STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subj: AFP: 3,000 Colombians flee their home after paramilitary death threats Date: 6/10/01 6:08:42 PM Mountain Daylight Time From: xx738<@>prairienet.org (Colombian Labor Monitor) Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [NOTE: Afro-Colombian communities in Choco have been subjected to a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing as the lands in the department are brought under the ownership of large landowners in preparation for oil and mining operations, as well as a possible "dry canal" that circumvents the Panama Canal. -DG] =================================== "We had until five in the afternoon to leave, or be killed." ____________ =================================== AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Saturday, 9 June 2001 3,000 Colombians flee their home after paramilitary death threats -------------------------------- BOGOTA -- Colombian paramilitaries forced some 3,000 residents of western Choco department to flee their homes, area residents said. Residents of Alto Baudo town were accused by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) of links with leftist rebels that operate in the region. Press reports Friday said homes in seven hamlets of Alto Baudo had been completely abandoned after residents received "ultimatums" from the paramilitaries, the private Caracol television reported, showing images of the exodus. "They gave us 24 hours to leave the village," one refugee told Caracol. "We had until five in the afternoon to leave, or be killed," another said. Catholic church workers from the department capital of Quibdo traveled to the town to monitor the situation and assist the displaced, Caracol said. Colombia's decades' long civil war between the army, right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebel groups has claimed more than 130,000 lives, including many civilians caught in the crossfire or targeted as suspected allies of the enemy. Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * CLM-NEWS is brought to you by the COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR at * * http://www.prairienet.org/clm * * and the CHICAGO COLOMBIA COMMITTEE * * Email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or * * Dennis Grammenos at [EMAIL PROTECTED] * **************************************************************** * To unsubscribe send request to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * unsubscribe clm-news * **************************************************************** ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
