COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR Web: http://www.prairienet.org/clm E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Saturday, 2 December 2000 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ PURGED MILITARY OFFICERS JOIN DEATH SQUADS ____________________________________________________________________ By Dennis Grammenos BOGOTA - In a development that has been denounced by human rights and labor organizations, more than 57 former military officers and NCOs have formally joined the AUC, Colombia's notorious paramilitary death-squads. This group of military personnel were among the 388 that were forced to retire in mid-October as a result of their indisputable involvement in gross human rights violations in Colombia's "dirty war" against peasants, unionists, and human rights workers. In his first official statement on the matter, Colombian defense minister Luis Fernando Ramirez, today, confirmed the "sad and certain" reports that have been circulating about the formal integration of the purged officers into the ranks of the AUC. The October purge had occurred as the Colombian government was taking great pains to impress upon critics in the U.S. and Europe that it is trying to unravel the links between its security forces and the murderous death-squads that have operated with near total impunity over the past couple of decades. At the time of the forced retirement of the 89 officers and 299 NCOs, critics of the Colombian military charged that the group of purged personnel was just the tip of the iceberg and that the government should take further steps to dismantle the long-standing bonds between the military and its paramilitary auxiliaries. Copyright 2000 Colombian Labor Monitor
