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1. Bush Adviser Talks Tough on Colombia 12/28
2. War, Drug Trade Cause Colombia Ecological Disaster 12/28
3. Only some people know which substances are being used 12/28
4. As U.S. Military Settles In, Some in Ecuador Have Doubts 12/31
5. Fearful Colombians Oppose Haven for 2nd Rebel Group 1/1
6. Eleven Killed in Colombia Massacre 1/4
________________________________________________
Thursday, December 28, 2000, in the Guardian (London)
Bush Adviser Talks Tough on Colombia
Aligns the new administration with the Colombian military and the death
squads by Martin Kettle in Washington
George W Bush's incoming administration is preparing for a more
aggressive onslaught on guerrillas and drug traffickers in Colombia, a
confidential speech by a senior adviser reveals.
Robert Zoellick, who is to be appointed to an international policy post
in the Republican administration - possibly chief trade representative -
said: "If the Colombian people are willing to fight for their own
country, then the US should offer serious, sustained and timely
financial, material and intelligence support."
His speech, which was delivered to the Council on Foreign Relations a
week before the November 7 presidential election, suggests a big shift
in Washington's policy on Colombia, just as President Andres Pastrana
appears to be on the verge of making peace with the country's
second-biggest leftwing rebel force, the National Liberation Army (ELN).
The Clinton administration's tried to stay out of the 36-year civil war
while giving multimillion-dollar aid packages intended for action
against drugs.
Rightwing critics such as Mr Zoellick say that policy is soft on
leftwing guerrilla movements such as the ELN and the larger Farc.
"We cannot continue to make a false distinction between
counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics efforts," Mr Zoellick said.
"The narco-traffickers and guerrillas compose one dangerous network."
Leftwing critics, on the other hand, say the Clinton policy gives the
Colombian armed forces too much leeway to divert US aid to rightwing
death squads waging a largely unchecked war against the guerrillas.
Death squads have carried out three-quarters of the 4,000 annual
political killings.
One critic, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, said this week that the
Clinton administration's refusal to attach human rights guarantees and
conditions to Washington's latest $1.3bn (£870m) aid package to Colombia
"sent a terrible signal".
When the issue comes up for review next month, Mr Wellstone says, no aid
should be given until all human rights terms are met.
But Mr Zoellick's tough speech suggests such that an effort is doomed.
It ignored human rights conditions, and called on the "forces of
democracy" to combat "new threats to security" in Colombia.
Such a policy appears to align the new administration with the Colombian
military and the death squads against Mr Pastrana and the left.
The prospect of a change in US policy could hardly come at a more
delicate time in Colombia's long-running crisis, which has claimed more
than 35,000 lives in the past 10 years and creates 300,000 refugees each
year.
Thousands of Colombians have also been kidnapped, by both sides.
Last weekend the ELN freed 42 police officers and soldiers, a Christmas
gesture which appeared to crown Cuban-brokered talks between Bogota and
the ELN aimed at establishing a demilitarised enclave run by the ELN in
Bolivar region in the north.
If it is finally agreed, the land-for-peace deal with the 5,000-strong
ELN will be similar to a pact two years ago between Mr Pastrana and the
Farc.
That deal was criticised because of the continuing claim of human rights
abuses by Farc and because the armed forces have never accepted the
deal's legitimacy.
That has led Bogota to press for tougher terms in any agreement with the
ELN. Residents of Bolivar are demanding such conditions, because they
fear a demilitarised zone could lead to increased violence.
The land-for-peace deals with the guerrillas are intended to be a
prelude to full-scale peace talks. The deal with Farc laid down two
years of peace talks which have not so far led to any hoped-for
agreement.
The Farc has until January 31 to return to talks or see the military
allowed back into the demilitarised zone.
