ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, 20 September 2001
Human-rights Holy Woman Shot
----------------------------
BOGOTA - Gunmen shot and killed a Roman Catholic nun active in human
rights work in a Pacific port town, authorities said Thursday.
Yolanda Ceron directed a church human rights team in the town of Tumaco,
where she was killed Wednesday, according to the governor of Narino state,
Parmenio Cuellar.
Officials said they had no suspects.
But the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International
accused a right-wing paramilitary group that has previously targeted human
rights workers.
``There's no doubt that Yolanda was killed for her work in the defense of
human rights,'' Amnesty said in a statement Thursday, accusing the
right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.
Amnesty said Ceron, a Colombian, was working to help people who had been
victimized by government troops or paramilitary fighters. The group
criticized the government for failing to take sufficient actions against
paramilitaries, who are known to be expanding their influence in Tumaco,
some 325 miles southwest of Bogota.
The AUC is accused of widespread human rights violations in a war against
suspected guerrilla supporters. The group is also on the U.S. government's
list of international terrorist organizations. Colombia's U.S.-backed
military has been accused of collaborating with the paramilitaries.
The South American country's 37-year civil war kills an estimated 3,500
people every year.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
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