From: Red Palante <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 23:31:19 -0500
Subject: Weekly News Update on Colombia #608, 9/23/01
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #608, SEPTEMBER 23, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*5. COLOMBIA: MORE PARAMILITARY MASSACRES
On Sept. 15 and 16, some 20 armed members of the Tolima Bloc of
the rightwing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
(AUC) took over the rural village of Frias, in Falan
municipality, Tolima department. The paramilitaries went around
the town and fired with assault rifles at civilians in several
public places, killing 13 people who ranged in age from 17 to 70.
As they were leaving the village, the paramilitaries abducted,
tortured and killed two more residents, according to a report
from the local nongovernmental organization Sembrar. A number of
people were wounded in the attack. The paramilitaries had warned
for weeks that they would attack the village. [EFE 9/16/01;
Sembrar Urgent Action 9/17/01]
Suspected rightwing paramilitaries killed another four people on
Sept. 19 in the villages of Betania, Rio Hondo and Puerto Rico,
in rural areas of El Tambo municipality, in the southern
Colombian department of Cauca. The massacre took place as local
and national officials met to discuss the situation of families
displaced by a recent wave of paramilitary and rebel activity in
the area. Some 120 families have arrived in the town of El Tambo
over the past four weeks, fleeing violence in the outlying areas
which so far has left 29 civilians dead. The displaced are being
housed in schools, health centers and private homes. [El Pais
(Cali) 9/20/01]
A string of massacres attributed to the AUC in late August left
at least 27 civilians dead: at least nine and as many as 21 were
killed on Aug. 22 in the municipality of Calima-Darien in Valle
del Cauca department; six were killed on Aug. 25 in Tumaco
municipality, Narino department; five were killed on Aug. 26 in
Caramanta municipality in northeastern Antioquia department; and
at least six were killed on Aug. 28 in Ituango municipality, also
in Antioquia. [El Tiempo (Bogota) 8/27/01, 8/30/01, 9/1/01; El
Colombiano (Medellin) 8/29/01, 8/30/01; El Pais (Cali) 8/27/01]
On Sept. 19, assassins shot to death Yolanda Ceron, a Catholic
nun who headed a church human rights team in the Pacific port
town of Tumaco, in Narino department. Amnesty International has
accused the AUC of responsibility for the murder. [AP 9/20/01]
*6. COLOMBIA: DID FARC SET UP IRISH "FOOLS"?
Carlos Castano, political leader of the rightwing United Self-
Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), has suggested that the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) set up the Aug. 11
arrest of three Irish men, identified by the Colombian government
as Martin John McAuley, James William Monaghan and Niall Terence
Connolly [see Update #603]. Castano said the three were
mercenaries: one of them (he would not specify which) "had
written repeatedly" to the AUC via internet, "offering us his
professional services and proposing regular or irregular business
deals, as he put it," Castano explained.
According to Castano, the Irish "mercenaries" had arrived in the
rebel-held southern demilitarized zone seeking money, but the
rebels soon realized the visitors were "useless" compared to
"Colombian terrorists who are masters of the field, whereas in
Ireland they only know how to put cars with dynamite in the
streets." The three--who Castano said spent their time in the
demilitarized zone entertaining themselves with drugs and
prostitutes--are now being held in Bogota on charges of using
false information in their passports, and for alleged training
for illegal activities.
Castano, whose organization claims to be spying on the FARC, said
the visit by the three Irish men was authorized and paid for by
FARC military chief Jorge Briceno, better known as "Mono Jojoy."
But "other leaders with more brains figured out how to get rid of
the useless fools in the best way... they are not such idiots as
to send them from San Vicente del Caguan to Bogota on Satena [the
military's airline] if they were interested in seeing them arrive
safe and sound," Castano said. [El Nuevo Herald 9/7/01]
In a statement due to appear in the Irish Republican newspaper An
Phoblacht on Sept. 20, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) distanced
itself from the arrests of the three men in Colombia. "We wish to
make it clear that the Army Council [the IRA's ruling body] sent
no one to Colombia to train or to engage in any military
cooperation with any group," the statement said. "The IRA has not
interfered in the internal affairs of Colombia and will not do
so. The IRA is not a threat to the peace process in Ireland or in
Colombia." [AFP 9/19/01]
While the three Irish men have yet to be formally charged, the
Colombian government appears to be using their arrests as part of
a strategy to demonstrate alleged FARC links to international
terrorism. On Sept. 20, police suggested a possible link between
the FARC and the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna
(ETA); Colombian police said they captured two suspected FARC
members with a partially constructed car bomb closely resembling
those used by ETA in Spain.
"There's no doubt (the FARC) has connections to other terrorist
groups," said National Police Gen. Tobias Duran. The US firm
Strategic Forecasting said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New
York and Washington will likely prompt the US government to
"intensify its surveillance of insurgent groups such as the
FARC." [AP 9/21/01] Both the FARC and the smaller leftist
National Liberation Army (ELN) were already on the US State
Department list of terrorist organizations; the AUC was added to
the list on Sept. 5 [see Update #607].
=======================================================================
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