Pubdate: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA) Contact: http://www.examiner.com/ Copyright: 1998 San Francisco Examiner Author: Eric Brazil OF THE EXAMINER STAFF COLOMBIAN ACTIVIST POINTS OUT RIGHTS CRISIS Human rights have been sacrificed in Colombia to a sterile policy of militarizing the U.S.-financed war against the cocaine trade, a spokeswoman for a coalition of Colombian human rights organizations says. Olga Gutierrez of Coordinacion Colombia-Europa, wrapping up a nine-city speaking tour of the United States, said that media focus on the cocaine trade has obscured her country's abysmal human rights record. "The situation is beyond serious; it's critical. Every day in Colombia, 10 people are being killed for political reasons -executions, "disappearances' and "social cleansing,'." she said in an interview. Twenty-six human rights activists have been killed in the past two years, Gutierrez said. "We are publicly threatened, and the military says that we are members of the guerrillas, which is just not true Š.. We condemn crimes committed by the guerrillas as well." Gutierrez expressed the hope that when President Clinton meets Oct. 28-29 with Colombia's newly elected President Andres Pastrana, he offers more aid in the area of human rights, less in military hardware. Heavy U.S. financing of the Colombian army has only produced an increase in cocaine production and trafficking, while contributing to the corruption of the nation's institutions, Gutierrez said. "There is an obvious, close connection between the military and the right-wing paramilitary groups, which are linked to and get funding from cocaine traffickers, so it's just a circular process," she said. Pastrana is saying all the right things and seems to have made progress in bringing about a truce, if not real peace, between government forces and the nation's principal guerrilla forces, she said. "But he has not said anything about human rights." Gutierrez attributes Colombia's wretched human rights record in large part to the special treatment accorded the military, granting it authority to give practical support and cover for paramilitary groups, while disclaiming responsibility for the crimes they commit. Conflicting rulings by Colombian courts have enabled military officers suspected of committing crimes against civilians or of abetting crimes by paramilitary groups to escape prosecution in civilian courts, she said. Coordinacion Colombia-Europe, which comprises 50 national, regional and local human rights organizations, this month received the Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Human Rights award from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. "All of the Coordinacion's member organizations have worked courageously amidst threats, pressure and killings, and every group has suffered from political persecution," the Institute said. The award honors the memories of former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and human rights activist Ronnie Moffitt, who were assassinated by a car bomb planted by the Chilean Secret Service in 1976. - ---