A deal with the ELN would involve promises by both sides to hold full
peace negotiations within nine months, Mr Pastrana said this week.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000
________________________________________________________________
REUTERS, Thursday, 28 December 2000
War, Drug Trade Cause Colombia Ecological Disaster
By Jude Webber
BOGOTA-Warring leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries, and the
illegal drug trade in the world's top cocaine producer are causing an
ecological disaster of "unsuspected proportions" in Colombia, according
to an army report.
The report, titled "The scars on 'Mother Earth,"' said the rebel groups'
tactic of blowing up oil pipelines had polluted the Andean nation's
ecosystem with more than 2 million tons of crude oil in the last decade.
The drug trade, the report said Wednesday, contaminated the soil with
200,000 tons of chemicals a year and causing deforestation at a pace
that was rapidly destroying the country's jungles.
"Guerrillas and paramilitaries have caused this ecological catastrophe
which, ... if the current rate of deforestation continues, will turn
half the country's jungles into pasture in 17 years," the report said,
quoting Environment Ministry experts.
It said the heavily wooded regions of Amazonas, bordering Peru in the
south, and Orinoquia, which borders Venezuela and Brazil in the east,
were in were in "imminent danger."
Colombia is one of the world's five top countries in terms of water
resources and biodiversity, the Environment Ministry says. No one there
was available for comment on the report.
The army calculated that about 3,600 square miles of jungle and
agricultural land had been lost in the past decade.
Although a tiny proportion of Colombia's total area of about 441,000
square miles, the destruction still represents "ecological damage ... of
unsuspected proportions," it said.
Colombia has been riven by four decades of strife-the longest conflict
in Latin America-involving the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), far-right
paramilitary death squads and the army, which critics accuse of being
linked to paramilitaries or turning a blind eye to their activities.
The war has claimed 35,000 lives in the past decade alone.
-------------- Crude and coke
The United States believes the 17,000-strong FARC, Latin America's
biggest rebel army, plays a dominant role in drug production.
Colombia is the source of 90 percent of the world's cocaine, with annual
output of 520 tons, and it also produces 6 tons of heroin annually,
according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Guerrillas have targeted oil, Colombia's main export, as a tactic in
their war against the state, staging some 1,000 assaults on oil
pipelines since 1986. The 5,000-strong ELN has been responsible for 80
percent of the assaults.
The army report, citing Environment Ministry figures, said crude oil had
contaminated 1,625 miles of river, equivalent to the total length of
Colombia's two biggest rivers, the Cauca and the Magdalena, with slicks
of up to 112 miles in length.
The report called the drug trade "one of the direct causes of the
destruction of biodiversity," saying coca leaf, poppies and marijuana
cultivation had caused serious deforestation.
It cited Colombia's human rights monitor's office as saying 3,300 square
miles of jungle had been lost in the last 30 years.
Furthermore, it said some 200,000 tons a year of 28 types of chemicals
used in the processing of coca leaf and poppies for cocaine and heroin
were leaching into the water and soil.
Copyright 2000 Reuters
________________________________________________________________
NRC HANDELSBLAD [Netherlands], Thursday, 28 December 2000
Only some people know which substances are being used
By Marjon van Royen
BOGOTA-Exactly which herbicide is sprayed in Colombia? Even experts do
not know exactly: it is a commercial secret.
For spraying in Colombia the herbicide glyfosate is used. As such a
pretty innocent chemical, say the experts. The Dutch environmental
inspection service however does prescribe protective gloves and glasses
for its use. It also forbids inhaling the spraying haze. "It of course
is not intended to end on humans," says a spokesperson for the Dutch
Board for the Admission of Chemical Exterminants. The body has
registered the poison since 1993 under the trade mark Roundup.
In Colombia, Roundup is also used. It is made by US business Monsanto.
Although US environmental groups state the opposite, according to the
company the product is 'relatively safe'. But the American Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) classifies the product as 'most poisonous'. The
World Health Organisation classifies it as 'extremely poisonous'.
