Army: Colombian Civilians Used As Shields
Friday March 26, 2004 7:46 AM
By JUAN PABLO TORO
Associated Press Writer
BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia (AP) - Warplanes preparing to bomb a paramilitary camp abandoned their mission after militants used villagers as human shields, Colombia's army chief said. A soldier and 14 paramilitary gunmen were killed in subsequent firefights.
The clashes at the camp holding 150 members of the outlawed Central Bolivar Bloc, or BCB, erupted Wednesday as the army waged a campaign to expel the paramilitary fighters from this oil-rich region of northern Colombia.
When army soldiers approached the camp, near the town of El Arenal, 220 miles north of the capital, Bogota, the paramilitaries used civilians as human shields, Gen. Martin Orlando Carreno said Thursday.
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Carreno said the paramilitary fighters have been killing civilians, displacing them from their homes and stealing their cattle in the region. He also accused the group of siphoning oil from nearby pipelines.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3904880,00.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~You may remember we all heard Uribe was asking for blanket amnesty for his paramilitaries last year:
RIGHTS:
Group Outraged at Colombia Plan to Amnesty Paramilitaries
Jim Lobe
A Colombian proposal to amnesty leaders of right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for some of the worst massacres of the country's decades-long civil war has been strongly assailed by Human Rights Watch.
WASHINGTON, Sep 16 (IPS) - A Colombian proposal to amnesty leaders of right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for some of the worst massacres of the country's decades-long civil war has been strongly assailed by a major U.S. human-rights researcher.
In a release issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Robin Kirk, the author of 'More Terrible Than Death: Massacres, Drugs and America's War in Colombia', called on the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to cut off aid to the South American country if the proposal is adopted.
Washington currently provides Bogotá more than 700 million dollars a year in mostly military aid, more than it gives any other country except Israel and Egypt.
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http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20162
President Alvaro Uribe & pResident George W. Bush