----- Original Message -----
From: Pakito Arriaran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2000 6:55 AM
Subject: [MLL]Weekly News Update on Colombia #556, 9/24/00
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #556, SEPTEMBER 24, 2000
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*5. FBI REPORT SHOWS US BOMB KILLED COLOMBIAN CIVILIANS
The Center for Public Integrity has obtained a copy of a May 1
report by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which
indicates that a US-designed fragmentation bomb was probably
responsible for the deaths of at least 19 Colombian civilians,
including several children, in a Dec. 13, 1998 explosion in the
village of Santo Domingo, in Tame municipality, Arauca department
[see Updates #464, 465]. The FBI report was sent to the US
Embassy in Bogota just as a $1.3 million US military aid package
was being negotiated in Congress. [The aid package was finally
passed by the US House and Senate in late June, and signed by
President Bill Clinton on July 13--see Updates #543-546.]
The Colombian military denied that it bombed Santo Domingo and
suggested the guerrillas planted a car bomb in the neighborhood,
according to the Center for Public Integrity. [According to other
reports, the military admitted dropping bombs but implied that
rebels were using the civilians as human shields.] Eyewitness
accounts of military planes and helicopters overhead at the time
of the attack, as well as conflicting statements by the Colombian
military, prompted the Colombian federal prosecutor's National
Human Rights Unit to seek US assistance in its investigation. Six
samples of metal and fuse fragments were sent to the FBI lab in
Washington for analysis. In the May 1 report, the FBI's
Explosives Unit reported back to the Colombians that "present in
the submitted specimens are exploded remains which are consistent
with a twenty (20) pound United States designed AN-M41
fragmentation bomb and fuze [sic]. The resulting explosion from
this type of bomb could cause property damage, personal injury or
death." The FBI report said the bomb was designed to be dropped
from an aircraft at a minimum altitude of 400 feet. There was no
evidence of an "improvised delivery system," the report said.
The Colombian Attorney General's office has ordered the military
to reopen its investigation into the attack, in light of the FBI
report. In an Aug. 30 letter, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked US
secretary of state Madeleine Albright to pressure Colombia to
send the Santo Domingo case to a civilian court for trial.
FBI officials in Washington and Bogota refused to comment on the
report, but confirmed its authenticity. The US Defense Department
also refused to comment. A US military officer in Colombia,
speaking on condition that he not be named, said the US had
delivered AN-M41 ordnances to the Colombian air force in the
past.
Colombia has received excess US defense articles since 1993,
according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. In
addition, the US sold $29,000 worth of bombs to Colombia in 1996
and another $30,000 in bombs in 1997, according to the foreign
military sales annual reports to Congress. The reports do not
specify which bombs are included in those sales. [Center for
Public Integrity 9/22/00]
*6. COLOMBIA: PARAMILITARIES TARGET INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
In northern Colombia, members of the indigenous Embera tribe have
come under increasing attack by rightwing paramilitaries from the
Campesino Self-Defense Forces of Cordoba and Uraba (ACCU). Jose
Belarmino Carupia, governor of the Embera community of Abejero,
was abducted on Aug. 21; his mutilated body was found soon
afterwards, reported the Regional Embera Waunaan Organization
(OREWA). On Sept. 7, paramilitaries abducted another Embera
leader, Andres Dumaza Paneso; his body was found several days
later, with signs of torture and partially decapitated. [El
Tiempo (Bogota) 9/12/00; Statement from Consejo de Autoridades
Indigenas de la OREWA 9/18/00]
Since Sept. 15, Embera Katio indigenous communities along the
tributaries of the Sinu river in northern Colombia have been
subjected to paramilitary checkpoints and near-constant
helicopter surveillance. On Sept. 16, paramilitaries abducted
Aquilino Jarupia Bailarin (Maisito) and his son Antonio Domico in
the Embera community of Wido, in the Alto Sinu area of Cordoba
department. Their bodies were found hours later, as was the body
of Miguel Bailarin, another Embera leader abducted in Tierralta
on Sept. 16 by four armed men. Embera health promoter Januario
Cabrera Lana was also abducted and murdered on Sept. 16 in the
community of Sorando by four armed men. A group of 22 other
Embera from the Alto Sinu area were abducted by paramilitaries on
Sept. 16, but were freed as of Sept. 20. According to an Embera
communique, the armed group warned the Embera that "they would
not leave the indigenous area until they have finished their job
of forcing us to abandon our traditional territories." [Colombia
Support Network 9/16/00; Statement from Consejo de Autoridades
Indigenas de la OREWA 9/18/00; International Rivers Network press
release 9/21/00]
=======================================================================
Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY
339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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