From: Pakito Arriaran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 04:58:29 -0500
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Weekly News Update on Colombia #603, 8/19/01
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #603, AUGUST 19, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*2. COLOMBIA: MILITARY GETS NEW POWERS
On Aug. 13, Colombian president Andres Pastrana Arango signed a
controversial new law that expands military powers. Law 684
allows the president to designate certain areas as military
"theaters of operation," inside which civilian authorities are
subordinated to military and police commanders. The law also
allows military personnel to arrest and interrogate suspects (a
function previously reserved for civilian authorities); increases
the length of time during which the military can hold suspects
before turning them over to the courts; and shortens the statute
of limitations on investigations of military personnel involved
in alleged human rights abuses. In addition, the new law grants
special powers to the president to allow him to put an anti-
terrorism statute into effect within the next two months. [El
Diario-La Prensa 8/17/01 from AP; Clarin (Buenos Aires) 8/17/01]
"This law seeks to give more power to military authorities over
civilian authorities, to stimulate arbitrary acts such as arrests
without warrants or interrogations of civilians in military
facilities, and to allow more impunity for soldiers and police
agents who violate human rights," warned Gustavo Gallon, director
of the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ). [ED-LP 8/17/01 from
AP]
*3. COLOMBIA: IRA SUSPECTS ARRESTED
Colombian authorities arrested three suspected members of the
nationalist Irish Republican Army (IRA) on Aug. 11 in Bogota's
airport after they arrived from Vicente del Caguan, a town in the
demilitarized zone that the government has ceded to the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for use in peace
negotiations. Military spokesperson Chelo Garcia said the three
were explosives experts. The suggestion that the IRA has been
aiding the FARC had immediate repercussions in Northern Ireland.
Reg Empey, senior negotiator for the anti-independence Ulster
Unionist party, said that the IRA's commitment to the 1998 peace
process would "be seriously, if not fatally, undermined" if the
group turned out to be involved with the FARC. [Financial Times
(UK) 8/14/01]
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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/~nicadlw/wnuhome.html * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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