The Ohio Working Group on Latin America
http://mahost.org/owgla
July 6, 2002
DEWINE PETITIONERS' TRIAL BEGINS TUESDAY
Tuesday, July 9, 2002 at 11:00am
Franklin County Municipal Court,
Courtroom 15-D
375 S. High St.,
Columbus, OH 43215
Contact: Defendant Paula Ewers, ewers (at) donet.com
or (937) 278-5446
Attorney William Owen, wowen (at) williamowenlaw.com
or (614) 885-0800
(The address I was given for him is wowen (at) owenowen.com.
Just checking!)
The right of Ohio citizens to access their elected officials will be tested in court on July 9 as eight Ohioans each face 120 days and a $1,000 fine for attempting to schedule a meeting with Senator Mike DeWine. The eight are among ten who were arrested in DeWine's Columbus office on April 30, 2002 and spent 30 hours in jail. Five of the eight (better, Six of the ten ?) have traveled in Colombia and seek to discuss the Senator's support of Plan Colombia, a $1.3 billion U.S. military aid package which they say exacerbates human rights abuses, environmental destruction, and the displacement of millions of rural civilians.
Join us on July 9 as a jury of eight Ohioans tests the strength of Ohio's democracy. (There will be eight on the jury as well?). Columbus seminary student Vince Ramos will be represented by Attorney Fredrick Benton when he goes to trial two days later, on July 11, 2002. Ramos also faces a possible 120 days of imprisonment and a $1000 fine. (Will it be confusing if we don't mention the tenth ? Could say, the tenth, Cheryl Ann Raver Sanchez, is currently in Colombia.)
##
The Ohio Working Group on Latin America (OWGLA) is a statewide
coalition of peace and solidarity
organizations and individuals working to address escalating U.S.
intervention in
Latin America.
For more information on Colombia:
http://www.ciponline.org/colombia or http://www.usfumigation.org
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 17:49:32 -0400
From: Jyoti Asha Bhatt <jyoti.bhatt (at) oberlin.edu>
To: imc-newsroom (at) ucimc.org
Subject: [Imc-newsroom] MY ACCOUNT F.Y.I.
Hi U-C IMC,
I'm the girl/Oberlin College student/student activist involved in a recent action in Columbus, OH (Senator DeWine's office) who wrote in earlier today about the Ohio Ten. We were the ones who asked for a face-to-face meeting anytime, any place with Senator DeWine over his positions on Plan Colombia and the SOA. For staying after office hours (which weren't posted anywhere), we were thrown in jail.
Here (below)'s the account of what happened.
Our trial begins this Tuesday, July 9th. The charges slapped on us were "Criminal Trespass" (Misdemeanor 4th Degree) and "Resisting Arrest" (M2). We're hoping they'll be dropped, b/c the real specious and esp. problematic deal is that our OWGLA (Ohio Working Group on Latin America) has been denied a face-to-face with DeWine for over two years.
PLEASE INCLUDE THIS ON IMC (+ the Press Advisory I sent previously).
THANKS SO MUCH!
I apologize that this one is unformatted as I am having problems attaching docs. on my computer.
Respectfully,
Jyo
^*^
Influenced by the long-standing efforts of OWGLA to speak with DeWine about US foreign policy in Colombia, six Oberlin students and four Ohioans decided on Tuesday April 30th, 2002 that enough was enough. As responsible, concerned constituents, we wanted a meeting with our senator. Seven of our ten are eyewitnesses to the destructive, disastrous effects of Plan Colombia on the peoples and environment of Colombia. Where does the Senator DeWine come in? He was one of the main orchestrators of this initiative during the Clinton Administration, and now furthers US military" aid" to Colombia to the tune of millions in tax-payer dollars. Upon our arrival at Senator DeWine's Columbus office at around 4:15PM, we found on the sidewalk in front of his office a rally on human rights and environmental issues surrounding Plan Colombia and the School of the Americas. Represented here was Dalia Mina Valencia, (a Colombian woman who is on a speaking tour of the US with Witness for Peace to address Colombian issues), Ryan Calkins and Kathy Baldoni (Witness for Peace staff and organizers), Margaret Knapke (OWGLA--Ohio Working Group on Latin America coordinator), Chester Chambers (member of our group), Father Roy (head of SOA--School of the Americas Watch, speaker at the April 30 rally), and thirty some odd other concerned citizens. After ten or so minutes, I split off in a group of three, which was later joined by a group of seven, to make our way to the Senator's office for an appointment with Scott Corbin, one of his Columbus aides. We--Paula and John Ewers of Dayton, Vincent Ramos of Columbus, Anita Sanchez of Groveport, and Jacqueline Downing, Sarah Saunders, Anna Hendricks, Kathleen Berrigan, Jyoti Bhatt and John Durkalski of Oberlin College--proceeded into the building, accompanied by Chet Chambers.