Because the chemical is sprayed in Colombia from planes on inhabited
areas, there have always been health complaints. Burning eyes, dizziness
and respiratory problems occurred most frequently. Since two years
however Colombian environmental and human rights groups suspect
something else is used. Crops don't just turn yellow, they shrivel and
blacken. And people come with complaints such as intestinal problems and
affected skin.
The Colombian anti-narcotics police owes the complaints to 'chance' or
to 'manipulation by the narco-guerrilla'. The US State Department states
that the complaints do come from farmers that grow illegal crops. "As
their illegal lives have been affected by the spraying, these persons do
not give objective information," the Department wrote in a report early
last month.
When asked what is being used for the spraying, "glyfosate" is the
authorities' standard answer. Last week however the State Department
answered in the affirmative when asked by this newspaper whether the
rumour is correct that the traditional Roundup has been replaced some
time ago by the product Roundup Ultra. This definitely means that a new
product is being sprayed. Washington also confirmed the supposition that
the Colombian product Cosmoflux is added to the spray mixture. Cosmoflux
is a kind of 'soap', a assisting agent that makes the deadly glyfosate
enter the plant better and quicker.
The added soaps rather than the glyfosate could, according to
scientists, be the cause of the symptoms of illness. "The great problem
is you can hardly investigate these substances", says professor Willem
Seinen of the Research Institute Toxicology (RITOX) of Utrecht
University. "But a connection between these substances and the symptoms
of illness can certainly not be excluded".
Because these soaps are additional products, the producer is not obliged
to put the ingredients on the label. The composition is a company
classified information. The environmental inspection agency is not
allowed either to inform about the ingredients.
The Colombian Cosmoflux as well as the American Roundup Ultra contain
'soaps'. The importance of these soaps or 'surfactants' for the impact
of glyfosate on the plant is such that the research agency ARS of the US
Ministry of Agriculture has experimented on them for four years.
Professors Helling and Collins carried out tests in greenhouses and on
little coca fields they had laid out themselves in Hawaii. "Of course
the issue was increasing the degree of poisonousness" for plants, says
professor Helling when asked about this. "That was the aim of our
research".
In the secret report about their research Helling and Collins wrote that
their experiment "brought about a change in the usual mix of the
herbicide for the destruction of coca in Colombia". New 'soaps' would be
added that after spraying produce "excellent results". Monsanto does not
publish the composition of its 'soap'. "Even we as federal researchers
were not informed", says dr. Helling over the phone. "We wanted to know
the formula so we could make it even more effective."
Why did he not investigate it himself? "A hopeless task", is his
response. Just as Dutch TNO [agency in Holland for applied technological
and scientific expertise], to which this newspaper sent ground samples,
Helling says such research would take several years.
Although Helling did not toxicologically test his soaps, he states they
do no harm. Yet he lets slip out to be "seriously concerned" about the
Colombian product Cosmoflux that is added to the Roundup Ultra.
"Fortunately the EPA has approved the product in early December. The
State Department too said that Colombian Cosmoflux was EPA-approved".
The EPA however has never heard about Cosmoflux. According to a
spokesperson it cannot have been approved by EPA. "We do not examine
foreign products. And with Roundup Ultra we only test the active
ingredient (glyfosate)." Just like the Dutch environmental inspection
agency, the EPA gives no statements about additions or 'soaps'.
The Colombian environmental inspection agency is even less inclined to
do this. According to Colombian biochemist Elsa Nivia in her country the
"absurd situation" exists that the agency is being paid by the
anti-narcotics police to supervise the spraying.
"Who in Colombia will run counter to the one who pays you?" For years,
Nivia has tried to find out what is being sprayed in her country. She
keeps on confronting walls. Just like the US environmental agencies
which critically follow the spraying, Nivia suspects the mixtures that
are being used do not conform to the indications on the labels.
That is also suspected by Utrecht professor Seinen. "It is very well
possible that something is wrong with those products", he says.
