Illegal killings by army seen widespread in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Illegal killings by army seen widespread in Colombia
Sat Nov 1, 2008 3:14pm EDT

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA (Reuters) - The widespread and systematic killing of innocent civilians by Colombian security forces must be investigated by the government or else the international courts could intervene, the United Nations said Saturday.

~snip~
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay called for more investigations into what rights groups say is a growing trend of soldiers artificially improving their statistics by shooting civilians and passing their bodies off as combatants killed in Colombia's 44-year-old guerrilla war.

~snip~
"An offence becomes a crime against humanity when it is widespread and systematic against a civilian population. We are observing and keeping track of the number of extrajudicial killings, which do appear to be systematic and widespread, in my view," Pillay said.

~snip~
The results have attracted record foreign investment and kept Uribe's popularity above 70 percent despite a series of scandals, including one in which scores of Congress members, mostly from his coalition, are accused of using right-wing death squads to intimidate voters.




Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4A01L720081101?rpc=401&

[Joanne98]

1. Uribe is a mass murderer and he's NOT getting a trade deal!

[OrwellwasRight]

4. Sadly, yes he is.

Bush has already said he won't consider signing a stimulus package without getting a vote on Colombia. He'll get such a vote because Pelosi really wants a stimulus and she has already demonstrated her ability to cave on fair trade issues in the Peru FTA vote.

Also, don't forget, she is being advised by Rahm Emanuel and other pro-NAFTA DLCers.

And the vote will succeed. They'll get every single R vote (except for maybe Walter Jones and Duncan Hunter), so all they will need is 20 or so Dem votes. That's only a small fraction of the New Dems and DLCers in the House.

Oh, and the Senate laps up whatever trade deal is put in front of it.

So, hello Bush-Colombia FTA.

[judasdisney]

6. Obama's First Crisis will be a False Flag designed to pit Barack against Chavez, in favor of Uribe

Uribe has Death Squads & mass graves. Chavez doesn't.

The False Flag crisis will try to frame Chavez with Venezuelan "death squads" & mass graves that include AMERICANS.

Obama will dutifully side with the butcher Uribe against Chavez.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Once again, is Amurka funding this sort of thing?? My opinion is

yes we are. Labor organizers beware.

www.soaw.org

About the School of the Americas / Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation

The US Army School of Americas (SOA), based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American security personnel in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. SOA graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians. (See Grads in the News).

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Elections and opinion polls cannot be trusted in Colombia. 60% of the people don't vote.

You can get whacked for expressing your opinion, or voting the wrong way. So, Uribe's 70% approval rating is bogus. It's comprised of the rich and the privileged and others who feel safe expressing their opinion, and excludes the poor majority--workers (over 40 union leaders murdered this year alone, by Colombian security forces), small peasant farmers (routinely whacked if they show the slightest tendency to organize, or pesticide-sprayed and driven off their land, so the big drug lords or the Corpos--Monsanto, Chiquita, Occidental Petroleum et al--can move in; tens of thousands have fled to Venezuela), and anyone in sympathy with the poor, or merely with the truth--peaceful protesters, human rights workers, journalists and others, who are not safe expressing their opinions and who get killed for their opinions.

A pollster who walks up to a poor worker or campesino in Caracas, and starts asking them questions about their political preference, is not likely to get an honest answer. And there are large areas of Colombia--especially rural areas--which are a war zone, where the government, the military, various criminal gangs and possibly leftist guerrillas are drug trafficking, and the fascist government and the leftist guerrillas are fighting. So pollsters don't likely go there, and, since most of the people are dirt poor and have no phones, there is no way to ask their opinion, even if they would dare to express it.

The same for voting. There are many reports of intimidation of voters at the polling place, and many voters stay away because it is dangerous. And political and community organizing for an election is extremely dangerous. Elections and polls in Colombia tell us nothing except that Uribe is popular among the rich elite. Duh.

