Pubdate: Sat, 15 Jul 2000
Source: International Herald-Tribune (France)
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2000
Contact:  181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France
Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38
Website: http://www.iht.com/
Author: Larry Rohter, New York Times Service

COLOMBIA'S RIGHTIST 'DEATH SQUADS' FUEL DEBATE ON U.S. ANTI-DRUG AID

EL SALADO, Colombia - The armed men, more than 300 of them, marched into 
this tiny village early on a Friday. They went straight to the basketball 
court that doubles as the main square here, announced themselves as members 
of Colombia's most feared paramilitary group and with a list of names began 
summoning residents for judgment.

A table and chairs were seized from a house, and after the death squad 
leader had made himself comfortable, the basketball court was turned into a 
court of execution. The paramilitary troops ordered up liquor and music, 
and then embarked on a calculated rampage of torture, rape and killing.

"To them, it was like a big party," said one of a dozen survivors who 
described the scene in interviews earlier this month. "They drank and 
danced and cheered as they butchered us like hogs."

By the time they left the following Sunday afternoon, they had killed at 
least 36 people whom they accused of collaborating with the enemy, leftist 
guerrillas who have long been a presence in the area. The victims ranged 
from a six-year-old girl to an elderly woman. As music blared, some of the 
victims were shot after being tortured; others were stabbed or beaten to 
death, and several more were strangled.

Yet during the three days of killing, military and police units just a few 
kilometers away made no effort to stop the slaughter. At one point the 
paramilitaries had a helicopter flown in to rescue a fighter who had been 
injured trying to drag some victims from their home.

Instead of fighting back, the armed forces set up a roadblock on the road 
to the village shortly after the rampage began and prevented human rights 
and relief groups from entering and rescuing residents.

While the Colombian military has opened three investigations into what 
happened here and made some paramilitary arrests, top officials insist that 
fighting was under way in the village between guerrillas and paramilitary 
forces - not a series of executions. They also insist that the colonel in 
charge of the region h  as been persecuted by prosecutors and human rights 
groups. Last month he was promoted to general, despite the fact that 
examinations of the incidents are pending.

What happened in El Salado in February, at the moment when President Bill 
Clinton was pushing an aid package to step up anti-drug efforts here, 
strikes at the heart of the debate over the growing U.S. backing of the 
Colombian military. For years the U.S. government and human rights groups 
have had reservations about the Colombian military leadership, its human 
rights record and its collaboration with paramilitary units.

The Colombian armed forces and police are the principal beneficiaries of a 
$1.3 billion aid package that Mr. Clinton signed Thursday. The Colombian 
government says it has been working hard to sever the remnants of ties 
between the armed forces and the paramilitaries and has been training its 
soldiers to observe international human rights conventions.

"The paramilitaries are some of the worst of the terrorists who profit from 
drugs in Colombia, and in no way can anyone justify their human rights 
violations," said General Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar. But 
he added that "the Colombian military is making dramatic improvements in 
its human rights record," and noted that the aid package includes 
"significant money, $46 million for human rights training and implementation."

But human rights groups, pointing to incidents like the massacre here, say 
these links still exist and that mechanisms to monitor and punish 
commanders and units have had limited success at best.

"El Salado was the worst recorded massacre yet this year," said Andrew 
Miller, a Latin American specialist for Amnesty International USA, who 
spent the past year as an observer near where this massacre occurred. "The 
Colombian armed forces, specifically the marines, were at best criminally 
negligent by not responding sooner to the attack. At worst, they were 
knowledgeable and complicit. "

The paramilitary attack on El Salado indeed killed more people and lasted 
longer than any other in Colombia so far this year. But in most other 
respects it was an operation so typical of the 5,500-member rightist death 
squad that goes by the name of the Peasant Self-Defense of Colombia, that 
the Colombian press treated it as just another atrocity.
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