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 _______________________________________________________________________ *********************************************************************** * Visit the website of CSN's Champaign-Urbana (Illinois) chapter at * * http://www.prairienet.org/csncu * Visit the COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK at http://www.igc.org/csn * * Visit the COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR at http://www.prairienet.org/clm * *********************************************************************** Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&