We were asked by a secretary to wait in DeWine's lobby, where incidentally, we were able to catch some congressional action on C-SPAN; ironically, the topic being discussed was the Andean Policy. After some time, Scott Corbin met with our two spoke people, Jackie Downing and John Ewers. From what I could see through the glass of the room in which they were meeting, Mr. Corbin grew increasingly uncomfortable, which was represented by his not infrequently employing a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his face. From what I was able to hear, he was slightly bombastic and interruptive to the concerns put forth by Jackie and Mr. Ewers both on Colombia and on OWLGA's dismissed attempts for a meeting with Sen. DeWine.
When the two of our group stepped into the lobby where the rest of us were waiting, they told us that Mr. Corbin had agreed to go into another room and attempt to phone the senator for the purpose of giving him the message that we desired a face-to-face meeting any time, any place. Whether or not Mr. Corbin actually kept to his agreement is for all intents and purposes unknown. When he emerged from his separate room, he told us it would be quite impossible to meet with Senator DeWine; he also gave me personally the strong impression and later in so many words that it was too bad we disagreed with congressional policies, but there was nothing that could actually be done for us as constituents.
At that point, I felt democracy going astray. If we cannot express dissent and strive for change, we as American citizens are powerless.
Five o'clock rolls around and we still have no assurance of a meeting. It is closing time and a few of us remember aloud to each other how a meeting with Senator DeWine on Plan Colombia has been speciously denied for upwards of two years now. We observe the two secretaries present becoming nervous, and I feel bad for them as we certainly did not intend or wish our presence to influence any adverse effect. Perhaps they realized that what we wanted in theory should be granted, but in reality would be denied even after persistent struggle.
At this point, we were asked by Mr. Corbin to leave, and at different points we spoke up to communicate once again that our objective had been obstructed from achieving success; and thus after repeated faxes, phone calls, letters and visits to DeWine offices for over two years, our business was incomplete. At this point, Mr. Corbin called in a security person, who also told us to leave the premises. After again politely but firmly refusing, they called in the Columbus police who hauled us off(literally) to the Franklin County Correctional Center (jail), where we spent two days and barely emerged with due process after noting much beaurocracy and disorganization.
After arraignments/pre-trial and both individual and group court dates, we finally were recognized as a group for participating in a group action (were consolidated) with the assistance of attorney William Owen. At this point, we can only hope for justice before a jury of our peers on July 9th.Our plea is not guilty and our objective is to communicate to the public on three counts: Senator DeWine is not someone to be supported with votes or moneys, Latin American issues have come to a head and demand our attention as US citizens, and the meanings of justice are worth reviewing and actualizing.
That's all.
*******
--Jyoti Asha Bhatt
(The following is an email exchange verifying permission to post the email)
Quoting Brian Hagy <bhagy (at) urbana.indymedia.org>:
Hi Jyoti,
I'm writing because i wish to put the email you sent to our imc-newsroomlist (both the press release and the witnessed account) on our website (or if you prefer, you can do so as well, since it is an open publishing webpage...just go to ucimc.org, and click on where it says PUBLISH at the top). i wanted to confirm with you first that i have your permission to do so (or point you in that direction to do so yourself), as i don't ever post someone's email to a website without their direct consent.
also, are there any other sources (local newspaper stories, international websites, etc.) that could be linked to the article(s) that you sent us, so that people who want to find out more about this particular situation can look up the info?
thanks for the notice. i wish we could do more to help out. if you know of anything, let us know. i know that the cleveland imc isn't yet on the imc network (it will be soon, if everything goes fine), but i suggest you post your emails to us there as well. at least it more locally accessible for folks in the ohio area. i'd also suggest posting to the michigan, dc, and colombia websites (colombia, so that folks down there know that folks up here are getting arrested trying to speak up to stop the crimes we up here are committing on folks down there). maybe even philly, vermont, and boston.
the global imc you can post to as well, but the "front-page" stories are pulled off of the websites of the various imc's that are part of the network. you might contact the cleveland imc to see when they will be officially part of the network and see if they would, when they do become such, be willing to put your story on there features section (the middle column). the global network's software picks up stories from this part of a networked imc's website (the center column tends to be moderated somehow by the particular imc, usually by members/editors pulling stories directly from their open publishing newswire, the right hand column), and thus the global imc site doesn't have its newswire cluttered with spam, as it was having a major problem with.
thanks again,
brian hagy
ucimc member
Date: Sun, 07 Jul 2002 16:00:34 -0400
From: Jyoti Asha Bhatt <jyoti.bhatt (at) oberlin.edu>
To: Brian Hagy <bhagy (at) urbana.indymedia.org>
Subject: Re: your article (emailed)
Hi Brian,
Thanks so much for your very REAL e-mail. It was refreshing, esp. since it's from a newsmedia source (although indy). :) You do have my direct permission to post the material. As for other links, I'll need to confer with my group to find out the exact URLs and stuff. Right now, I believe we're going in the Columbus
Dispatch, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Cleveland Free Times, The Nation, participants' small hometown publications, etc., hopefully others, but we'll let you know.
sincerely,
Jyo
|