According to him every product is 'polluted' without this being
recognized on the labels. "Even in very minor quantities that kind of
substances can cause sensibilization and bring about for example
allergic reactions".
Copyright 2000 NRC HANDELSBLAD
________________________________________________________________
NEW YORK TIMES, Sunday, 31 December 2000
As U.S. Military Settles In, Some in Ecuador Have Doubts
By Larry Rohter
MANTA, Ecuador-U.S. Navy P-3 reconnaissance planes are parked at the
airfield on the outskirts of town, the Pentagon is spending $62 million
to expand and improve runways and hangars, and U.S. military personnel
are already mingling easily with their local counterparts. But Jorge
Zambrano, mayor of this port city of 250,000 residents, would rather not
call the project that promises to transform his city a U.S. "base."
"It's an advance post for combatting narco-trafficking," he said firmly.
"We don't feel we are being invaded by the Americans here. It's as if
someone has come along and offered to build us a second story on our
house for free, so of course we are going to say, 'Go right ahead.' "
However you describe it, the flights that leave here daily have already
become an important element in U.S. efforts to halt drug trafficking.
With the conflict in neighboring Colombia worsening and the U.S.
commitment there growing, a new foothold nearby will "improve our
response time and enhance our ability to detect and monitor flows of
cocaine and heroin," Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar,
said in an interview earlier this year.
The work here, which includes construction of living quarters for 200
U.S. military and civilian contract personnel, is scheduled for
completion late in 2001. Then the "forward operating location," as it is
called, will be able to provide round-the-clock tracking of activity in
Colombia and neighboring countries through a pair of AWACS surveillance
planes-among America's most sophisticated-and tankers to refuel them in
the air.
The major coca-growing areas of Colombia are just a few minutes' flight
time north of here, but the planes will also be able to monitor air and
marine activity well into the Caribbean.
Until last year, such missions were flown out of Howard Air Force Base
in Panama. But when the United States and Panama failed to agree on use
of the base after the United States handed over the Panama Canal a year
ago, the Pentagon and State Department were forced to shop for
alternatives.
Two smaller outposts in the Dutch colonies of Aruba and Curacao in the
Caribbean were quickly found. Jamil Mahuad, then Ecuador's president,
agreed to a 10-year deal in November 1999 calling for an upgrading of
the existing Ecuadoran Air Force base. But two months later he was
overthrown in a military coup, and complaints and challenges to the base
are yet to be resolved.
Officially, the U.S. presence is merely a counternarcotics observation
post and has nothing to do with Colombia's war against leftist
guerrillas or with Plan Colombia, the $1.3 billion U.S. aid plan for
Colombia. But since the guerrillas and the right-wing paramilitaries the
oppose them both earn money through narco-trafficking, that distinction
seems increasingly unconvincing to Ecuadorans worried about getting
dragged into the conflict.
"This base is a provocation to all of the irregular forces in Colombia,"
Antonio Posso, an influential leftist member of Congress, said in an
interview in Quito, the capital. "Our oil pipeline has already been
attacked by Colombian guerrillas, and the paramilitary groups are
killing people on Ecuadoran territory, so just imagine how a military
installation like this acts as an enticement."
The "agreement for cooperation" between the United States and Ecuador
specifically states that the base here shall be used "for the sole and
exclusive purpose of supporting aerial detection, monitoring, tracking
and control of illegal narcotics trafficking."
Zambrano and other Ecuadoran supporters of the project argue that since
trouble is likely to be coming anyway, it is in their country's interest
to be prepared and have some U.S. protection.
"The nature of the conflict in Colombia and the way it is moving
southward are such that they are going to provoke a spillover whether
the U.S. detachment is here or not," said Col. Jose Bohorquez, the
Ecuadoran commander of the air base here. "It is the result of geography
and the situation in Colombia, not of the U.S. presence, and we should
be clear about that."