The excruciating irony is that Bushwhacks and the Corpo/Fascist media portray Hugo Chavez as a 'dictator," when none of this brutality and repression occurs in Venezuela, and where the government encourages maximum citizen participation, and the election system is one of the best and most transparent in the world (far, far better than our own!). They revile Chavez and laud Uribe, and wine and dine Uribe at the White House, and lard Colombia not only with $6 BILLION in military aid--one of the largest U.S. military aid gifts in the world--they keep pushig to lard their rich elite with "free trade."

What's. Wrong. With. This. Picture?

[captainjack08]

7. Buh buh... but McCain says Uribe and Colombia are the good guys!

McCain wouldn't be "palin'" around with a guy like Uribe would he? Because Uribe sounds like a fascist? Like a terrorist!

Buh buh but!

[bitchkitty]

8. I would like to know why

this thread has been up for a day, and there is no sign of the ones that wax eloquent on the "dictator" Hugo Chavez if he does so much as take a leak.

I guess all the effort of manufacturing indignation for Chavez doesn't leave any room for the real thing, at least in regards to dead Colombian peasants.

What a world we live in! Thank you, Judi Lynn and others, for shining a light on the truth, even if few will listen.

[fascisthunter]

9. here are your thugs, righties

[Judi Lynn]

10. Colombia: Arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings in Colombia

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 04, 2008
Colombia: Arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings in Colombia

Colombia faces grave human rights challenges in its ongoing conflict, including hostage-taking, extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrest and detention, despite measures taken by the Government to protect vulnerable groups, the United Nations rights chief says after visiting the Andean country.

“The systematic, protracted and widespread taking of hostages, kept under the most inhuman conditions, could be considered as a crime against humanity,” Navi Pillay told reporters in Bogotá on Saturday as she wrapped up a six-day visit to Colombia.

~snip~
Both in Bogotá and Arauca, she heard accounts of people who were arrested and detained, often for two years or more, “on the basis of not always well-founded accusations.”

~snip~
On the issue of extrajudicial executions, Ms. Pillay urged the Ministry of Defence to continue working so that central orders are enforced at the operational level. She said she was encouraged by Mr. Uribe’s decision last week to dismiss three army generals and 24 other officers over the alleged illegal killing of civilians.

~snip~
In addition, reparation for victims should include a land restitution programme for those who lost their land and benefit equally victims of illegal groups as well as State agents.

She also expressed alarm that illegal armed groups continue to victimize and target the civilian population.

More:
http://ionglobaltrends.blogspot.com/2008/11/colombia-arbitrary-arrests-and.html

[Judi Lynn]

11. Colombia: paras threaten Peace Community

Colombia: paras threaten Peace Community
Submitted by WW4 Report on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 03:59.

The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia's northwestern Antioquia department reported on Oct. 31 that right-wing paramilitaries were threatening to murder community members. A joint operation of paramilitaries and the army's 17th Brigade murdered eight people in San José de Apartado on Feb. 21, 2005; retired colonel Guillermo Armando Gordillo confessed this year that his troops participated in the massacre. Peace communities refuse to collaborate with any armed forces, including rebels, paramilitaries and the army.

According to the peace community, paramilitaries stopped three people on Oct. 30 and told them that residents of La Esperanza settlement, part of the peace community, had to leave if they wanted to avoid being massacred; the paramilitaries said they had a list of six people they were going to murder. Similar threats preceded the 2005 massacre, and the military has been pressuring the community recently. On Oct. 28 and 29 army troops spent the day in homes and the school in La Esperanza, keeping children from attending classes; when asked to leave, they called the community a "nest of guerrillas." Soldiers have also photographed residents and conducted an illegal census.

The US-based Colombia Support Network (CSN) is urging people to contact US Congress
members, US embassy attache Scott Fagan ([e-mail]), Colombian defense minister Dr. Juan Manuel Santos ([e-mail], [e-mail] and [e-mail]), and others to demand a stop to the planned massacre and respect for the rights of civilians. (Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa, Nov. 2 from Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó communique, Oct. 31; CSN urgent action, Oct. 31; World War 4 Report, Aug. 2)

http://ww4report.com/node/6269

[High Plains]

12. Kinda puts the complaints about Chavez in a different light, doesn't it?

Not to excuse any human rights violations there may be in Venezuela, but, hmmm, jerking the license for a coup-plotting TV station or engaging in campaigns of mass murder, which is more disturbing?

