Pubdate: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 2000 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4066 Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/ Author: Alfredo S. Lanier Bookmark: Reports about Colombia: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia COLOMBIA'S MILITARY IS BLAMED IN '98 MASSACRE SARAVENA, Colombia-At an emotional ceremony, representatives of a Chicago-based human-rights tribunal blamed the Colombian military for a 1998 massacre at a nearby hamlet that left 17 civilians dead. The tribunal is urging the United States government to reconsider its $1.3 billion anti-narcotics aid package to this beleaguered country. The unveiling on Tuesday of the unofficial tribunal's yearlong investigation of the massacre came days before the State Department, under provisions attached by Congress to the aid package, is required to certify that Colombia is complying with six human-rights requirements before any more funds are disbursed. Otherwise, President Clinton will have to sign a waiver to free up the next chunk of the $800 million yet to be spent. Clinton already signed a waiver in September, after the State Department found that the Colombian government met only one of the six human-rights conditions. A State Department official predicted that Colombia's human rights profile is not likely to improve much in the upcoming review, making a second presidential waiver necessary. The official added that given Colombia's chaotic internal situation, it is unlikely ever to meet Congress' "sweeping" human-rights requirements, and that additional waivers will have to be issued to keep U.S. aid flowing throughout the expected three-year life of Plan Colombia. The human-rights panel from Chicago, however, recommended that the U.S. cut off any assistance to the military units involved in the massacre, in accordance with the 1997 Leahy Amendment-which bans American assistance to foreign military units guilty of human-rights violations-and the provisions of the Colombia aid package. The human-rights tribunal, organized by the Center for International Human Rights of the Northwestern University law school, has no official status or legal authority to enforce its recommendations. In fact, the government of Colombia refused to defend itself, saying the tribunal had no jurisdiction in a domestic incident. Douglass Cassel, director of the center, said he hopes the group's investigations and findings would pressure the government of Colombia to prosecute similar cases more forcefully and to focus public and congressional attention in the U.S. on the human-rights crisis in Colombia. Santo Domingo, where the massacre occurred, is about 25 miles from Saravena, deep in northeastern Colombia and 2 miles from the border with Venezuela. This area is one of many stages upon which the protagonists in Colombia's 40-year civil war-two guerrilla groups, the armed forces and several vigilante paramilitary units-wage their battles. Civilians often are the victims in the seemingly endless killing. On Dec. 13, 1998, the residents of Santo Domingo, which has only about 50 houses, was holding a street party, according to Olimpo Cardenas, a 30-year-old ranch hand. Cardenas recalled that at about 10 a.m. six helicopters and a small plane swooped over the town, and that a bomb fell as the residents ran for cover. According to investigations by the Chicago human-rights panel, the FBI and Colombian officials, the device was a cluster bomb, dropped from a U.S.-made helicopter used by Colombia's air force. The bomb, which upon impact splits into six smaller bomblets that spew shrapnel over a large area, killed 17 villagers, including six children, and injured 25. Among the victims were Cardenas' 7-year-old twins, one of whom, a girl, was killed instantly. Her brother survived serious shrapnel cuts and other injuries. The evidence points to either criminality or gross miscalculation by the Colombian military. In a lengthy statement Wednesday, the Colombian air force chief, Gen. Hector Fabio Velasco, disputed findings that a cluster bomb was responsible for the deaths. He blamed a truck bomb, likely set by guerrillas, for the blast. Official probes so far have yielded a thicket of contradictory reports but no prosecutions. Colombia's Atty. Gen. Jaime Bernal Cuellar said Tuesday that his office had amassed enough evidence to charge the crew of the helicopter and an air force captain with the killings. A spokesman for Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), who recently toured Colombia and vehemently opposes the aid package, said the senator would like to hold hearings on human rights and U.S. involvement in Colombia. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake