>Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 00:09:35 -0800 >From: Sam Pawlett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > [NOTE: Right-wing death-squads continue with massacres with > complete impunity and with the support of Colombia's security > forces that are about to receive over $1 billion in U.S. military > aid to fight the fictitious "war on drugs". Stop U.S. military > aid to Colombia. For info visit > www.prairienet.org/clm/chicol.html -DG] > > ========================================== > But villagers who fled to Ovejas insist > the killing was indiscriminate. One field > worker was hacked to death with a machete, > they said, because he had on the rubber > work boots commonly worn by the rebels. > "We aren't guerrillas. We're just poor > peasants. They killed anyone who came > by," one man, who asked to remain > anonymous, told The Associated Press. >__________________ ========================================== >ASSOCIATED PRESS > >Monday, 21 February 2000 > > Paramilitary massacre leaves scarred town > ----------------------------------------- > >OVEJAS, Colombia -- The dusty roads around this remote northern town >became a killing ground last week when a three-day rampage by right-wing >militiamen left a trail of disfigured corpses and burned-down shacks. > >As many as 20 unarmed villagers were reported killed and many others were >forced to flee in the latest violence in Colombia's decades-old conflict, >which has claimed at least 35,000 lives _ most civilians. > >The villages targeted in the attacks in northern Sucre state form part of >a traditional leftist rebel stronghold now being challenged by >landowner-backed paramilitary groups. The two rarely fight directly, >instead killing villagers they believe to be sympathetic to the other >side. > >"This time they didn't fire a single shot. They beheaded everyone," said a >30-year-old farmer whose brother was dragged from his house and killed by >the men wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying rifles. > >As officials searched for bodies over the weekend in some of the more >remote hamlets, police said a separate paramilitary attack on Saturday >claimed the lives of five peasants in Apartado, a town housing many war >refugees near the border with Panama. > >The latest rightist violence followed the opening of debate in the U.S. >Congress last week over a massive increase in military aid to Colombia as >part of a proposed $1.6 billion package for fighting narcotics >trafficking. > >Human rights organizations oppose the plan, saying Washington should not >give more aid to the Colombian military, which has been accused of >tacitly supporting the paramilitary groups. > >A paramilitary chief interviewed on Colombian radio Sunday was >unrepentant about the killings near Ovejas. > >"The guerrillas have disguised themselves as farm workers and hidden >their weapons in the houses," said Santander Losada, the regional >commander of a group calling itself the United Self-defense Forces of >Colombia. > >Losada told RCN radio his men had killed 47 members of the country's >largest rebel band, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. > >But villagers who fled to Ovejas insist the killing was indiscriminate. > >One field worker was hacked to death with a machete, they said, because >he had on the rubber work boots commonly worn by the rebels. > >"We aren't guerrillas. We're just poor peasants. They killed anyone who >came by," one man, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Associated >Press. > >Still shaking with fear, Mercedes Isabel Simancas said that after killing >her son, the militiamen returned to kill her husband. > >Some were luckier. When the militias arrived, one man fled with his six >children into a nearby jungle, where they hid for two nights. > >"I left everything behind. Chickens, pigs, everything," he said. > >A battalion of government troops that reached the area on Sunday reported >skirmishing with paramilitary squads, but Losada said the militias will >not withdraw from the region. > >"We will remain in the zone, to liberate it from the FARC rebels who want >to split Colombia in two," he said. > >The 15,000-member FARC is engaged in peace talks with the government to >end the nearly 36-year conflict. The talks have dragged on, and many >conservative Colombians say the rebel group has feigned interest in peace >while strengthening itself militarily. > >Some on Friday urged President Andres Pastrana to seek a halt to the >killings by opening parallel negotiations with the 5,000-strong >paramilitary groups --a proposal the FARC fiercely opposes. > >"It's a necessary step in the peace process," said Sen. Enrique Gomez >Hurtado of Pastrana's own Conservative Party. > >Copyright 2000 Associated Press >________________________________________________________________ >**************************************************************** >* CLM-NEWS is brought to you by the COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR at * >* http://www.prairienet.org/clm * >* and the CHICAGO COLOMBIA COMMITTEE * >* Email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or * >* Dennis Grammenos at [EMAIL PROTECTED] * >* To subscribe send request to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * >* subscribe clm-news Your Name * >**************************************************************** > > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
