A Closer Watch on Arms Aid

Recent allegations by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch strongly indict the connection between Colombian military forces and U.S. weaponry. The seriousness of the charges demand a congressional investigation to ensure that U.S. aid is not being used in the lethal suppression of peasant leaders in remote Colombian villages.

Both reports charge that Colombia’s military high command has promoted and protected paramilitary groups to provide intelligence on anti-government guerrillas and that the paramilitary groups have killed both guerrillas and villagers falsely suspected of being their supporters. In 1995, says the Human Rights Watch report, “almost half of all acts of political violence where the perpetrator was identified were attributed to paramilitaries.” The innocent victims, according to the reports, are usually community and peasant leaders, trade unionists and human rights monitors with no ties to guerrillas, “trapped in a conflict where few wear uniforms.”

Troublesome for the United States is a charge in the Human Rights Watch report that personnel of both the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have trained and advised the Colombian military in their intelligence operations.

Another disturbing charge alleges that high-tech U.S. weaponry sent to Colombia to suppress the narcotics trade is in fact being used to combat guerrillas.

American weaponry should be restricted to the use intended. Unarmed Colombians, whatever their politics, should not be killed by U.S. bullets in that nation’s bloody conflicts.

Congress should consider making dedication to human rights a component of arms transfers. Colombia may be a good place to start.