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COLOMBIA ARMY UNIT QUESTIONED IN DEATHS
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THE MIAMI HERALD
Friday, May 15, 1998
By TIM JOHNSON and CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS, Herald Staff Writers 

http://www.herald.com/americas/digdocs/025902.htm 

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A growing string of assassinations and harassment of 
human rights monitors has fueled concerns that a Colombian army 
intelligence unit may harbor a death squad. 

Human rights activists and U.S. officials on Thursday echoed the concerns of 
some Colombian analysts that the army's 20th Intelligence Brigade is 
killing or harassing enemies, two weeks before the presidential election.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar, met in Washington on 
Thursday with human rights activists, who reported allegations that the 
army unit is behind three recent execution- style killings.

``I'm incredibly concerned that the violence will lead to unbalanced 
leadership during a time of great trouble,'' McCaffrey said. ``I share the 
concerns of many about the 20th Intelligence Brigade.''

McCaffrey noted that the U.S. Embassy has withheld funds to that unit 
because of human rights abuses. 

The drug czar nevertheless expressed full confidence in the determination 
of Colombia's military and police chiefs to halt recent political 
assassinations, which he called ``savage acts.'' 

SECURITY IN CHAOS

Colombia's security situation has slipped into chaos as the May 31 
presidential election approaches. A former rightist defense minister, 
Fernando Landazabal, was assassinated Tuesday, and human rights monitors 
say they are fearful for their lives. 

Early Thursday, gunmen riding in two cars in the city of Cali fired at Luis 
Carlos Tenorio, a youth rights worker, who escaped unharmed, news reports 
said.

On Wednesday, about 20 soldiers accompanied by federal prosecutors raided 
the Inter-Congregational Service for Justice and Peace, a Roman Catholic 
Church-related group, and searched cabinets and computer programs. The 
soldiers forced workers to get on their knees to have their photos taken. 

``This was a clear threat of an execution. There's no reason to make anyone 
kneel to have their picture taken,'' said Robin Kirk, a researcher for 
Washington-based Human Rights Watch/Americas.

WEAKENED SUPERVISION

Kirk said supervision of Colombia's armed forces has weakened in the final 
days of President Ernesto Samper's administration, and that elements 
within the army are taking out their anger on human rights groups they 
blame for impeding the battle against leftist guerrillas.

``The military somehow feels that the leash is off, that they can do what 
they want,'' she said.

Tensions between Colombia's military and Washington heightened this week 
when two Colombian military leaders suggested that the director of Human 
Rights Watch/Americas, Jose Miguel Vivanco, and a Washington Post 
reporter fostered an atmosphere inducing Tuesday's assassination of 
Landazabal, who had served as defense minister in the early 1980s. 

The Post, citing Vivanco and others, published a report on the 20th Brigade 
on Sunday, saying it was under investigation for links to several killings.

The 20th Brigade, which offers intelligence to all three branches of the 
armed forces, has been singled out in the two most recent State Department 
human rights reports for death squad activity.

In an irate reaction to the Post report, army Gen. Hugo Mario Galan labeled 
Vivanco and the Post reporter ``enemies of the people.'' The armed forces 
chief, Gen. Manuel Bonett, accused the two of ``lies and slander'' and 
vigorously defended the 20th Brigade.

A senior U.S. official said Thursday that White House ``concern about that 
particular brigade remains very high.'' 

Rights monitors and diplomats have raised the question of whether current 
or former brigade members may have played a role in three recent murders: 
the Feb. 27 slaying of Medellin human rights leader Jesus Maria Valle, the 
April 16 killing of former Communist Party leader Maria Arango and the 
April 18 slaying of rights lawyer Eduardo Umana.

In all three cases, the killers said they were journalists, used high-caliber 
pistols equipped with silencers and shot their targets in the head.

``We've been assured at the highest levels of the Colombian government that 
arrest warrants will be issued that will implicate the 20th Brigade in these 
killings,'' Kirk said. 

THREATS CONTINUE

Meanwhile, even senior government human rights and peace workers say 
they are facing death threats. 

Presidential peace negotiator Jose Noe Rios stayed in Spain for several 
weeks last month after being threatened, and Samper's counselor for human 
rights, Sonia Eljach Polo, is in Peru to escape the violence.

``There are signs that I am at risk,'' she said in a telephone interview.

Copyright 1998 The Miami Herald

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