| Submit your comments on this article |
| Terror Networks |
| U.N. spreads blame for Colombia massacre |
| 2002-05-22 |
| A U.N. report released Tuesday said a Marxist rebel group, right-wing paramilitaries, the government and the military all shared blame in fighting earlier this month that left 119 civilians dead in a small town in the remote jungles of northwest Colombia. The report was prepared by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia. The killings, the worst casualty toll among the civilian population from a single battle in Colombia's 38-year-old civil conflict, took place in early May during fighting between FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and paramilitary forces in the town of Bojayá. Anders Kompass, director of the Colombia office, said in his report, written after a trip to the area, said the FARC had committed murder and violated international law that obliged warring factions to take measures to safeguard civilians. The deaths occurred when the FARC fired a cooking-gas cylinder packed with explosives that veered off target and hit a church where 300 villagers were sheltered. Ninety-eight civilians were injured. Kompass also blamed paramilitary fighters for trying to hide among the civilians to defend themselves from the rebel attack. But he reserved some of his strongest criticism for the state and its security forces. Kompass said the government, the police and the army not only ignored warnings of an impending tragedy but also may have collaborated with the outlawed paramilitary forces to allow them to enter the region. If we are all responsible, then no one has to take responsibility. Why bother writing the report? Was there an ink surplus that had to be trimmed? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |