MORE US SPECIAL FORCES ARRIVING IN COLOMBIA
ANNCOL | 11.10.2002 08:23
US Special Forces are due to arrive in Colombia during this month to run training courses for two brigades of the Colombian army that are implicated in human rights violations. Their mission is to fight against left-wing rebels and protect an oil pipeline
06.10.2002 (By Alfredo Castro, ANNCOL Bogotá) According to General Galen Jackson, Director of Operations for US Army Southern Command, units of US Special Forces personnel have started to arrive in Colombia this week to give training to two Colombian army units. The US Congress is also due to hand over around $95 million to train and equip the two Colombian units and, after heavy lobbying by the manufacturers of the aircraft, helicopter gun-ships appear to be first on the shopping list.
The new training and equipment is aimed at increasing security for the Caño Limon oil pipeline that is owned and operated by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum â another company that lobbied hard for the aid package. The pipeline, which runs through north-eastern Colombia, is a regular target of leftwing rebels who object to Colombiaâs oil wealth being expropriated by multinational corporations.
On Monday of this week the rebels attacked the pipeline in three different places and forced it to be shut down for the day whilst last year it was out of action for more than 170 days due to attacks. The newly trained units are expected to attempt and find the guerrilla units responsible as well as guard the pipe.
The two units due to receive the training and equipment, the 5th and 18th Brigades of the Colombian army, both have a long history of violating human rights and setting up and working with paramilitary death squads. Human rights organisations fear that the fresh aid will lead to further violations especially as Washington enforces none of the human rights conditions attached to legislation on aid to the Colombian military.
According to Isabel Acevedo Muñoz, a human rights worker in the region, the new aid is very worrying to her and her colleagues. âWhy is the US working with these military units when it is so well-known that they are always targeting the civilian population? Both the 5th and the 18th Brigades work with the death squads and we fear that this training could easily increase the problems especially if the US trainers teach them the sort of scorched earth tactics used in Central America and other places,â she said.
The new training and equipment is aimed at increasing security for the Caño Limon oil pipeline that is owned and operated by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum â another company that lobbied hard for the aid package. The pipeline, which runs through north-eastern Colombia, is a regular target of leftwing rebels who object to Colombiaâs oil wealth being expropriated by multinational corporations.
On Monday of this week the rebels attacked the pipeline in three different places and forced it to be shut down for the day whilst last year it was out of action for more than 170 days due to attacks. The newly trained units are expected to attempt and find the guerrilla units responsible as well as guard the pipe.
The two units due to receive the training and equipment, the 5th and 18th Brigades of the Colombian army, both have a long history of violating human rights and setting up and working with paramilitary death squads. Human rights organisations fear that the fresh aid will lead to further violations especially as Washington enforces none of the human rights conditions attached to legislation on aid to the Colombian military.
According to Isabel Acevedo Muñoz, a human rights worker in the region, the new aid is very worrying to her and her colleagues. âWhy is the US working with these military units when it is so well-known that they are always targeting the civilian population? Both the 5th and the 18th Brigades work with the death squads and we fear that this training could easily increase the problems especially if the US trainers teach them the sort of scorched earth tactics used in Central America and other places,â she said.
ANNCOL
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