Although the United States is paying the entire cost of expanding the
existing base and will rely to a large extent on the local economy for
labor, supplies and equipment, the agreement does not require the
Pentagon to pay rent or local taxes during the period of the agreement.
But this is a country burdened with $13 billion in foreign debt and a
poverty rate that has doubled in the past three years, and many people
had hoped for more generous terms.
As a result, the popular perception in many parts of Ecuador is that the
base "was given away in exchange for nothing during a moment of economic
pressure," said Adrian Bonilla, a researcher for the Latin American
Faculty for Social Sciences in Quito.
"Mahuad assumed that the United States would help him get an accord on
the foreign debt as a sort of payback, and agreed to give Manta away
without a real process of negotiation."
Since the document the two governments signed is an agreement and not a
treaty, the United States was able to press ahead on the project without
a vote in Congress. But a challenge to the legality of the accord has
been taken to Ecuador's highest court, and Ecuador's Congress is also
clamoring for a look.
"This agreement needs to be reviewed, and it will be reviewed," Posso
vowed.
"Until Congress has approved this measure, it is simply not valid, and
approval will depend on whether or not Congress judges the conditions to
be beneficial to the Ecuadoran nation. We are all against narcotics
trafficking, but if this gets us involved in the war against the
Colombian guerrillas, then things get complicated for us."
Trying to be sensitive to Ecuadoran concerns about sovereignty, U.S.
military officials in Ecuador have adopted a policy of what they call
"minimizing our footprint." When they are off base, they dress in
civilian clothes, and they have eagerly plunged into community life with
programs to train firefighters, paint schools and churches and coach
basketball teams.
A group calling itself the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador
has posted graffiti demanding that "warmongering Yankees get out of
Manta." But most residents, from shoeshine boys up to the business
elite, seem to welcome the U.S. presence, or at least the dollars that
have begun to be injected into the local economy.
"With the Americans here, I am certain that many new jobs are going to
be created and lots of money will be spent," predicted Margarita Macias
Farfan, a shop clerk. "We already see them in the restaurants and
hotels, and we hope that many more of them will come and invest here so
that our lives improve."
Copyright 2000 New York Times
________________________________________________________________
WASHINGTON POST, Monday, 1 January 2000
Fearful Colombians Oppose Haven for 2nd Rebel Group
By Scott Wilson
SAN PABLO, Colombia-President Andres Pastrana is moving quickly to
create a new demilitarized zone for Colombia's second-largest guerrilla
group to use as a haven for peace talks, despite broad public sentiment
that a similar zone set up for the largest rebel group has been a
disaster.
Pastrana, who was elected in July 1998 on a pledge to bring peace to
Colombia after almost four decades of war, withdrew government security
forces from a huge swath of southern jungle two years ago to begin talks
with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Since then,
the country's biggest guerrilla group has used the demilitarized zone
not to make peace, but to increase drug cultivation, stage military
offensives, train new recruits and hold more than 450 soldiers and
police officers captive in open-air pens.
Rebel negotiators abandoned peace talks in November to protest the
government's failure to rein in right-wing paramilitary forces, whom
they battle for control of drug-producing areas. But a few weeks later,
Pastrana announced the zone would remain demilitarized through the end
of January despite mounting opposition here and abroad, including
assertions by senior U.S. officials that creating the zone was naive.
Residents of this old river town in the Middle Magdalena, one of
Colombia's most resource-rich regions, fear that similar problems will
occur here if Pastrana creates a new demilitarized zone for the National
Liberation Army, or ELN. Since the ELN's release of 42 hostages on Dec.
23, Pastrana has been consulting local officials and civic groups on a
peace plan they say will deliver their town to guerrillas who have
menaced them for decades.
For several months, business leaders have been stockpiling small arms,
large-caliber automatic rifles and grenades. Most have been purchased in
the nearby cities of Cucuta and Bucaramanga, trucked west along highways
to Barrancabermeja and brought by boat 28 miles downstream on the muddy
Magdalena River.
