U.S. Accused Over Human Rights in Colombia

A report issued Monday by a private human rights group criticizes the Bush Administration for pumping military aid into Colombia to fight drug traffickers while ignoring human rights violations.

The report, by Americas Watch in New York City, also accuses the Colombian government of failing in many cases to prosecute security force members linked to drug traffickers and right-wing death squads.

“Americas Watch is particularly concerned that the United States is poised to add to the human rights tragedy in Colombia by providing enormous amounts of aid and equipment to the military and the police . . . without any effort to ensure that these funds do not reach abusive forces,” a statement accompanying the report said.

The report notes that political violence continues to cause more casualties in Colombia than in any other country in the Western Hemisphere. Political violence took about 4,000 lives in 1988 and 3,200 in 1989, according to official statistics.

Americas Watch relied on information gathered by local human rights groups and the government to document several massacres and assassinations in which the evidence points to participation by security forces. In many of the cases, the government has failed to convict army and police officials, according to the document.

Most of the abuses are blamed on paramilitary groups aiding the army in zones of conflict with leftist guerrillas.

In one of the recent cases listed in the report, an armed group abducted 42 peasants on Jan. 13 in the Uraba region, which borders on Panama. The bodies of several of the victims were later found on the farm of a reputed death squad leader accused of ordering two other massacres of presumed leftist guerrilla sympathizers.

The army has set up scores of roadblocks in Uraba in an effort to curb the guerrilla activity.

“An especially troublesome aspect of the case is that two trucks, carrying 42 prisoners and perhaps 30 armed men, passed unhindered through the roads of a heavily militarized zone,” the report says.

Even if military officials are implicated in the killings, they are not likely to receive rapid punishment, according to Americas Watch. The report notes that army officers accused in the massacre of 43 people in the town of Segovia in 1988 have still not been brought to trial.

Americas Watch and other human rights organizations maintain that many death squads were created by the army under a civil defense program to arm peasants. The government outlawed the program last year, but Americas Watch sees a deadly legacy.

“There is strong evidence that the army has continued to force peasants to join these groups,” the report says.

The administration of President Cesar Gaviria is preparing a response to the document.

“The government has shown its willingness to follow up on any formal, valid accusations,” a senior official said.