resolutions

[updated 01/05/07]

ITHACA AND SYRACUSE RESOLUTIONS IN SUPPORT OF CSN/CNY SISTER COMMUNITY

A Resolution for the City of Ithaca to Establish a Sister-Partnership Relationship With the Community of Cajibío, Colombia

Whereas, the people of Ithaca have a tradition of supporting grass-roots democracy and providing aid to victims of political strife around the world; and

Whereas, the civil population of Colombia is subject to violence, forced displacement, disappearances, torture, and intimidation; and

Whereas, the United States is intimately involved in this conflict through the allocation of large amounts of aid money to the Colombian military; and

Whereas, the Colombian military has documented ties to paramilitary groups responsible for a large percentage of Colombia's human rights violations; and

Whereas, the distribution of resources in rural Colombia is far from equitable and the resulting socioeconomic conditions are such that people must struggle daily just to survive; and

Whereas, the citizens of Cajibío, Cauca Department, Colombia are attempting to cope with the problems of violence and poverty by forming the Small Farmer Movement of Cajibío to work nonviolently toward a future with dignity through work in the following seven areas: health, education, agro-environment, land rights, culture and identity, infrastructure projects, and political organizing; and

Whereas, citizens of Ithaca, acting in partnership with citizens of the Cities of Cortland, NY and Syracuse, NY, have raised funds to support these projects; and

Whereas, local farmers, teachers, high school and university students have expressed interest in carrying out projects of humanitarian aid and cultural and knowledge exchange with their counterparts in Cajibío; and

Whereas, members of the above groups plan to raise further money in support of the Small Farmer's Movement of Cajibío; and

Whereas, members of the above mentioned groups plan to visit the community of Cajibío; and

Whereas, an alert network is being set up to inform the Central New York community and its political representatives of threats to the community of Cajibío and its citizens; and

Whereas, the effectiveness of this alert network would be enhanced by the official
recognition of the sister-partnership relationship between the communities of
Ithaca, NY and Cajibío, Colombia; and

Whereas, the community of Cajibío has expressed a desire to form a sister-partnership with the Central New York community, to include the Town of Ithaca, and the Cities of Cortland and Syracuse;

Now, Therefore, be it Resolved, that in the interests of establishing a dialogue between the people of Colombia and the people of Central New York, encouraging the exchange of knowledge and culture between these communities, enhancing the effectiveness of the alert network, and facilitating efforts of groups in Ithaca to provide material aid to Colombians suffering the ravages of a forty-year civil war, the City of Ithaca establish a sister-partnership relationship with the community of Cajibío, Colombia.