Army checkpoints line the route, but the shipments have been successful
for the most part, according to several business leaders involved in
assembling the arms cache. At the same time, a popular paramilitary
force of the type historically financed by private landowners and drug
traffickers has begun fortifying its ranks for a strike against the
leftist ELN should Pastrana carry out plans to withdraw army troops.
"The civilian population has armed itself, quietly and strongly," said
Pedro Gutierrez, a hardware store owner and member of the civic group
Asocipaz, which many say represents the paramilitary position in talks
with the government. "As soon as the president says there will be a
[cleared zone], we will begin our war."
That the success of a demilitarized zone here depends on its reception
by paramilitary forces highlights a central complication within
Colombia's broader effort to achieve peace. The government does not
recognize the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, as the collection
of paramilitary groups flourishing across the country is known, and
therefore does not allow its leaders to participate in official peace
talks.
But the paramilitary forces, whom human rights groups blame for most of
the more than 200 mass killings of civilians last year, hold tremendous
sway. Unlike privately funded armies in other Latin American countries,
Colombia's militia groups control huge tracts of land and urban centers.
Municipal officials say the success of a new demilitarized zone will
depend on Carlos Castano, a paramilitary chief whose forces are winning
support not only from beleaguered ranchers but also from a tired urban
middle class that has seen the conflict undermine a once vibrant
economy.
Here and in other towns in Bolivar state, a region with a history of
little government security, the young men with bright shirts and fast
motorcycles who belong to paramilitary groups are celebrated as folk
heroes. From store clerks to mayoral aides, almost everyone knows the
local militia leaders and how to find them, either at home or in their
favorite cantinas and pool halls, which fill the streets with music.
Gutierrez, the Asocipaz member, can dial the local commander's phone
number from memory.
"We have no idea why they would want to create this zone," San Pablo's
paramilitary leader, who is known as Commander Yasid, said in a recent
interview. "We are listening to the communities, and they are saying,
'No, we won't have it.' So we are not going to accept it-in any form."
Pastrana has been holding talks for the past week with community groups
and elected leaders, following the ELN's pre-Christmas release of 42
soldiers and police officers held captive for two years. Saying "peace
belongs to everyone," Pastrana is seeking support for a plan he first
floated in April that would pull troops out of as many as three towns
near the San Lucas mountains, among them San Pablo. The roughly
1,800-square-mile zone would be used for talks with the ELN, a
5,000-strong insurgency that took root decades ago in this river valley.
Pastrana and his top negotiators argue that, while controversial, the
demilitarized zones are the safest, most effective venues for talks with
rebel groups. The government has had informal discussions with the ELN
in Switzerland and Cuba, but both sides want a more convenient location
for formal talks, which often involve extensive shuttle diplomacy.
In a New Year's message, Pastrana asked Colombians to be patient. "I
know many of you think we're not getting anywhere and you don't
appreciate this work and would like a radical change of position from
your president," he said in a televised address. "I decided, at the risk
of my own popularity, to take on what this country has not been able to
resolve in more than 40 years. I ask you to renew your faith."
The region around San Pablo has long been the heart of oil country, with
gold mines and cattle ranches scattered across hot flatlands. In recent
years it has become fertile ground for coca crops, which both the ELN
and paramilitary forces tax to help finance their operations. In
contrast to the far larger zone created for FARC, the paramilitary
presence here is pervasive and promises to present well-armed resistance
to ELN control.
Two years ago, paramilitary forces announced their arrival by
slaughtering 15 suspected ELN sympathizers in front of the Paradise Bar
on San Pablo's main square, according to shopkeepers who witnessed the
killings. Since then, a tense but abiding peace has reigned within the
municipality of about 50,000 people, although there are frequent clashes
between the groups in the mountains beyond.
