American Killed in Colombia Is Buried

The U.S. government contract worker allegedly killed by leftist rebels after his plane crashed in southern Colombia this month was a decorated former soldier, according to family members and U.S. officials, and he was buried with full military honors.

Thomas John Janis, 56, was found shot in the head at close range about a mile from the wreckage. Janis was on a joint mission with three other Americans and a Colombian when their plane went down Feb. 13 in mountainous, rebel-held territory about 220 miles southwest of Bogota, the capital, after reporting engine trouble.

Local farmers have told Colombian investigators that Janis and the Colombian, Sgt. Luis Alcides Cruz, were killed after they resisted being led away by rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. President Bush has said at least one of the men was executed.

The three other Americans are being held by the rebels and are the focus of an intense search-and-rescue effort. The FARC, an 18,000-member army trying to overthrow Colombia’s government, has called the men “prisoners of war” who will be turned over only as part of a larger exchange with the Colombian government for some of the 3,000 guerrillas now in prison.

The Americans were civilian employees of California Microwave Systems, a Northrop Grumman Corp. subsidiary based in Belcamp, Md., that specializes in aerial surveillance. The company was working under contract for the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America.

The nature of their mission remains unclear, but the U.S. government uses contractors in Colombia to perform services ranging from locating and spraying fields of coca, the source of cocaine, to maintaining military equipment. The California Microwave Web site says that its surveillance systems have been used for “counter-narcotics operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean.”

Janis is the first U.S. government employee known to have been killed by FARC rebels in Colombia’s four-decade-long internal conflict.

U.S. Embassy officials have declined to identify the slain American, citing privacy concerns. However, Janis’ wife, who answered the phone at their Montgomery, Ala., home Tuesday, confirmed that he had been killed in the crash. She declined to comment further until the other three Americans were freed.

During a visit to Colombia last week, Rep. Thomas M. Davis (R-Va.) said the dead American was a former military service member but did not identify Janis by name.

Janis was buried on a snow-covered hillside at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday with military honors. His family, scores of friends, former colleagues and military officers attended the ceremony.

An obituary published last week in the Montgomery Advertiser newspaper identified Janis as a winner of the Bronze Star, the Air Medal with Combat Distinguishing Device for Valor and several Meritorious Service Medals. He was also a certified pilot.

Colombian officials charged a suspected FARC guerrilla in connection with the killings of Janis and Cruz and the disappearance of the three Americans, who have not been identified.

The attorney general’s office announced Monday that Fiedel Casallas, who was found wounded near the scene of the crash, was being charged with homicide, kidnapping, manufacturing antipersonnel mines and rebellion.

Casallas was allegedly part of a FARC special forces unit known as the Teofilo Forero Column, which attacked the crew after the plane crash-landed.

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Times staff writer Alan C. Miller in Washington contributed to this report.