U.N. Condemns Violence in Colombia

Suspected right-wing paramilitary gunmen continued a wave of massacres Friday, killing six people in northwestern Colombia. U.N. human rights monitors said the nation’s violence has reached new and more “alarming” heights.

Friday’s killings occurred in Santa Barbara in Antioquia province. Police gave no details.

In a statement Thursday, U.N. human rights monitors said that as many as 170 unarmed people had died in 26 massacres this month, proof of an “alarming degradation” in Colombia’s 4-decade-old conflict.

The government of President Andres Pastrana has failed to respond to warnings in many of the attacks, said local representatives of the Geneva-based Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. The government had no immediate response.

In one of the deadliest massacres in months, paramilitary gunmen used machetes Wednesday to kill 25 villagers in northern Sucre province after accusing them of being guerrilla collaborators. The nationwide United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, took responsibility for the massacre.

On Monday, just as defense officials pledged new measures to combat paramilitary violence, AUC fighters forced 10 men off a bus in western Colombia and executed them on the spot.

Bogota’s leading newspaper, El Tiempo, said government pledges over the years had produced few results in reining in the paramilitary forces, who allegedly operate with tacit and sometimes direct support from elements within the U.S.-supported Colombian military.