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Story Title: Human Rights Violation in Taoist Temple in Colombia

Potential Guests:
Monks from the Taoist temple that have had to flee yesterday November 24, 2005, when heavily armed groups of government entities 
entered the temple.

Over the course of many years, our religious community based in Colombia with constituents all over the world, has been the subject 
of increasingly violent and dangerous religious persecution on behalf of the Colombian government, paramilitary groups, and other 
corrupt forces in that country. Since last Tuesday we had received messages of a pending invasion of the Templo Vegetal Sakroakuarius, 
a sacred temple home to many women, children, elderly, people having gone in search of health, and a place of international pilgrimage. 
Yesterday, November 24, 2005, hundreds of monks left the monastery fleeing for their lives, when over 850 heavily armed men entered the 
temple at 5 am. These men all belonged to different bodies of the Colombian government. Their goal was to search for narcotics, arms, etc. 
This is of course, absurd, being that our teachings profess mental, physical, and spiritual cleanliness - our bodies are temples of God in 
which narcotics, meat, coffee and other harmful substances never enter. Likewise, our community is law abiding and peaceful, and we 
have never had the need for weapons. It is that our religious ideas lie outside of the mainstream extremely Catholic Colombian community, 
that we are persecuted. Furthermore, when we first purchased the place that was until yesterday, known as the Templo Vegetal Sakroakuarius, 
we found a large plantation of poppy that belonged to the mayor of the closest town at the time. This mayor is now found in jail for drug-traffic. 
The zone at the time we arrived to the area in which the temple is located (in Northern Santander between Duitama, Boyaca and Charala, 
Santander) had already some presence of paramilitary and guerilla. It was the Taoist community that was able to talk to these groups and 
have them leave the area. This action on our part is still resented by the paramilitary who wish to control as much of our beloved Colombia 
as they can get their hands on. 

As you can see, there is a large history preceding the motion that occurred yesterday. The government entities, were not only armed 
with fire weapons, but also a military tank, tear gases, trucks containing gas tanks and wood, among other things. Today, there are various 
reports out in Colombia as to what happened, but these have falsely said to have found and they show pictures of 4 grenades. The question is, 
why would a peaceful community need these things? And isn't it interesting that at some point (and I hope to find the documentation for this),
an angry military official said that they themselves would take drugs and weapons to the temple so as to incriminate us? This was really said, 
and it is documented, only at this time and on such short notice we do not have all of the documentation we need compiled.

If this story moves you at all, please, we ask you to investigate. Go to Colombia, if possible, as other independent news sources from Spain and 
different parts of the world have promised they will. Right now the International Taoist Community is worried. There are people missing and 
monks we do not know of. Mothers are missing. Children are missing. Others may yet be somewhere in the mountains of Colombia in the region 
close to the temple, fleeing for their lives.

The government agents say they entered because they were supposedly looking for some members of the community that were wanted by the 
police. Yet they have failed to say why these people were wanted. Or to provide proof that any of their suppositions were based on probable cause. 

The International Community is sickened, saddened, and utterly exhausted at this moment. We turn to the media to make our story known -
hopefully in a truthful and objective way. At this very moment, people all over the world are anxious to know of their loved ones that were 
living in the Temple until yesterday. There is a couple in New Jersey waiting to hear news of their daughter, who has been living in the Temple 
for the past two years. They do not know if she is still alive or where she is. Like this couple, there are many of us waiting to hear news of our 
loved ones, as different monks that left have told us they heard explosions, young men were taken captive and one frightened young woman 
was able to reach the phones and say that it appeared that the military had begun torturing people and helicopters were flying closely overhead. 
Finally, today, we know that they have begun fumigating the area with pesticides, as they did in 1996, when planes flew over the temple with 
pesticide, killing some members of our community, and causing many pregnant women to give birth to stillborn children.

We solemnly ask for your help and thank you for your efforts. Such tortures, actions, are expected in a place where perhaps, the country is not 
a supposed democracy. We expect, possibly, such atrocities in places where there is no freedom of religion, or expression, or perhaps in a 
Communist regime, a dictatorship, a totalitarian state... but these do not characterize the country of Colombia. What is a well-known characteristic 
of the country, is corruption. We just never thought corruption would show its ugly face and armed, enter our peaceful community.

As the temple was searched and sacked yesterday, the voice of one of our monks was heard throughout the whole nightmare... she was singing 
"Paz, haya paz" - a song we sing often, peace, let there be peace. 

Thank you for your attention.