And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Via LISN list
Subject: REUTERS: Colombia rebels and army in raging battle, 68 dead
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 08:31:08 -0500
From: Dennis Grammenos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[NOTE: Once again the military backs up the paramilitaries
and takes heavy casualties for them. -DG]
==============================================================
International human rights groups have frequently accused
the military of sponsoring the death squads. After last year's
assault on Castano's base, the FARC claimed the army had
sent in reinforcements to save the paramilitary chieftain from
almost certain death.
_______ ==============================================================
REUTERS
Wednesday, 23 June 1999
Colombia rebels and army in raging battle, 68 dead
--------------------------------------------------
By Karl Penhaul
BOGOTA -- At least 68 people have died in fighting between Colombian
Marxist rebels and the army after guerrillas tried to storm the mountain
hide-out of a rightist death squad chieftain, authorities said on Wednesday.
The army's second-in-command Gen. Nestor Ramirez said 35 soldiers were
killed and six missing -- the military's worst casualty toll since the
government began peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) in January.
Nineteen FARC guerrillas, at least four right-wing paramilitary gunmen and
10 peasants were also reported dead in the battle which began Monday but
was still raging Wednesday in northern Cordoba province.
``This is a total and absolute war. Things are very complicated. We're
fighting (the guerrillas) with planes and armoured helicopters,'' Gen.
Victor Julio Alvarez, head of the army's 1st Division, told reporters.
There was no immediate indication that the fighting would upset the
timetable for peace talks with the FARC. The latest round of the process --
the start of full-fledged negotiations -- is due to begin July 6 in
southeastern Colombia in a Switzerland-sized area that has been cleared of
state security forces.
The FARC, the hemisphere's oldest and largest rebel army, has ruled out a
ceasefire during negotiations to end Colombia's three-decade-old civil
conflict, which has claimed 35,000 lives in the past 10 years, saying talks
must go on in ``the midst of war.''
The 50-strong army unit came under fire Tuesday night as they hunted down a
FARC column, which local officials said had killed 10 peasants and razed
several homes Monday.
Ramirez said his troops had fought ``bravely from a position of
overwhelming inferiority'' against more than 200 rebels, adding that armed
forces chief Gen. Fernando Tapias had flown to the region to take command
of operations.
Fighting broke out as the FARC tried to push into the Nudo de Paramillo
mountain range, a local government official said.
The mountains are the stronghold of the rebels' bitterest enemy Carlos
Castano, head of an illegal, nationwide alliance of paramilitary squads
known as the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).
Castano has spearheaded a ``dirty war'' against the guerrillas and their
suspected sympathisers and narrowly escaped death last December when FARC
rebels overran his camp, killing and mutilating 30 people.
In a call to the Caracol radio network, a regional AUC commander identified
only as ``Omega'' said the FARC had killed 38 soldiers in Tuesday night's
firefight and added four AUC combatants had died.
International human rights groups have frequently accused the military of
sponsoring the death squads. After last year's assault on Castano's base,
the FARC claimed the army had sent in reinforcements to save the
paramilitary chieftain from almost certain death.
This week's battle followed a series of attention-grabbing attacks by a
smaller guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), which hijacked
a commercial airliner in northern Colombia in early April and kidnapped all
41 passengers and crew aboard.
In late May, the ELN kidnapped more than 150 worshippers during a mass in a
church in the southwest city of Cali -- an action it said was in reprisal
for a paramilitary massacre in northern Colombia.
The ELN is still holding at least 54 hostages from those two assaults,
prompting the government to break off all peace overtures with the group
until they are released.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited
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