"In the years they have been here, I have been able to breathe a little
bit," said one shopkeeper of the paramilitary groups. The 32-year town
resident, like many interviewed, said he feared ELN reprisals if his
name was published. "I know they are preparing now, and I know they
won't let this happen to us. In two years, Pastrana will go to Harvard
to be a professor, and without them we'd be left to die."
A draft agreement between the government and the ELN calls for
international human rights observers and a government prosecutor to live
within the demilitarized zone-elements missing from the FARC haven.
Local officials are also demanding that the ELN declare an end to
violence, renounce kidnapping and free approximately 700 civilians it
holds. And they are asking the government to limit the zone to the sites
of the peace talks and preserve the anti-guerrilla army units that
operate in and around San Pablo.
"I have always said that the people will decide this issue," said Danuil
Mancera Polo, San Pablo's mayor and an Asocipaz member, who is
participating in the government talks.
"We want to live in peace. People are afraid to speak freely here
because of fanatics on both sides that have left this process in chaos.
If Castano says something positive about the plans, then he could bring
it about."
But very few expect that. Yasid, the 24-year-old paramilitary leader,
lives in a neighborhood of dirt streets and open sewers on San Pablo's
outskirts. He said he has been informed by his superiors that he will
receive reinforcements, perhaps more than 1,000 men, if the zone is
created. Yasid, along with several municipal officials, said he expects
Pastrana to move ahead with the plan within a month.
"They have killed our business owners, kidnapped our children, and we
will not allow them to take over our towns," Yasid said.
At a recent town meeting held in a hot open-air school on San Pablo's
outskirts, Mayor Mancera told roughly 300 people that he would not allow
army troops to leave urban centers. Farmers and business owners jammed
into children's desks. Others leaned into the building over low concrete
walls and watched as the meeting turned into a rally against the zone.
"This is what the ELN wants, and this is going to be the final result of
this famous peace process," Gedeon Bernal, a clothing store owner with
two children, told the crowd.
"Looking around, even some of those here today are part of the
paramilitaries, and they will have a say. We have lost patience."
The crowd exploded in applause.
Copyright 2001 The Washington Post Company
_________________________________________________
Thursday January 4 5:04 PM ET
Eleven Killed in Colombia Massacre
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Suspected far-right paramilitaries killed 11 people
in a northwestern Colombian region in the first massacre of the new year
in this conflict-torn nation, police said on Thursday.
Police in Bogota said the victims were shot dead in Wednesday's attack
in a rural area near the town of Yolombo, in the department of
Antioquia, which is the scene of frequent battles between paramilitaries
and leftist guerrillas for territorial control.
The secretary of the Yolombo government told reporters the massacre,
which he blamed on paramilitaries, had sparked ''anxiety, panic and
commotion.'' Police said there were unconfirmed reports that the killing
was the result of a clash with guerrillas from the main leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group.
Colombia's four-decades-old conflict pits leftist rebel groups, the
17,000-strong FARC and 5,000-strong National Liberation Army (ELN),
against the paramilitary forces.
Human rights groups allege the paramilitaries, which number some 8,000
and are grouped into the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC),
have links to the military. The army, which says paramilitary numbers
are rising, vehemently denies it colludes with the squads or turns a
blind eye to their activities.
Colombian police say there were 205 massacres in 2000, in which 1,226
people were killed. The majority was attributed to paramilitaries.
The northwestern Antioquia region is the scene of fierce clashes.
Colombia's conflict has claimed at least 35,000 civilian lives in the
past decade alone.
Some 10 municipalities in Antioquia remained without power on Thursday
after attacks by the FARC on electricity pylons which have cut off power
to around 14 towns in the past two weeks. Local officials say the worst
affected area is Uraba, the country's main banana-producing area.
The Yolombo killing comes as a government peace drive with the FARC was
floundering. The FARC, which says it is targeted by the paramilitaries,
pulled out of peace talks in November.
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