COLOMBIA: RIGHT-WING MILITIA GROUP SAY THEY WILL CONTINUE THEIR KILLING CAMPAIGN UNTIL LEFTIST REBELS SURRENDER

Record ID: 588521

  • Title: COLOMBIA: RIGHT-WING MILITIA GROUP SAY THEY WILL CONTINUE THEIR KILLING CAMPAIGN UNTIL LEFTIST REBELS SURRENDER
  • Date: 15th January 2003
  • Summary: (U1) ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA, (RECENT) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PARAMILITARIES COMING OUT OF THE BUSH; SLV PARAMILITARIES CROSSING A RIVER; SLV PARAMILITARIES FORMING A LINE (7 SHOTS) 0.47 2. MV PARAMILITARY ON GUARD 0.50 3. MV COMMANDER BARRABAS GIVING INSTRUCTIONS; MV PARAMILITARIES LISTEN; MV COMMANDER WITH JOURNALIST (6 SHOTS) 1.18 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) COMMANDER BARRABAS, SPOKESMAN FOR THE METRO BLOCK, SAYING"Metro Block respects the process of dialogue between the government and the self defence groups although we will not participate in them, we will continue with our political and military action against the guerrillas." 1.41 5. MV PARAMILITARIES IN FORMATION; MV PARAMILITARIES WORKING OUT (6 SHOTS) 2.08 6. MV PARAMILITARIES ON PATROL (2 SHOTS) 2.24 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Reuters ID: LVABH422U8XK819XIFZS5J6JQ4QF
  • Story Text: Colombia's largest right-wing militia group says that
    they will continue their killing campaign until leftist rebels
    surrender.

    In an interview with Reuters, a spokesman for the
    1,500-strong paramilitary "Metro Bloc" warned that a
    cease-fire by the larger 10,000-member United Self-Defence
    Forces of Colombia, known as "AUC" will bring military
    advantages to Marxist rebels fighting in the country's
    four-decade war.

    "Metro Block respects the process of dialogue between the
    government and the self defence groups although we will not
    participate in them," said the spokesperson for Metro Block,
    Commander Barrabas. "We will continue with our political and
    military action against the guerrillas."
    The outlawed AUC declared a cease-fire on Dec. 1 with the
    stated goal of starting peace talks with the government of
    President Alvaro Uribe, who has pledged to crush illegal armed
    groups unless they call a cease-fire and hold peace talks.

    Uribe has named a group of officials to meet AUC
    commanders and explore the possibility of negotiating peace,
    which could include the demobilization of fighters and the
    granting of amnesty to militia bosses accused of human rights
    abuses.

    Clad in military fatigues and holding assault rifles,
    members of the Metro Bloc, which operates in Medellin and in
    key Antioquia Province, say they will only lay down their
    weapons after the rebels do so.

    Both the 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of
    Colombia, Latin America's largest rebel force known as FARC
    and the smaller National Liberation Army, or ELN, have
    ignored Uribe's call and have announced they will continue
    fighting government troops and the paramilitaries.

    Blamed for some of the worst human rights violations in a
    war that kills thousands every year, including in some cases
    decapitating peasants with chain saws, paramilitaries are
    the fastest growing illegal armed group in Colombia.

    The well-armed paramilitaries, which have their origins in
    vigilante groups set up by rich cattle ranchers in the 1980s,
    have dramatically changed the face of the war, expelling
    guerrillas from traditional strongholds. Rights groups say
    paramilitaries have links to hard-line sectors of the army,
    and several senior officers face criminal investigations for
    varying degrees of cooperation with the "paras".

    But their rapid growth and heavy involvement in the
    profitable drug industry have caused divisions within the
    organization, founded by feared war lord Carlos Castano.

    Last year, the United States indicted Castano for
    smuggling cocaine to the United States and asked for his
    extradition.

    Members of Metro Bloc have claimed that they do not
    traffic in drugs and that they receive funding from
    "contributions" by cattle ranchers and land owners.

    Uribe, who is building up the military to crack down on
    rebels and is seeking more U.S. aid, is under pressure to rein
    in the "paras," listed by Washington as "terrorists," as are
    the rebel groups FARC and ELN.

    Over the past two decades, governments have negotiated
    with leftist rebel groups, but the paramilitaries' reputation
    for brutality long made talks with them a political taboo.

    A peace agreement with paramilitaries would not just be a
    political victory for the hard-line Uribe, but would also
    silence talk that he has been too soft on far-right groups.

    It would also help anti-drug officials in Bogota and
    Washington dismantle key drug routes for cocaine and heroin to
    the United States. The AUC admits to trafficking drugs.

    But a peace process with the AUC faces numerous obstacles.

    Granting amnesty to AUC commanders, a likely condition
    to any settlement, would outrage international rights
    groups.

    Also, demobilizing 10,000 peasant fighters in a country
    with 15.5 percent urban unemployment could prove difficult.

    In an interview with Cambio magazine published on Monday
    (January 13), Uribe ruled out enrolling demobilized
    paramilitaries into the armed forces. He added that any
    negotiation involving the fate of Castano would be consulted
    with Washington.


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