Pubdate: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 Source: Guardian Weekly, The (UK) Copyright: Guardian Publications 2000 Contact: 75 Farringdon Road London U.K EC1M 3HQ Fax: 44-171-242-0985 Website: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/GWeekly/front/ Author: Martin Hodgson in Buga CIVILIANS CAUGHT IN MIDDLE OF COLOMBIA'S DIRTY WAR The paramilitaries stormed the village of Buenos Aires one Sunday evening just as the locals were leaving church. Brandishing assault rifles and machetes, around 200 of them herded the villagers into the square, where they announced that they were hunting for leftwing rebels. When they left, two local men lay dying in the street. What nobody can understand is how the paramilitaries made their getaway. They marched out of the village, 65km north of the city of Cali, at sunrise, down the road towards an army unit sent to intercept them - but commanders say their troops never saw them. "How do you explain that? Two hundred armed men don't just disappear," said a Colombian human rights official, who asked not to be named. He believes the army saw them and let them go. As the United States edges towards approving $1.6bn in mostly military aid to Colombia, the United Nations released a report alleging that members of the Colombian army tolerate - or collaborate with - illegal paramilitary groups in the country's dirty war. It follows equally damning studies by the US state department and the monitoring group, Human Rights Watch, blaming the government of President Andres Pastrana for the growing strength of the paramilitary groups, which are now believed to field around 7,000 fighters. Colombia's rightwing militias are a hybrid force, combining the private armies of powerful landlords and drug dealers with the now outlawed rural intelligence networks set up by the government to combat leftwing guerrillas. Loosely allied as the United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia (ACCU), the paramilitaries rarely attack rebel groups - such as the leftwing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) - preferring to go for civilians they accuse of sympathising with the guerrillas. The region worst hit by the paramilitary onslaught is in the Andes, north of Cali - until last year a Farc stronghold. The "Calima Front" of the ACCU announced its arrival in the area with the murder of a farmer and his daughter in July. It issued leaflets giving locals three options: leave the region, fight against the rebels, or die. Since August the group has killed 94 people, mostly community leaders and union activists. At least 2,000 people have fled their homes. Marlene Correa lived through the raid on Buenos Aires last September. Her son Luis, 23, did not; he was shot and killed by paramilitaries. "They made the women kneel down, and the boss ran his knife under our throats. He told us it was for gouging out guerrilla eyes. It was like a nightmare, but one of those nightmares you never wake up from." she said. "But what happened to the troops? They never arrived." The troops reached the village just hours after the paramilitaries had left. Local police and army officials deny reports from villagers that military helicopters flew overhead constantly in the days before the raid, dropping off uniformed men in the mountains nearby - but they concede that they are the only group with aircraft. Ms Correa fled with more than 700 other villagers to the nearby town of Buga. A local lawyer who took up their case was shot dead in January. Their suspicions were further aroused when a known paramilitary spy was sighted on the local army base. No suspects have been arrested in connection with any of the murders: state investigators say that the region is too dangerous for them to work in, and the military says it cannot catch the militias while they hide out in the mountains. But locals say that the Calima Front has set up a permanent base in the abandoned village of Buenos Aires. "[They] are living in our homes," said Ms Correa. "They have dances and cock-fights up there. What more information does the army want?"