26 February 1998 Edition
Colombian army cover up massacre
By Dara MacNeil
Last October ominous notices began to appear on the walls of Puerto Asis, a small town in southern Colombia. They informed local inhabitants that all guerrilla ``sympathisers and supporters'' in the area had been sentenced to death.
The notices also stated that a death squad charged with responsibility for carrying out the multiple executions had been sent to the locality.
There were also specific threats issued against named individuals, among them a priest in the nearby town of La Hormiga. He took the threats seriously and went into hiding. Others were not so fortunate.
In early February the executioners duly arrived. In the towns of Puerto Asis and La Hormiga they murdered 48 people. Most of the dead were lucky enough to have been killed outright, by gunfire. Some, however, were doused with petrol and set alight. Their charred corpses were then dumped in a nearby river.
The reaction of the Colombian security forces was, to say the least, strange. The standard promise to pursue and catch the mass murderers was issued. However, the ability of the Colombian army to do so was undermined somewhat when senior military officers in the region professed themselves unaware of the presence of any armed right-wing groups in the area.
More recently, the army has taken to disputing whether any killings even took place.
Their professed ignorance flies in the face of local testimony, the evidence of church figures and even the word of the alleged head of Colombia's death-squad network.
The latter individual - Carlos Castano - is also on the country's `most wanted' list, yet he somehow remains at liberty and accessible to Colombia's media. He has insisted that there are ``paramilitary groupings'' (death squads) in the area. Other authorities, such as local bishops, have also rubbished the army's remarkable attempt to cover up death squad activity.
Most telling of all is the testimony provided by survivors of the massacre.
The same testimony also provides a clue to the anxiety shown by the army over this latest atrocity.
Thus eyewitnesses are adamant that the perpetrators of the Puerto Asis/La Hormiga massacre were ferried into the area aboard ``official helicopters.''
But by raising doubts about the veracity of the original story, the army has now successfully created confusion and buried uncomfortable allegations in the ensuing confusion.
Nonetheless, the army's `doubts' did little to assuage the fears of the inhabitants of both towns. Visitors to the area say Puerto Asis and La Hormiga now resemble ``ghost-towns''.
Their flight simply confirms the widely-held view that such massacres are carried out with the complicity of Colombia's security forces who, in the words of Human Rights' Watch ``organise, encourage and mobilise'' the country's right-wing death squads.
With elections due later this year in Colombia, it would appear the parties of the right have begun to get their intimidation in early.
In the words of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, it will take ``a lot of hard work to unpick'' the agreement he concluded in Baghdad.
Annan was dispatched to the Iraq on what officials in the White House rubbished beforehand as ``mission impossible.''
While he negotiated in Baghdad, the increasingly belligerent Madeleine Albright stated that the US reserved its ``right'' to strike at Iraq, no matter what Kofi Annan came home with.
Albright had previously made cheap, tasteless remarks about the effect of UN sanctions on Iraq's civilian population, saying that after the proposed airstrikes Saddam Hussein would need more than ``a band-aid.'' Albright can only have been aware that, as a result of the sanctions, Iraqi children are dying weekly for want of vital medical supplies.
Thus, when Annan emerged with an agreement, the disappointment in some quarters was almost palpable.
Washington refused to comment, claiming the need to study the agreement further. Slow readers, obviously. Their `extra study period' was being conducted long after the majority of the world's powers had read and signalled their assent for the agreement.
And bear in mind Albright's declaration of the US ``right'' to strike, in whatever circumstances.
We've been here before. In August 1990, Iraq made an offer to withdraw from Kuwait. The proposal was dismissed as ``baloney'' in Washington and the Gulf War went ahead, with the loss of 250,000 lives.
It took a lot of hard work to unpick and ignore that particular deal too.
Last October ominous notices began to appear on the walls of Puerto Asis, a small town in southern Colombia. They informed local inhabitants that all guerrilla ``sympathisers and supporters'' in the area had been sentenced to death.
The notices also stated that a death squad charged with responsibility for carrying out the multiple executions had been sent to the locality.
There were also specific threats issued against named individuals, among them a priest in the nearby town of La Hormiga. He took the threats seriously and went into hiding. Others were not so fortunate.
In early February the executioners duly arrived. In the towns of Puerto Asis and La Hormiga they murdered 48 people. Most of the dead were lucky enough to have been killed outright, by gunfire. Some, however, were doused with petrol and set alight. Their charred corpses were then dumped in a nearby river.
The reaction of the Colombian security forces was, to say the least, strange. The standard promise to pursue and catch the mass murderers was issued. However, the ability of the Colombian army to do so was undermined somewhat when senior military officers in the region professed themselves unaware of the presence of any armed right-wing groups in the area.
More recently, the army has taken to disputing whether any killings even took place.
Their professed ignorance flies in the face of local testimony, the evidence of church figures and even the word of the alleged head of Colombia's death-squad network.
The latter individual - Carlos Castano - is also on the country's `most wanted' list, yet he somehow remains at liberty and accessible to Colombia's media. He has insisted that there are ``paramilitary groupings'' (death squads) in the area. Other authorities, such as local bishops, have also rubbished the army's remarkable attempt to cover up death squad activity.
Most telling of all is the testimony provided by survivors of the massacre.
The same testimony also provides a clue to the anxiety shown by the army over this latest atrocity.
Thus eyewitnesses are adamant that the perpetrators of the Puerto Asis/La Hormiga massacre were ferried into the area aboard ``official helicopters.''
But by raising doubts about the veracity of the original story, the army has now successfully created confusion and buried uncomfortable allegations in the ensuing confusion.
Nonetheless, the army's `doubts' did little to assuage the fears of the inhabitants of both towns. Visitors to the area say Puerto Asis and La Hormiga now resemble ``ghost-towns''.
Their flight simply confirms the widely-held view that such massacres are carried out with the complicity of Colombia's security forces who, in the words of Human Rights' Watch ``organise, encourage and mobilise'' the country's right-wing death squads.
With elections due later this year in Colombia, it would appear the parties of the right have begun to get their intimidation in early.
Avoiding another Gulf War
In the words of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, it will take ``a lot of hard work to unpick'' the agreement he concluded in Baghdad.
Annan was dispatched to the Iraq on what officials in the White House rubbished beforehand as ``mission impossible.''
While he negotiated in Baghdad, the increasingly belligerent Madeleine Albright stated that the US reserved its ``right'' to strike at Iraq, no matter what Kofi Annan came home with.
Albright had previously made cheap, tasteless remarks about the effect of UN sanctions on Iraq's civilian population, saying that after the proposed airstrikes Saddam Hussein would need more than ``a band-aid.'' Albright can only have been aware that, as a result of the sanctions, Iraqi children are dying weekly for want of vital medical supplies.
Thus, when Annan emerged with an agreement, the disappointment in some quarters was almost palpable.
Washington refused to comment, claiming the need to study the agreement further. Slow readers, obviously. Their `extra study period' was being conducted long after the majority of the world's powers had read and signalled their assent for the agreement.
And bear in mind Albright's declaration of the US ``right'' to strike, in whatever circumstances.
We've been here before. In August 1990, Iraq made an offer to withdraw from Kuwait. The proposal was dismissed as ``baloney'' in Washington and the Gulf War went ahead, with the loss of 250,000 lives.
It took a lot of hard work to unpick and ignore that particular deal too.