[fjc]

13. What a headline, "illegal killings".

[Judi Lynn]

14. Colombian army chief resigns after killings probe

Colombian army chief resigns after killings probe
Tue Nov 4, 2008 4:21pm EST

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's top army commander resigned on Tuesday after a probe tied soldiers to the disappearance of young men whose bodies were later reported as combat deaths in a scandal rocking the U.S.-backed military.

The case broke at a sensitive time for President Alvaro Uribe, a Washington ally whose multibillion-dollar U.S. aid package and proposed U.S. trade pact will likely come under tougher scrutiny whoever wins the race for the White House.

Gen. Mario Montoya stepped down days after Uribe purged 27 officers and soldiers from his army and the United Nations urged Colombia to stop security forces from killing civilians to inflate the guerrilla body count in the country's waning conflict.

~snip~
U.S. Democrats have called for Uribe to do more to protect labor union leaders before any trade deal. And some Democrats have already pushed for a reduction in the military portion of Colombia's aid package -- the largest outside the Middle East.

"The horror of this particular case... is so great that it may have an effect on some members of Congress when the time comes again to open the checkbook for more Colombian military aid," said Adam Isacson, who analyzes U.S. ties with Colombia for Washington's Center for International Policy.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4A37DP20081104

[Alamuti Lotus]

15. That son of a bitch Chavez makes certain people so angry,

that they have neglected to comment here.... can't imagine why.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Oh, they're probably so overcome by the Presidential race they can't speak.

Welcome to D.U., Alamuti Lotus! :hi:

Looks as if you're familiar with the high level of interchange we get on this subject. It can get downright lofty! Or maybe not.

[Alamuti Lotus]

18. I'm sure that's what it is..

Thanks for the welcome, still getting used to a few things here.
I've seen well enough elsewhere how certain kinds of people get very, very nervous at watching state power swing the other direction, in Venezuela or anywhere. They're never too terribly consistant with the pontificating on more "business as usual" matters like in Colombia, but that goes with the territory. I have some problems with the guy, but the systemic change Chavez is working on is fantastic. Now Uribe, he's just a fascist bloody dinosaur, nice to see his kind on the back foot these days.

[ronnie624]

19. Some of these nitwits

used to tell everyone what a good and decent leader Uribe was, and in the same paragraph, slander Chavez as a despot. They would then follow through with some 'authoritative' but irrelevant proclamation such as: "Venezuela is a single thread economy, and Chavez is chubby and wears a red beret."

Maybe I'm asking too much of right-wingers, expecting them to see the disjointedness of their 'logic'.

[Alamuti Lotus]

23. I was hoping you were joking, or at least exagerrating...

and yet, I see them in the new Chavez thread!

[Doctor_J]

17. What constitutes legal killing?

:shrug:

[pinerow]

20. And this is a surprise....?

nt

[Judi Lynn]

21. Colombia's Army Chief Steps Down

Colombia's Army Chief Steps Down

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 5, 2008; A03

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Nov. 4 -- The top commander of Colombia's U.S.-backed army resigned Tuesday after an investigation implicated three generals and other officers under his command in the killings of civilians who were later presented as enemy combatants killed in battle.

Gen. Mario Montoya was a favorite of American officials, who saw him as an able caretaker of the U.S. war against Marxist rebels and cocaine cartels. But Montoya had long been dogged by allegations that he was linked to right-wing death squads. A paramilitary fighter testified in court in August that Montoya had funneled arms to paramilitary groups, and human rights groups said he encouraged policies that led some army units to kill peasants and count them as rebels killed in combat to win favor with commanders.

Then last week, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe announced that 27 army officers and soldiers had been dismissed amid an investigation by a special military commission into the disappearances of 11 poor young men who were lured from a slum outside Bogota this year and allegedly killed by troops deep in the countryside. The bodies were found in unmarked graves days after the men were reported missing. Military commanders initially said the young men had been members of rebel groups and criminal bands.

~snip~
One critic of the army, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), called Montoya's departure "a long overdue and positive step."

"He shares responsibility for widespread and systematic abuses by the Colombian military," said Leahy, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees funding for the Colombian army. "For years, our concerns about these crimes, and General Montoya's role, have been ignored."

~snip~
In Washington, José Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director of Human Rights Watch, said in a phone interview that the incoming U.S. government needs to be more vigilant about rights concerns.

"It is absolutely essential," he said, "that the U.S. government that is providing military aid to Colombia take full advantage of this momentum to press the military and the government of President Uribe."

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/04/AR2008110403600.html

[Judi Lynn]

22. Colombia: paras threaten Peace Community

Colombia: paras threaten Peace Community
Submitted by WW4 Report on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 03:59.
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia's northwestern Antioquia department reported on Oct. 31 that right-wing paramilitaries were threatening to murder community members. A joint operation of paramilitaries and the army's 17th Brigade murdered eight people in San José de Apartado on Feb. 21, 2005; retired colonel Guillermo Armando Gordillo confessed this year that his troops participated in the massacre. Peace communities refuse to collaborate with any armed forces, including rebels, paramilitaries and the army.

According to the peace community, paramilitaries stopped three people on Oct. 30 and told them that residents of La Esperanza settlement, part of the peace community, had to leave if they wanted to avoid being massacred; the paramilitaries said they had a list of six people they were going to murder. Similar threats preceded the 2005 massacre, and the military has been pressuring the community recently. On Oct. 28 and 29 army troops spent the day in homes and the school in La Esperanza, keeping children from attending classes; when asked to leave, they called the community a "nest of guerrillas." Soldiers have also photographed residents and conducted an illegal census.

The US-based Colombia Support Network (CSN) is urging people to contact US Congress
members, US embassy attache Scott Fagan ([e-mail]), Colombian defense minister Dr. Juan Manuel Santos ([e-mail], [e-mail] and [e-mail]), and others to demand a stop to the planned massacre and respect for the rights of civilians. (Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa, Nov. 2 from Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó communique, Oct. 31; CSN urgent action, Oct. 31; World War 4 Report, Aug. 2)

http://www.ww4report.com/node/6269

[Judi Lynn]

24. Colombia army chief resigns amid scandal

Colombia army chief resigns amid scandal
By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer

~snip~
His critics acknowledge that kidnappings and street crime in major cities are down but say Montoya's policies have made Colombia's countryside more dangerous.

A former far-right warlord has accused Montoya of providing illegal militias with weapons and a CIA memo leaked to the Los Angeles Times says Montoya carried out joint operations with the so-called paramilitaries as a brigade commander in Medellin prior to his promotion.

Navi Pillay, the U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights, said that the killings of civilians were crimes against humanity and that if Colombia's criminal justice system didn't deal with them adequately, they could fall under jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Last month, Amnesty International called on the United States, the top foreign backer of Colombia's armed forces, to halt military aid until stricter measures were taken to halt the killings.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/755848.html

[Judi Lynn]

25. In Colombia, Army acknowledges civilian killings

In Colombia, Army acknowledges civilian killings

The head of Colombia's Army resigned Tuesday after 20 top military officials were fired.
By Sibylla Brodzinsky | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 7, 2008 edition

~snip~
The Army's successes, however, have been muted by a macabre revelation that the Colombian military reportedly killed civilians to inflate their rebel body count in an effort to appear more successful.

Although nongovernment organizations (NGOs) have tracked the practice for years, many in Colombia are just now waking up to news about the systematic killings. As Colombian government officials act to purge military officers implicated in the killings and create a monitoring program, the padded body counts have put the military's methods under close scrutiny.

This week, Colombian officials began holding military officials accountable for the slayings. After Colombian President Álvaro Uribe summarily fired 20 top officers, including three generals and 11 colonels, Gen. Mario Montoya, head of the Army, resigned on Tuesday. The terminations follow an internal probe into the disappearance of at least 11 civilians from a Bogotá suburb, whose bodies were later found halfway across the country and reported as combat casualties.

More:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1107/p07s02-wogn.html

[Judi Lynn]

26. COLOMBIA WORSE THAN CHILE UNDER PINOCHET, SAYS HUMAN RIGHTS

COLOMBIA WORSE THAN CHILE UNDER PINOCHET, SAYS HUMAN RIGHTS
WATCH
Thursday, 06 November 2008

More human rights violations are committed every year in
Colombia than during all of Augusto Pinochet's 16-year military
dictatorship in Chile, said Human Rights Watch Americas director José
Miguel Vivanco on Tuesday.

The Chilean lawyer's comments came in response to a recent barrage of personal attacks by Colombian president Álvaro
Uribe, begun in mid-October after the U.S.-based nonprofit released a 140-page report
accusing the Colombian government of undermining judicial proceedings against paramilitary groups.

In a series of public appearances since the report was made public, Uribe has accused Vivanco of holding "a personal
grudge" against Colombia, being an "accomplice" and "defender" of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) and has said that "we lost respect for him."

~snip~
While Pinochet's regime is widely credited with the kidnapping, death or forced disappearance of more than 3,000
political opponents from 1973 to 1990, Amnesty International estimates that in the last two
decades more than 70,000 people — mostly civilians — have been killed in Colombia's armed conflict, including 1,400
civilians in 2007.

Over the same time period, the U.K.-based nonprofit reported that up to 30,000 people were forcefully disappeared and
between three and four million people were forced from their homes, making Colombia home to the second-highest
number of displaced persons in the world, after Sudan. The prevalence of torture, kidnappings and child soldiers is also
very high.

~snip~
Uribe has a history of publicly denouncing detractors. Most recently, he called Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch "enemies" of his program for the country, and in the past, he has condemned judges, labor union activists and
journalists.

He also frequently alleges dissidents are tied to the FARC. In recent months, the head of state charged the guerrilla
group infiltrated both an indigenous protest in western Colombia and a nationwide sugarcane workers strike.

More:
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/santiagotimes/index.php/2008110515038/news/human-rights-news/colombia-worse-than-chile-under-pinochet-says-human-rights-watch.html

[Judi Lynn]

27. Amnesty Int'l: Colombia: Former head of the army must be investigated for human rights violations

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT

AI Index: AMR 23/041/2008
News Service No: 212
05 November 2008

Colombia: Former head of the army must be investigated
for human rights violations

Head of the Colombian army General Mario Montoya resigned yesterday in the midst of a scandal linking members of the security forces to the killing of civilians.

Human rights organizations have linked General Montoya to a number of cases of human rights violations. These allegations must be independently and effectively investigated by the civilian courts, and General Montoya's resignation must not be used as an excuse to bury them.

Among the allegations against General Montoya are that in 2002 he collaborated with paramilitary groups in Medellín during efforts to wrest control of parts of the city from guerrilla groups. This military operation, known as "Operación Orión" was marked by repeated human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, committed against civilians in the neighbourhoods affected.

In the early 2000s, troops under General Montoya's command in the department of Putumayo, in the south of the country, were also accused of collaborating with paramilitary groups. Hundreds of bodies, many of them mutilated, have in recent years been found buried in areas in Putumayo which were at the time under the control of the security forces and paramilitary groups.

Background

Last week, the scandal involving the alleged killing of dozens of young men from Soacha, near the capital Bogotá, who were subsequently falsely presented by the army as "guerrillas killed in combat", cost 27 members of the security forces, including three generals, their jobs.

These latest killings are only the tip of a very large iceberg. Amnesty International, and other Colombian and international human rights groups, have for years been denouncing extrajudicial executions in Colombia , a practice which continues to be widespread and systematic.

Only now has the Colombian government acknowledged a problem exists, but it is still failing to admit the real scale of the problem. Thousands of civilians have been killed or forcibly disappeared by the security forces over the last 40 years of the conflict. All allegations of extrajudicial executions must be effectively investigated by the civilian justice system.

All parties to Colombia's long-running armed conflict - guerrilla groups, paramilitaries and the security forces - have been responsible for serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law.

General Montoya's resignation comes only a week after Amnesty International published an in-depth report looking at the human rights situation in Colombia .

Public Document

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGAMR230412008&lang=e&rss=recentnews