed with the Human Rights Ombudsman and the Attorney General's office on April 10.

We believe that it is necessary to raise the voice of many young people to express energetically that "Young People Won't Go To War!" We won't go; we want to construct a society based on proposals from the community, youth groups, artistic visions, those generating alternatives for life, based on a dream where we can all live in a world without weapons.

The armed forces and forced recruitment

During the first months of this year, in the urban area of Amalfi (county in northeast Antioquia), the Army detained young people who left their villages to visit the town center. They were put on trucks and forced into military service in the Puerto Berrío Brigade, where they were trained to be rural soldiers.

Since this event, village youths have had to hide on their farms, not going down to the town to shop or sell their goods. They are scared to leave because they don't want to abandon their families or take up the weapons of any army, even if it's a legal one.

In addition to seriously affecting the economic well-being of their families, this situation has significantly affected the freedom of these rural youth: their freedom of movement, the freedom to develop their personality, the security of themselves and their immediate family and, in a very open way, their right to due process in recruitment for olbligatory military service.

Nonetheless, we remain convinced that war cannot be the only choice that the Colombian State offers to us young people. We therefore insist that conscientious objection to military service, a human right recognized in international legislation and in Article 18 of the Colombian Constitution, must be applied immediately, even if the recruitment is carried out legally, and even if the basis for the young person’s objection is not religious but political, ideological, moral, or philosophical.