http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/MMQD-69XTM2?OpenDocument

Source: Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)

Date: 25 Feb 2005

Villagers blame Colombian army in murders of seven people

Bogota (dpa) - Villagers in Colombia's northwestern Antioquia province on Friday blamed the army of murdering seven members of a human rights group.

Liliana Uribe, spokeswoman for the regional human rights group Freedom Judicial Corp., said villagers in San Jose de Apartado accused the 11th Army Brigade of kidnapping Luis Guerra, the founder of another human rights group, the Apartado Peace Community, along with his wife and their 11-year old son. They were later killed together with another couple and their two children, she added.

Uribe said in a telephone interview that the villagers found the mutilated body of a child in the village of La Resbalosa and the other bodies had been dumped in a common grave. The children were ages 2, 6 and 11, she said.

She added that army troops had been patrolling the region in the past week.

El Tiempo newspaper reported that San Jose villagers were blocking military access because they feared army troops would interfere with evidence at the crime scene.

An official at the Defence Ministry told radio La W that an investigation had been ordered.

But he added that the calibre of the weapons used to fire on the victims did not match that used by army troops and there was no record of troops having been in the area.

The Apartado Peace Community issued a statement decrying the massacre and said it would send a commission to recover the bodies and carry out an investigation.

The group said Guerra was not only a founder of the group but also a peace delegate in negotiations with the government.

In 1997, San Jose de Apartado declared itself a "community in peace" in a country that has seen 40 years of civil war. dpa am ls


from colombia solidarity campaign:

COLOMBIAN ARMY MASSACRES MEMBERS OF THE PEACE COMMUNITY OF SAN JOSE DE APARTADO.






EVENTS



On Monday 21 February 2004 in Rio Mulatos, armed and uniformed soldiers who identified themselves as belonging to the XI Brigade of the national Army detained LUIS EDUARDO GUERRA, his 11 year old son DEINER ANDRES GUERRA and DEYANIRA AREIZA and another four as yet unknown people. They took them towards La Resbalosa to a farm owned by ALFONSO BOLIVAR. One of the captives managed to escape from this illegal detention.



The following day, the person who had escaped, set out to look for the other captives. At the farm of Alfonso Bolivar, he found blood stains and what looked like a grave. He removed some of the earth and found the mutilated body of DEINER ANDRES GUERRA. He went immediately to the town of San Jose de Apartado where he informed the Peace Community Internal Council of what had happened. Other campesinos from the area also informed the Council that they had found a grave.



The whereabouts of the other captives remains unknown. Initial information points to a mass killing by the army of members of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado.



LUIS EDUARDO GUERRA is a well known leader from the Peace Community Internal Council, and since October 2000 had been acting as one of the negotiators with the government over the implementation of the special security measures that had been ordered by the OAS Inter-American Court of Human Rights. On 3 occasions he had met with Vice President Francisco Santos who had personally assured him that the security measures would be implemented.



BACKGROUND



On 20 February at about 4pm. The army arrived in the village of Nieves near San Jose de Apartado. Two hours later they entered the house of GLADYS GUZMAN PALACIOS and her four year old daughter, and started shooting. They killed the childís father who the army later claimed was a guerrilla from the FARC. They also shot the young girl who is currently in hospital. The 33 Counter-Guerrilla unit of the XVII Brigade of the Colombian Army operate in the area.



On 22 February in the rural areas surrounding San Jose de Apartado, army helicopters carried out a heavy indiscriminate bombing of various villages, putting the lives of 200 villagers at risk. The communities had already been forcibly displaced in December 2004 and again in January 2005 by atrocities committed by the army.



WE ASK THAT YOU IMMEDIATELY REQUEST



1. That the Colombian government immediately send officials form the National Unit for Human Rights, the Attorney Generalís Office and specialists in forensic medicine to properly investigate these events.
2. That no member of the XI Brigade be allowed to participate in the investigations, so that they cannot manipulate the evidence and the investigation itself.
3. That the Colombian army cease all activities against the civilian population in the area of San Jose de Apartado.



President Alvaro Uribe Velez  auribe@presidencia.gov.co

Vice President Francisco Santos  fsantos@presidencia.gov.co

Attorney Generalís Office  contacto@fiscalia.gov.co

Ministry of Defence  siden@mindefensa.gov.co

Colombian Embassy in London  mail@colombianembassy.co.uk