>From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Colombian Death Squad Kills Nine Peasants > > >Tuesday October 3 9:38 PM ET >Colombian Death Squad Kills Nine Peasants > > >BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Right-wing paramilitary >gunmen killed nine peasants Tuesday in the latest >political bloodletting in a war zone in southwest >Colombia, authorities said. > >Police attributed the attack outside the town of >Mozambique, in a remote area of Valle del Cauca >province dominated by rebels and paramilitary gangs, >to the so-called Calima Front of the United >Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). > >The AUC, Colombia's main paramilitary force with an >estimated 6,000 mostly working-class fighters, is an >arch-enemy of the country's two leading Marxist >guerrilla groups, and targets leftists and suspected >rebel sympathizers. > >Local and international human rights groups blame it >for most of the peasant massacres and other atrocities >committed in Colombia's long-running civil conflict, >which has taken about 35,000 lives since 1990. > >Tuesday's victims, all men, included five members of >the same family, police said. They were dragged out of >their homes at dawn and summarily executed by the >gunmen, who wore combat fatigues and were armed with >automatic assault rifles. > >Television images of the men showed them lying with >their hands lashed behind their backs. Local media >reports said each had been killed with three gunshots >to the head. > >Colombia's military strongly denies repeated >allegations that it supports paramilitary groups or >death squads, which can be traced back to >U.S.-inspired rural intelligence networks set up by >the army in the late 1960s and 1970s and outlawed in >1989. > >But in a recent report, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch >said Colombian government investigators believed that >``active duty and reserve army officers attached to >the Third Brigade in Cali set up and actively >supported the Calima Front.'' > >The Calima Front is believed to have been responsible >for 200 killings and the forced displacement of more >than 10,000 people in the 12 months since it began >operating in July 1999 in and around the city of Cali, >Human Rights Watch said. > > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Yahoo! Photos - 35mm Quality Prints, Now Get 15 Free! >http://photos.yahoo.com/ > > >______________________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Get on EqualFooting and get $25 back! >Find everything your office will ever need-and get $25 back on your >first purchase of $50 or more! For everything from erasers to printer >paper-click and get on 'equal footing' today. >http://on.linkexchange.com/?ATID=27&AID=1482 > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________
